Woah, What a day!

So today was an amazing day, much better than yesterday. I'm pretty sure I learned more today than in all 3 years of nursing school. This blog might be kinda long too because I tried my first taste of Malian tea, so I might be up all night : ) (I will explain that more later).

I suppose I should start my day when the alarm clock went off at 5:45a.m.( If you know me you would laugh at that alone). We made it to the hospital at around 7:00am and Olive showed me around. It is really an amazing place. We then went out for morning devotions with the staff which was a really awesome experience. They sing, give a devotion and pray as a staff every morning. Of course I couldn't understand anything because It was all in Bambara but it was still great. Olive and I then began rounds. She took me to all of the different places in the hospital. We had just missed 3 deliveries from the previous evening but there was still plenty to see. There were many children sick with Malaria, some TB, and many more.

As a nursing student I have really mixed emotions about this experience. Some of the things I am seeing here at the hospital are so heartbreaking and I just want to fix everything. At the same time, as a nursing student all of this interests me so much. I feel like such a terrible person because I get excited for surgerys and other interesting cases because I am learning so many new things, but yet my heart is also breaking. I will share with you a little bit of what I experienced today.


The first case that I saw was a young woman who was in the hospital because she had severe Anemia. Her hematocrit level was 10%(Normal should be around 34%), so she was in bad shape. The previous evening they had given her a round of blood but she had a really bad reaction to it and her Hematocrit levels only rose to 12%(not good). She was 28 weeks pregnant and unfortunately she lost the baby from all of the treatments she was given to keep her alive. My heart broke for her as the doctors told her the news of her baby.

The next case was a woman who has suspected Burkitt's lymphoma, which is a form of cancer, and so she had a very large mass on her face. She told the doctors that she had been living with it for 6 years, I can't even imagine. Well I got to help the doctors do a spinal tap and inject the Chemo. It was really interesting.

The next case that I saw broke my heart. We had a young girl who was maybe 5 or 6 who fell into hot oil in town. She has 3rd degree burns all over her body. This was her 5th week at the hospital so she was healing quite well, but I was able to help the nurse with the dressings. I feel so bad for her and I really was battling my emotions.

There were not any deliveries today, but we did have two woman start labor and I kinda hope they wait until tomorrow to deliver but we will see, For one of the women that began labor this was her 12th delivery, with 9 living at home. So incredible. We also had a women walk in with a baby who delieved at home earlier that morning(she didn't have time to make it to the hospital. I also learned how to read ultrasounds, so incredible!

I know this entry is getting really long but there was so much today and I could probably go on and on so I will end with the surgery that I got to see today. It was called a myomectomy which is where they go into the uterus and remove the fibroids that have formed. This is apparently very common here in Koutiala. I was able to stand almost right next to the doctor and I watched the whole things. I learned so much!

After the hospital I was invited over to the Nesselroad's house(He is the OB/GYN at the hospital) for dinner. It was such a great time. We ended up talking for hours and hours about everything and it was so great to hear about all of the things God is doing here! This is also where I got to experience my first set of Malian tea. We were eating dinner and their neighbor came over to bring us all tea. There are three rounds to the tea and so every half hour or so he would bring another round. The first round is extremely strong( I think i might be up all night) and then each round after gets a little sweeter and not so strong. I really enjoyed it.

I'm sorry that this blog has been so long but today was a very exciting day. God is doing some great things over here and I really hope that I can be apart of this team someday. I've learned so much already and I love the people. They are so friendly and I love doing what I can to help the doctors take care of them.

Please continue to pray for my bags and they may arrive in Bamako either tomorrow of Thursday but that's a long shot. Just pray they get here before i leave. Also you could continue to pray for the nurses and doctors at the hospital. They do an amazing job, but it's very tough as I am learning and they could always use more prayer. Well that's it for today, I guess we will see what happens tomorrow!