Steve's Blog

Do You Want To Make God Laugh?

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:20:44 -0700

Tell Him your plans! At least that was what my former minister said (Rev Dennis Lennon, who sadly died recently). I sometimes feel that God’s been able to laugh at me a lot. It’s now over three months since I returned to Scotland from Uganda, and I’m still finding it difficult to settle, workwise. Surgery at the Royal Infirmary Of Edinburgh is a very different work environment from surgery at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda, but I think it’s more the type of surgery that I’m doing that is causing me difficulties.

Life in the UK doesn't completely suck!

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:38:36 -0800

I’ve been having a fairly depressing time since returning to Scotland from Uganda – the weather in January was miserable, it’s been a little overwhelming to reacquaint myself with old friends, life is very over-regulated, and returning to work in the NHS hasn’t been easy. However, on Saturday I found myself saying, for the first time in six weeks, “I’m glad to be here today!”

Out of Africa...

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:22:39 -0800

… and back home in Edinburgh! My year’s adventure in Uganda has come to an end, and I have safely returned, although I’m aware that a large part of me has been left behind and is still in Kiwoko Hospital. In many ways it’s a miracle to have made it home (there seemed to be a conspiracy to keep me at the hospital!). First off was the planned UK airports strikes, cunningly designed to impact my planned date of flying! These were fortunately called off well in advance.

Christmas at the Equator…

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:04:26 -0800

… is only a little surreal! Here at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda we had our Christmas Party yesterday. For someone coming from Scotland, its very difficult to get used to a mid-winter festival taking place in 28 degree heat, with burning sunshine, no rain or snow, and 12 hour days. Nevertheless, there are some wonderful aspects to a Ugandan Christmas – not least the fact that there is none of the commercialism that is seen in the UK anytime from August onwards!

The Man With The Key Is Gone…

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:25:16 -0800

is a well-known Ugandan saying – often heard if visiting somewhere to get something done such as collect a repair, prospectively view a purchase, visit an official, etc. Usually there is only one key for the room/building you are trying to enter, and invariably that key is with someone who is not there. Ugandans are fairly laid back about this sort of thing – why get upset or annoyed when you can’t do anything about it? Muzungus on the other hand tend to get very frustrated by not being able to get something done in a hurry! “The Man With The Key Is Gone” is also the title of a book by Dr Ian Clarke telling the story of how Kiwoko Hospital, where I work, came to exist.

"Dr Bennett, I presume..."

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:33:24 -0800

For the last two weeks my brother and sister-in-law have been visiting me here in Kiwoko Hospital, Uganda. They’re probably the last people I’ll have coming to stay, as I now have less than seven weeks until I’m back in the UK. Before heading on another grand tour of Uganda, we spent some time at the hospital – the first and probably the last time that Alan and I have worked together as doctors. It was actually quite fun: we were able to operate on a couple of patients together, and helped each other out doing an orthopaedic clinic when our visiting specialist failed to turn up. I introduced him to some of the more tropical aspects of orthopaedics, and he was able to help with some of our more complicated patients.

Christmas has come early….

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:57:46 -0700

here in Kiwoko Hospital, Uganda. Some visitors from Northern Ireland arrived today bringing with them three more endoscopes for us to use, including one designed for Gastroscopy. If you’ve been following my efforts this year, either through this blog or by newsletter, you’ll know that one of my projects has been to introduce endoscopy services to the hospital – the facility to examine the inside of the stomach or bowel using a flexible telescope.

Flying by the seat of your pants...

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:41:34 -0700

…is sometimes what practicing surgery in Kiwoko Hospital feels like. For someone brought up in the UK healthcare system, where almost any investigation can be carried out (albeit sometimes with a long wait – oh dear, I’m getting political!), the lack of facilities here in rural Uganda makes treating patients fairly interesting.

We can do basic laboratory investigations on blood, but each test costs the equivalent of £1 or $2 – which starts becoming unaffordable for our population if you suggest too many. So rather than getting routine haematology and biochemistry on every admission, we may request a Haemaglobin level to check for anaemia, a white cell count (done manually by microscope), to look for signs of infection and likely type of causative organism, and sometimes a Potassium level or renal function tests.

Miracles Do Happen Today…

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:34:59 -0700

I was especially struck by this amazing fact earlier this week. At the beginning of last week, I was on-call for Kiwoko Hospital, here in Uganda, covering all seven wards rather than just the surgical wards that I work on day-to-day. At 6am a small child was admitted, very sick, with a fever and difficulty breathing. The diagnosis of chest infection was fairly straightforward, and the treatment we are able to give, namely oxygen and intravenous antibiotics, was started immediately. Something about this six-month old made me wait to ensure that he responded – and five minutes later she stopped breathing completely.

Buy A Man A Fish…

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:12:53 -0700

…and you feed him for a day, buy him a rod and teach him how to use it, and you feed him for life.

Last week I witnessed Kiwoko Hospital’s own particular way of following this advice! For many years the hospital has had it’s own training school for nurses and laboratory technicians – I think initially set up to help train staff for the hospital, but now recognised as a good institution throughout Uganda. Friday was Graduation Day, and we saw all the trainees from the last two years come together to get their certificates. I guess it was much like a UK graduation ceremony – plenty of speeches, all extolling using God’s gifts wisely in serving others; a couple of songs/poems from some of the students; the handing out of certificates; etc.

Is that poop on my shoes?

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:19:49 -0700

I’d like to update this blog every week with more news of what I’ve been doing here at Kiwoko Hospital, Uganda, but the last two weeks hasn’t really produced much that is exciting enough to mention. We have had a number of staff changes – doctors coming and going – and that has meant a period of adjustment. At present we have three surgeons (myself, Dr Peter, and Dr James – a doctor previously at Kiwoko who has just completed three years of surgical training in Kampala), one community doctor (Dr Raul, who also helps with covering surgical on-call as he is a paediatric surgeon from Germany), and three other doctors (Dr Rory, Irish GP and Medical Superintendent; Dr John, Ugandan physician; and Dr Darius, a brand new Ugandan doc who is in between university and internship). As usual, there are other medical folk around: We have one UK elective student, and two Ugandan medical students at present (sometimes there is a short gap between UK elective students – normally we are oversubscribed and have a maximum of five at a time), and we also have another Ugandan doc doing some refresher training after several years away from clinical work.

It never rains but it pours... (Warning: contains gory medical detail)

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:42:57 -0700

I’m sitting in my house watching a completely tropical downpour here at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda. Although there hasn’t been too much of a wet season, and we’re now supposed to be in the dry season again, when it does rain it can be spectacular. So water is currently flooding over the deep gutters, and there’s a river running through my garden! I’m told that there’s been flooding throughout the UK this summer – perhaps things here aren’t so bad: I suspect in another hour or so it’ll be bright sunshine again! Everything stops when it rains here – so it’s a good thing that I’m having a quiet day today… it was a different story last week.

Africa is BIG!

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:14:11 -0700

Everything here in Africa seems to be a size bigger than in the UK. I’ve noticed this especially over the last couple of weeks during my short holiday from work here at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda. Distances, heights and depths, animals, thrills and spills… I’m still trying to process a few of the things that I was able to experience, but I’ll share a few of the bigger ones here!

The Sounds of Africa

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:41:22 -0700

Crickets, drying their wings
Cries of, ‘Hello, how are you?’ as you walk past people
Cries of, ‘Oli otya?’ as you cycle past people
Cries of, ‘A Mzungu’ as people notice you in car

Getting about in Africa...

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:49:32 -0700

I’ve just started back doing surgery at Kiwoko Hospital today, after having a fantastic holiday for the last couple of weeks. It was really great to take some time off and rest, but I also managed an amazing trip around the Ugandan countryside! I could probably write a novel about all the different experiences, but I’ll try and sort out a few thoughts into more manageable chunks of blog! My first thought is to try and explain some of the many ways I’ve found of getting around Uganda!