12 July 2012
Hey all!
Oh man this week was super productive! Kathleen and I listed out everything that needed to be accomplished within the next 3 weeks…nearly complete with half of them!
Monday we showed the Namitete crew around queens! They have been super busy creating an electronic database for patients in St. Gabriel’s Hospital and have come here to help implement the same thing in the Palliative Ward in Queens.
After we split up I did the morning CPAP check-up and saw that there were 2 available CPAP machines. I was super excited to get to run the 2 Hour Test with the Labview program I had altered!!! Everything ran smoothly, I started the program before lunch and a few minutes after I had come back it was nearly finished. The only problem was that when the program saved all of the collected data the file exports as one big column…this means1 minute data collection in 5 minute intervals for 2 hours worth of data (each data point was sampled at the millisecond). So basically I’m going to try writing a Labview program that will reformat the file.
BIG DAY WEDNESDAY!!! I scheduled a meeting with one of the doctors that works in Chatinkha (neonatal nursery) to demonstrate the Bablung apnea monitor. Sandi, Kondwani, and 3 other nurses were also present. They gave me some great feedback about what they like about the device and what more they would like a future model of it to have. After about a 10 minute exchange amongst them in Chichewa Sandy told me that they wanted to try the monitor out on an apneic baby in Malaria Research Ward…OH MY GOODNESS!!! I was very excited to see if the smaller strap I made here in Blantyre would fit the babies and work.
Sandi took me to the Malaria Research Ward, introduced me to the nurses, and asked the mother of the apneic baby permission to try the monitor on her baby after explaining how the device could help. As I connect the alert light and the sensor belt to the black box of the device I watched the baby…and notice that he wasn’t breathing. Sandi rubbed his chest and said “see, poor baby is too tired to breathe”; he resumed breathing. I was definitely nervous about putting the monitor on this tiny baby, not because it could harm him, but because I had never seen an infant have so many apneic events so close together. I wanted the apnea monitor to work more than ever.
When we tried the monitor the baby it only detected his deep breaths (which occurred after an apneic episode). His normal breaths were too faint to be detected by the stretch sensor; thus, there were tons of false alarms. After 15 minutes of readjusting the strap and watching the baby I told Sandi that I would adjust the threshold of the monitor to be able to detect more shallow breathing. She told me to come back to the Malaria Research Ward whenever I had finished and let her know so she could see it.
I refuse to be discouraged by these first two failed demos…I’ve only learned how to adapt and overcome the constraints this setting has presented me. I’ve thought of more designs for this monitor since this demo than when Team Breath Alert first started brainstorming this apnea monitor! Attempt 3 will be a charm.
Thursday morning was an early start; Kathleen and I woke up to see our two friends off…I never imagined being so sad about people departing that I’d only known for 5 weeks!
Just the night before, we were looking at the photos my friends had taken around the hospital and I saw one of needles holding the electrical wires of a space heater into a socket! I was beyond appalled; I asked them where in the hospital was this fire hazard located and they replied in the nurse’s office of Obs & Gyne. Fixing this potential danger became my number one priority when I got into work today.
For lunch the Namitete group, Kathleen, and I had lunch with Mrs. Casey (Z’s mom)! She’s pretty awesome and I had a lovely time talking with her. Kathleen and I showed here around the pediatrics ward and the neonatal ward before we went back to knock things off of our To-Do list.
When I got back to Jocelyn’s office (did I ever mention that it’s a storage closet?) I happened across a bag of extra CPAP machine tubing…which just so happened to have the exact inner and outer diameters of the oxygen concentrator with the broken, faulty tubing in the library! I emailed Jocelyn straight away asking permission to use some tubing to possibly fix an oxygen concentrator; can’t wait to hear her response!!!
Kathleen and I are on a mission to find the missing files of patients that have either died or been discharged in the CPAP study…today our adventure was in the neonatal ward, Chatinkha. By the end of our search we found one, so I dub that a success!
This evening Kathleen and I finally had a meeting with Professor Molyneaux; she had been out of the country our first month and we were using her office during this time. We got a chance to talk about the CPAP study, some of the material we needed for it, and got to demonstrate the devices we brought with us; she was impressed and gave wonderful feedback.
Tonight at Bible study Kathleen and I met Dr. Frank and his wife…what a small world! Dr. Frank is volunteering at Cure hospital and he just so happens to be a Rice alum from ’64. It was fun talking about how Rice and Houston has changed since he had graduated; he’s really got me thinking I need to go to campus and take a ton of photos so that I can remember what Rice looked like when I graduated.
It feels so strange to say it…I’m a Rice alum!!!
With love,
Bridget
Things that were new to me:
Veg-Delight (The first Indian restaurant I enjoyed)
Panir (did not enjoy so much)
Things I wish I had:
Containers to pack up leftovers
For my parents—I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast: Toast, jam, eggs / banana in oatmeal
For lunch: chicken pie / PB&J with banana sandwich / chicken, rice and stew (Hotel Victoria) / veggie curry
For dinner: Dinner at the McGrath’s (Bible study night) / Tons of Indian food I fail to remember the name of (Veg-Delight)/ mashed potatoes, baby corn, peas and carrots, and chicken (made by Bridget and Kathleen!) / Chicken croquette (Chez Maky)