Water?

Maybe tomorrow.  A piece was supposed to arrive from Dar tomorrow, but I have no idea how long between now and it is installed and working properly.  This is always an “iffy” proposition.  I am not sure which “fundi” (mechanic/technician/craftsman) will put it together.  It cannot happen soon enough, of course.

It did rain the past two days.  Neither was a taunt like the day before.  We had a gully-washer yesterday and as Cole said, the buckets filled in five minutes.  The 1.5 liter bottles filled in about 5 seconds.  Really.  So we have had nice soft rainwater for showers and washing.

Our little peanut of 34 weeks gestation is now a week old.  The baby is now over the hump for birth-related infection and has survived long enough so the lungs are no longer a problem.  However, mother’s milk is not in and if it does not come in, the baby will die.  We have started to push her to drink fluids, in hope that will help.  We will see.

Dr. Leslie Pratt will assist (or do) a C-section tomorrow for twins.  It is risky waiting much more.  I am not sure of the due date, but apparently they are confident she is far enough along.  I think there was a hint of BP elevation, so this is the reason not to wait.

Our boy with marasmus is still here, but the doctor wanted to discharge him.  We asked him not to, because of the high risk of rapid relapse.  We are trying to set up Home Based Care through Amani Orphans Home Mbigili.  The child needs monitoring and balanced FOOD, not only ugali.

Mary Thompson and Dede Ouren have been diligent about work on Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM).  In September, I worked with Dr. Rite on a checklist, but it was not implemented.  Now there is a new edition of Standard Treatment Guidelines for Tanzania.  The medicines are just a bit different than we had put in the data prompt tool.  So I rewrote it.  Tomorrow I will present it to the medical staff and hope for buy in.  The OB nurses are already on board, I think.  Dr. Rite suggested we put it in every chart and ask the delivering doctor to circle the answers on the checklist.  Couldn’t be easier, right?  We will see.  This would be an opportunity for them to get a paper published possibly.  Again, we will see.

All our students are terrific, devoted and smart.  We are having a good time.  Chandra, our third year FP resident is a real star.  He is smart and inquisitive and so knowledgeable!

Tonight we had a movie night and watched Elysium.  All enjoyed it.  I could refine the system a bit with a dedicated extension and plugs, but we make do.  I would like an even better speaker than my excellent tiny Boomz.

As you can see, water or no, we are surviving well.