Today was a clinic day which was pretty depressing. Many older men here with BPH (benign prostatic htpertrophy) and they have inadequate ability to treat it. I think there are two Urologists in Lilongwe (a five hour bus from here) but that is all in the entire country. Many men are walking around with indwelling catheters because of urinary retention and then they get a UTI and eventually sepsis. There is no medical treatment (in US, we have drugs for this) and the list of men for prostatectomies is months long. Dr. Johnson (general surgeon, not urology) has made it a goal from January to do one a week. So far he has done zero. So many men here are suffering from a very treatable illness just because of lack of providers and medicines. It is the first thing I have seen that really is so simple in the USA, but so complex and harder than it has to be. It really sucks.
After seeing what felt like about a thousand men who needed prostatectomies I got home and had lunch, then hiked down the giant hill to Downtown Blantyre. I got to the pharmacy for some cheap drugs (prophylaxis, nothing serious), and the supermarket and the fabric store. I was pretty proud I did all that waking after walking home from Queens but by the time I had to walk up the hill I was done, got in a minibus just for the hill;). I got the ghetto wobbly seat you have to sit square in or risk tipping, really safe. They thought I was weird but it helped to take the edge off the walk. And then I took the most glorious nap ever! Felt so good and tired.
Not much else, but Terry left today for USA so we are on our own for ten days! Wahoo, party;)
Welcome to the blog!
We are two people, one dog and three legs...well technically ten. But this is our story about going through life with some obstacles we have to maneuver and how we go about doing just that! And by the way, our life is fewer obstacles and more awesomeness. Stay tuned for more awesomeness...
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