Cheeseburger!!!

I had a great internet connection while at the hospital yesterday and in the evening when we went to dinner with Patsy and Pastor Allan at their hotel in Kofuridua. Then once I was back in my hotel room, I could not connect so I never got my blog posted. I'm not presenting right now so I figure I will write my blog.

The course continues to go well. Yesterday, the topic was strokes. I prepared a 40 slide power point presentation thinking it would take me 45 minutes to present and it took me an hour and a half. I think everyone found it useful. It was a really good review for me!

Then, we changed things up a bit. We saw some actual stroke patients in the clinic so we were able to show how we would go about treating them. The thing I tried to recommend to the therapists here in Ghana is not to be so focused on giving them exercises but breaking down functional tasks into exercises. One patient said he was having difficulty rolling in bed, so we spent the time teaching him how to roll and sit up in bed without help. The concept seems so simple, but I guess if I wasn't taught these things in PT school, I wouldn't think of doing stuff like this for treatments.

After lunch we went to the children's ward. There was a 1 year old in the ward who had malarial meningitis. The prognosis is not good for this child. This child was presenting with excessive extensor tone and abnormal reflexes indicating central nervous system injury. Sam and Ken talked the therapist through treating the child to try and decrease tone. The child had been in this condition for over a month so the joints were so stiff that it was extremely hard to break the tone and spasms. Unfortunately, at this stage there was not much we could do for the child. Most likely, the child will not survive this. If the child does go on to survive, she will have severe mental and physical problems. Pediatrics is not my area of expertise and I find it very hard to treat sick/injured children. They are innocent little beings. Its hard for me to see them suffer, especially when there are no resources available to help the child. I just hope that they are not in pain, and that God takes them to a better place if medicine fails them.

I have to keep things in perspective. I will never be able to help everyone, but I am helping people. I focus on that when I see situations like the little girl is experiencing.

For dinner, we went to the Capitol Hill Hotel where Patsy and Pastor Allan are staying. Since their organization is helping sponsor the course, they wanted to see how it was going. They treated us to dinner. I had a cheeseburger!! I don't mind the food here in Ghana, but it is completely different than any food I've ever had. I definitely miss American food so I've been indulging the past 2 weeks when its been available. The cheeseburger tasted good, but Ghanaian beef tastes nothing like American beef. The cows are too skinny here! Haha!

We have a day and a half left of the conference! I hope Ken and Sam are successful in finding funding so they can continue educating the therapists in Ghana on subsequent trips. If anyone would like to help their cause, please contact me and I will get you in touch with them!

Love, Kari