GREAT NEWS

Last week end we had a phone call from Goa. Becky and Gordon have decided to get married in March when we are back in the UK. This is great news and we are really excited at finally being in laws! In Uganda marriage is a huge ceremony and all friends and neighbours are expected to contribute. It is not uncommon for the wedding budget to be displayed on notice boards at work and people come around collecting. Happily this is not what they are doing. They plan a small wedding with just the family but a big celebration.
It has been hard to get back to normal after that news but we have had to concentrate on the here and now. Luckily my computer seems to have recovered. Like most of my patients I have no idea what was wrong with it and no clue as to why it recovered. May be the laptops immune system managed to overcome the virus. Unfortunately for many patients they do not survive but there are always surprises. This week a patient on the ward was semi conscious and we thought she had cryptococcal meningitis. The only drug we have to use is fluconazole. The patients only attendant was her 8 year old daughter but the little girl worked really hard feeding her mum and checking that she took her drugs regularly. The mum responded and is now eating and regaining her strength. It turns out that the 8 year old was also looking after her sister on the maternity ward who had just delivered. This little girl is the best nurse I have seen in Uganda.
Michael the man who went to Kampala was not so lucky. He has a broncho pleural fistula which needs surgery. Surgery is expensive so he is unlikely to have the operation. He is now back in Masindi and at work so he is better than he was.
Unfortunately this week Maggie has had a problem with her back. She shouted for help in the shower as her back had gone in to spasm. She has had minor problems in the past but nothing like this. She has been in agony but luckily there is a therapist who has just come to Masindi and he has given her some treatment. She has had some relief but it is still very painful and very frustrating. Hopefully a few more days and she will be back to normal.
On Saturday Sue one of the volunteers held a coffee morning to raise money for some training she wants to do. This was a new idea for most of the Ugandans who attended but they all seemed to enjoy it and managed to raise 250000 ush. This will go a long way to paying for the training and it was a great way of involving people in fund raising.
This is our eighth night without power. Power seems to have been bad for the last few weeks but this is really bad. It is difficult to keep everything charged and reading by lamplight is a real pain. It is hard to do anything at night. The computer is about to run out of power.