24 June 2012

 

Hey all!

 

This weekend was super relaxing! I had all of my weekend adventures right in Blantyre.

 

After waiting for nearly 3 weeks, I decided to do some laundry…the old fashion way! I’ve been on the lookout for some good, cheap laundry buckets, but all of the ones I saw in town were too expensive. So, instead of buying one (or paying 500-1000 kwacha for someone else to do it) I borrowed a bucket from the lodge owner and got to scrubbin’. I made a clothesline right outside of our cottage door for my clothes to hang out of bungee cord and two shoelaces (you can tell how much fun I had just by how long I’ve gone on about laundry).

 

Jocelyn, Kathleen and I hung out in the TV lounge and watched Enchanted on Friday night…this was brought on by my random singing/humming of Disney songs and other musicals. As we were watching the movie in the dark I heard a thud on the sofa cushion; I turned on the TV lounge light to find a lizard had fallen from the ceiling and landed a foot-and-a-half in front of me…we watched the rest of the movie with the lights on after that.

 

On Saturday we went to a farewell barbeque at Dr. Phil’s house (no…not the man on television). I was so amped about getting some BBQ but I forget that barbeque back home is different from barbeque at other places; I’m not sure if the chicken and sausages we had were even grilled!…the food was still good, nonetheless. So many friends were there, and so many of them are leaving! I know I could never live in Blantyre; too many people come-and-go, which makes me quite sad. When we got back to Kabula Lodge we watched The Wedding Crashers (I had never seen it before!).

 

On Sunday we went souvenir shopping! It started out calm with a few vendors asking us to see their stand, but as soon as you buy one thing you’lll get at least five more vendors trying to sell you what you’ve already bought! It was crazy…but well worth it. I definitely spent more than I intended; welp, family, prepare for presents!

 

After we bought our gifts we went to the Mount Soche Hotel pool with some of our friends…the water was so cold! It took my body about seven minutes to adjust to the temperature; after fifteen minutes I had goose bumps. Although I wasn’t in the water for very long, I got to listen to my friend’s ipod (which is a big deal because I rarely hear music and when I do it’s in another language).

 

This evening Professors Dr. Richards-Kortum, Dr. Oden, and Dr. Woods arrived in Blantyre and we’ll all met up to have dinner. Can’t wait to see what they’ll have in store for Jocelyn, Kathleen, and me!

 

With love,

Bridget

 

 

Things I wish I had:
Bacon to go along with the AMAZING French toast breakfast we had

For my parents—I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast: French toast with cinnamon apples and banana topping with eggs (Bridget and Kathleen!) / Toast, jam, eggs / and Toast, jam, banana in oatmeal
For lunch: chicken pie and a croissant (Cure Café) / Double Decker sandwich (Cure Café) / PB&J sandwich
For dinner: Pizza (Hastaria: Italian Restaurant) / dinner at the McGrath’s house (Bible study) / Pasta and veggies

 

21 June 2012

 

Hey all!

 

These few days have been full of accomplishments! I feel like I’m getting more and more things crossed off of my to-do list while in Malawi, and making great strides to completing goals that are in progress.

 

This Monday Kathleen and I prepared for our demonstrations we had this week; we were presenting the SAPHE Pad on Tuesday and the IV Drip, NeoSyP, and Babalung on Thursday. I borrowed an IV pole from Special Care Ward (it was being used as a files stand) and got an IV bag and tubing for the IV Drip device…assembling this thing was tricky.

 

We did the CPAP daily check-up as usual then I began working on the new Babalung sensor strap to fit the neonates here. It’s going to be so small; just to get a grasp of how small these neonates are pretend you’re going to take a picture with a camera, now let your right pointer finger overlap your left and your right thumb overlap your left thumb…that’s about how small around these babies’ tummies are.

 

When we got back to Kabula we watched Date Night…this movie was nothing like what I was expecting, I would watch it again.

 

On Tuesday Kathleen and I gave a demonstration of the SAPHE Pad in Obs & Gyne Ward during the morning meeting. It went really well! We handed out surveys pertaining to the pads to the medical students and a few doctors that were at the meeting; I know team SAPHE will be glad to hear all of the feedback we got.

 

Second big accomplishment for this day; I’ve completed the new model of the neonate sized strap! This new one is about half the length of the original one and less than half its width. It still has the same stretch sensor and vibrating motor…during all of this assembly fun I burned myself twice with the soldering iron, but this is well worth the future scars, haha!

 

Wednesday we did a lot of preparation for our demo of the NeoSyP syringe pump, Babalung apnea monitor, and the IV Drip volume regulator that we had on Thursday. When we presented the three devices the medical students and doctors absolutely LOVED them! We got comments like, “That is brilliant…amazing…so simple…very clever”. We got a lot of great feedback as well for each of the devices.

 

After the demo we paid a visit to our pals in the Physical Assessment Maintenance building of Queens Hospital (I’m sure they think who are these 3 women that are come through here on a weekly basis?) looked for spare parts to fix a few oxygen concentrators…there were none. This building is pretty large and houses, from what I can see, at least 20 oxygen concentrators; none of which had the parts we needed attached to them. Since the parts can’t be salvaged from the broken machines in PAM, Kathleen and I are looking up information on part costs and vendors online.

 

 

With love,

Bridget

 

 

Things that were new to me:
Making a clothesline out of shoelaces and bungee cord (engineering at its best!)
Taking a deep dive into Romans ch.1-3

Things I wish I had:
MEAT!
A clone so I could be there for the Father’s Day feast my family is having
For my parents—I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast: Toast, jam, eggs / and Toast, jam, banana in oatmeal
For lunch: Beef samoosas / Tuna casserole / grilled chicken, rice, stew and green beans
For dinner: Spaghetti and meat sauce (at Bible study) / Tuna casserole / Mongolian Chicken (Chez Maky)

 

 

 

17 June 2012

 

Hey all!

 

Every time I say I’ve had the best weekend ever I do something even more phenomenal the following week!

 

On Friday I did some CPAP testing and played around with the LabView VI to get it to do a self-timed program execution; this way the user won’t have to watch a clock for a minute while testing each CPAP machine…for my friends who are not familiar with LabView or are 2^nd year Rice bioengineers—don’t worry, this type of work is fun for me!

 

On Saturday my friends and I went to Liwonde National Park where you can see tons of beautiful mountains, the river, and animals (more specifically elephants, hippos, impala, baboons, crocodiles, warthogs—just to name a few) in their natural habitat. I have always wanted to go camping; I never would have imagined my first camping experience would be at a national park…in Africa!!!

 

That evening we went on a 3 to 4 hour boat safari which was absolutely amazing; just looking at all of the beauty that God created was enough for me. The boat driver told us some really interesting facts, like: hippos don’t swim—they bounce, crocodiles don’t have tongues, and elephants don’t die of old age—they die of starvation when they lose their teeth.

We started heading back to the dock when the sun began to set, and as we rode down the river we passed at least 6 boats of Malawi men heading in the opposite direction…the boat driver explained to us those men were poachers and though it’s illegal to kill the animals at the park there is no one to enforce the law. Just as I began feeling down from thinking of the family of elephants I’d just taken pictures of being in danger, I felt insects flying into my face…into my hair…into my shirt. By this time it was pitch-black outside and I was cradling my head in my lap to avoid the nasty swarm of flies we were riding in to. One of my friends turned on a flashlight which unveiled the tiny greenish-brown bugs everywhere in the boat, on people’s clothing, in men’s leg hairs…to say I was disgusted would be an understatement. Though the evening boat safari was beautiful, I could have lived without the winged-critters.

 

When we got back to the camp site we made s’mores around a camp fire! This was some of my British friends first time ever having a s’more (though it’s not truly official since the crackers we used weren’t really graham crackers). The campfire died down and everyone went back to their tents to sleep; even though it was pitch black and I could hear all sorts of animal noises outside of my tent, I felt very comfortable knowing that there would be animals walking through our camping grounds…I definitely want to do this again in the future.

With love,

Bridget

 

Things that were new to me:
Seeing the Milky Way (not the candy bar)
Impala (not the car)
Boat safari
Camping (not in a living room with chairs and a bed sheet thrown on top)
Cooking with coal

Roasting marshmallows in a campfire…with a stick from the ground (official s’more action)

 

Things I wish I had:
MEAT!
A clone so I could be there for the Father’s Day feast my family is having
A tub so I can do laundry (trying to save some money!)

 

For my parents—I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast: Toast, jam, eggs, and oatmeal / peanut butter sandwich
For lunch: Chicken (pot) pie / peanut butter and jam sandwich (cookies and chips)
For dinner: spaghetti and marinara / vegetable stew and rice / rice and cucumber, with boiled eggs

 

14 June 2012

 

Hey all!

I feel like I’ve accomplished so much within the past 4 days!

Tuesday I demonstrated the Babalung apnea monitor (one of my dreams coming true)! A group of 7 or so nurses gathered around as I showed them the monitor and explained how to use it; the sensor strap was fastened around a baby’s belly, the monitor was turned on, I waited to see if the baby’s breaths would be detected…the orange light didn’t blink. The head nurse and I readjusted the sensor strap, still no blinking. I looked to see if the baby was still breathing—yes, but my monitor didn’t think so. I continued with the demonstration though it didn’t detect the baby’s faint breaths…the strap sensor remained unstretched for 15 seconds and the motor in the strap began to vibrate; all of the nurses felt the buzzing and jumped a little. 5 seconds later the alert light began to flash, indicating that the baby was experiencing apnea.

The sensor strap my team (Breath Alert) made was design to fit premature infants…the preemies here are definitely not the same size of a preemie in the US, I learned that this day. Though I was definitely down, I was not discouraged. I told the head nurse that I would make a new strap for the monitor that would fit the neonates, and the strap I currently had could fit the older infants in Pediatrics Special Care Ward. She said that was good, and that she would like to see straps in 3 sizes: small, medium, and large!

I honestly was dreading the thought of going to the Obs & Gyne ward; I’ve yet to hear anything other than horror stories about what the med students see…I didn’t want to see any of it. Two of my Kabula friends pointed Kathleen and me to the Head of the Obs & Gyne Department and we’ve scheduled a meeting for next Tuesday morning to demonstrate the SAPHE Pads to him and his colleagues! We’ve already contacted team SAPHE (creators of SAPHE Pad) and asked them what feedback they desired to receive from the doctors when we do meet.

We also met with Dr. Kennedy (the head of pediatrics) about demonstrating the other devices we brought with us; he’s really interested in the IV Drip and the NeoSyP. Our demo of the devices will be on Wednesday morning. Until then we’re going to print out some brief fact sheets and get the necessary material for each device demonstration. I’m so EXCITED!

Jocelyn, Kathleen and I will also be meeting with the engineering department next Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate how to fix the CPAP if it stops working. So many meetings!

Wednesday evening we watched Lion King and ate pizza! I am absolutely positive these songs will be stuck in my head for at least a week.

Today we met with Professor Rodwell (of electrical engineering at Polytechnic). He’ll be working on manufacturing the CPAPs here in Malawi I believe once the study is completed. We went out to buy a master plug replacement for the oxygen concentrator that had a blown out fuse. (We also went shop to shop looking for spare parts for the apnea monitor since some parts seem to have been thrown away after maintenance cleaned the office *sigh*).  Professor Rodwell asked me if I knew what to do with the plug now that I bought it, I thought to myself…have I ever taken a plug apart before—no, do I have the necessary tools to do so—maybe, do I have the proper engineering experience to attempt to fix it—yes, yes I do.

After stripping and cleaning the wires, a bit of screwing and unscrewing, and testing out the oxygen concentrator I got that baby working! You have no idea how much enjoyment I get out of getting equipment functioning…just having one more oxygen concentrator means the nurses can give the patient treatment and not have to tell the mother “I’m sorry, we don’t have enough concentrators to put your child on”.

This evening Jocelyn, Kathleen, and I went to Bible Study (one of Jocelyn’s friends has one at his place every Tuesday and Thursday); it was really great and reminded me of my Sunday School class at CFBC. I think my weekly routine has reached a nearly perfect balance of work, fellowship, and down-time that doesn’t require me to be awake for 19 of the 24 hours I’m blessed with each day…I know I’m going to miss Rice but I’m surely glad I’ve graduated!

 

With love,

Bridget

 

Things that were new to me:
Seeing a bird that looked like this

Debonair BBQ chicken pizza

 

Things I wish I had:
A Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or WalMart to get strap material for the neonate size sensor strap
My sewing kit
A NIV version of the Bible (KJV was not meant to be understood, I’m convinced)
Access to internet when I need it

 

For my parents—I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast: Toast, jam, and eggs / Toast, jam, eggs, and oatmeal
For lunch: Beef samoosas / peanut butter sandwich (cookies and chips) / egg sandwich
For dinner: Chicken burger (at Bible study) / pizza / roasted chicken and tons of veggies (at Bible study)

 

 

11 June 2012

 

Hey all!

 

This weekend was unexpectedly incredible! But to sum it up in one word…it was bittersweet.

 

At the hospital this Friday, Kathleen and I got to do the CPAP rounds without Jocelyn monitoring us! This only reminded me that she’s leaving us in a few weeks, but I am glad that she’ll be able to go home and see her family without having to worry what will happen to the CPAP study. We finished up our day with planning out what wards we needed to visit and which people we should meet with before demonstrating the devices we brought with us from Rice; I’m so anxious to see how the doctors and nurses respond to them!

 

A lot of my Kabula Lodge friends are leaving this weekL, so as a farewell a big group of us went to went to Lake Malawi for the weekend. The journey there was pretty bumpy—and by pretty bumpy I mean I thank God I don’t have a concussion after bumping my head against the roof and the window so many times. After we drove on all types of terrain with crater-sized potholes and rocks (and 2 aspirins later), we arrived in the most inviting place I’ve ever been to. The children waved, smiled and screamed hello as we went by; one little girl even grab my fiends hand as we walked pass her and her friends—she wouldn’t let it go until her mother called after her…these kids are truly precious.

Everyone got settled in to their living areas; I stayed with a group of girls in Fat Monkey’s Lodge (although it sounds sketchy it definitely was not) then we ate dinner at Gecko Lounge…I had the Chicken Italiano pizza (which is not Italian chicken pizza as the waitress corrected me, hahaha!) and it was really good!—I just wish the food didn’t take an hour-and-a-half to come out.

Friday evening ended with peaceful swinging in the lake-side hammocks then with a bit of dancing and mingling at Gecko Lounge.

 

On Saturday some of us kayaked while the others road in a boat to a rocky island in the lake and had lunch, which again took equally as long to prepare, but was absolutely beautiful! I chose not to snorkel with the group (I don’t like sharing mouthpieces nor did I want to get my hair wet), but I could still see the many types of fish in the water.

I kayaked with my friend back to the mainland (I wore a life vest family don’t worry) and as soon as I got two feet into the sand we were swarmed by men selling key chains, wooden carvings, earrings and necklaces, “happy pants”, and art…this part of my story ends with me trading my Malawi Nokia phone (that called and texted Ben the taxi driver about 15 times without my notice which cost me all of my calling card minutes in less than 5 days), a bar a soap, and some kwacha for 5 pieces of art…A SUPER GREAT DEAL!

 

I got these pieces from an artist named Morris Chiononga—I absolutely love this artist’s work and how vivid the colors are in his paintings. I really want to post up pictures of what I bought now, but they will be presents for some of my loved ones so I don’t want to completely ruin the surprise.

*Read more about Morris at the end of my blog!*

 

Later that evening the group went to hang out and dance at Gecko Lounge again, and after many requests for me to “show off my moves” I did a mini-reggae dance session with everyone which was so much fun!

 

On Sunday we came back to Blantyre on the same bumpy road we drove out on. Jocelyn made brownies for one of our friend’s birthday and they were so good! I didn’t realize I craved junk food and American sweets until she baked a box of Duncan Hines brownie mix.

 

Today was another super productive day! After the morning meeting Kathleen and I went to Pediatric A&E (Accidents and Emergencies) to see the IV poles and bags. We got tons of great information from the nurses in that ward; I think some of the problems they have with the poles can easily be tackled by a freshman design team…the problem Kathleen and I face at the moment is how/are we going to get an IV pole to demonstrate one of our devices we brought.

 

After the A&E visit we did CPAP rounds, entered study data, did CPAP pressure testing (I know…all of this means nothing to you since you haven’t worked with Jocelyn on this study), and got some good project ideas from a lunch meeting we sat in.

 

Big news! I talked to a nurse about the Babalung apnea monitor (my senior design project) and she wants me to show the nurses tomorrow!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!

 

Things that were new to me:
Seeing a 600 gram infant
Seeing baboons that were not in a cage
Going to a lake (and kayaking!)
Crepes…never again will I eat

 

Things I wish I had:
Containers to take food to work in
My Martha Stewart knife and cutting board
More brownie mix
Bisquick pancake mix (so I can show my British friends what a real pancake is!)

 

For my parents—I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast: Toast, jam, and eggs;
For lunch: Beef samoosas / peanut butter sandwich (cookies and chips) / fish, rice, potatoes, and peas in a tomato stew (cooked on the rocky island by the boat driver’s friends);
For dinner: Chicken Italiano pizza (Gecko Lounge) / potatoes, carrots, and peas in tomato sauce (Blue Cactus) caramel apples, again (they were so good the first time!),  Cheesy chicken pasta (Bridget), and mixed veggies (my kitchen pal Damien who has also vacated Kabula) / Chicken and rice with Hawaiian sauce (Bridget)

*I asked Morris to write down a little about his self, where he’s from, and what inspires the work he does.

I live in Cape Maclear, a small village but tourist attraction with massive scenery, beautiful lake, islands, and friendly people. People do different things for their own living. Some go fishing, farming, working for the tourist lodges and other different activities. (I) Myself am an artist. I learnt this at school but I never went very far with my education. I make my living through selling my painting to tourists, all the paintings I make have stories that represent what people do in my village including the scenery of the village…these are some of the design I paint below:

–       Women with their babies on the back and pot of water.

–       Men on the dugouts, boats going out fishing

–       View of sunsets

–       Baobab trees with mountains

–       Palm trees and lake views

–       Music instruments and people dancing

I wish when you come in Cape Maclear you will ask for me and admire my work…

 

With thanks

06 June 2012

 

Hey all!

 

My first three days at Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been more productive than what I thought it would be!!!

We started out Monday morning day with a morning meeting (as will happen every morning); this consists of updates from the previous night and case studies. When we dispersed to our wards (I was in pediatrics) a doctor pointed out that the oxygen concentrator was not supplying the flow that it was set to, so I asked if I could take a look at it.

 

Before coming here, a few former BTB interns told me my projects will take a while before they get rolling, but on my very first day I got to take apart an oxygen concentrator! I’ve only seen this much dust in movies, and to think it was all INSIDE of the oxygen concentrator…OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR! I cleaned that baby out and verified that all of the hoses connections weren’t leaky.

 

Monday was topped off by going to Chimpiku’s and buying meat!!! Unfortunately, it was so frozen there was no way we would be able to cook it that same day.

 

Tuesday didn’t quite start off the way Monday ended. After our morning meeting, I could hear the horrific shrills of a mother who had just lost her child as the nurses wheeled the blanket covered body out of the hospital.

 

This day was more of an office work day and organization of patient files; first by patient number, next by patient outcome. I was in charge of the neonates. Reading through the names of the patients was fun in itself; trying to decipher the scribbles jotted down by the nurses, and seeing so many names like Blessing, Victory, Success, Witness…

 

Once I started sorting these names into piles of “Discharged” or “Died”—I felt hollowness in my heart every time I had to place a file in the patient died pile. I placed the names of each triplet in that pile in hopes that the next triplet made it. I prayed on it and got the chance to remember that this is why I have the passions I do, the skills I’ve been blessed with, and why seeing a baby’s belly rise and fall makes me smile. I chose to be a Bioengineer and a Global Health Technologies minor because I want to be able to provide the necessary tools, skills, and knowledge so that people who need it can have such simple “luxuries” that people in the Texas Medical Center get… like the proper tools to perform an operation or even just for breast feeding for instance.

 

I also had the joy of learning how to assemble, test, and record the functionality of the bCPAP machine! And I promise, not even 3 minutes after Jocelyn said “Okay Bridget, let’s see you give it a try” I BROKE the valve that connects the hose from the bottle to the machine! But don’t worry (Dr. Oden and Dr. Richards-Kortum) Jocelyn had spare parts and the issue was resolved in minutes!

 

Later that day, a big group of people from Kabula Lodge went out to Celebrate Jocelyn’s birthday (and other birthdays and a few farewells).  I bet you would never have guessed that there would be a karaoke bar in Malawi (Mustang Sally’s)! It wasn’t too bad, though they did repeat a Nigerian song (Chop My Money) at least 5 times that night…we were only there for 3 hours.

 

Today was super productive. I started building the 3^rd Babalung, and it’s going to take a little more than 4 days to finish since I’m not in the design kitchen, but that’s okay, I love improvising with tools!

Capped off the night with dinner at Bombay Palace (Indian restaurant) with just the Rice crew…I promise I’ve eaten more cuisine here then when I was in Houston.

With love,

Bridget

 

Things that were new to me:
Seeing children with edema
Seeing 6 neonates on 1 warming table
Hearing a case study, then seeing the patient of that study
Seeing a newborn with gastroschisis
Wheel chair made out of a plastic lawn chair

 

Things I wish I had:
Candles (when we have blackouts)
More bottled water
Velveeta cheese
Soldering clamps
Dremel
For my parents…I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast – Toast, jam, and a veggie omelet
For lunch – Beef samoosas from QEH(aka meat pies) / egg rolls from QEH(aka an egg-over-hard with a slice of tomato in a roll) / Chicken Panini from Mandala House or Illovo
For dinner – Mongolian Chicken from Chez Maky / stir-fried rice with caramel apples (Kathleen envisioned it, I made it come true) / cheese omelet and potatoes from Mustang Sally’s

03 June 2012

 

Muli bwanji!

 

This is the Chichewa greeting for “How are you”.

 

When I arrived in the Blantyre airport, the first sign I saw read “To make friends, say ‘Muli bwanji’.” Once I retrieved my check bag full of BTB medical devices and my other full of clothes medicines (not for the patients…for me), Kathleen and I met up with Jocelyn and caught a ride back with one of Jocelyn’s choice taxi drivers, Lawrence.

 

Right now the three of us are staying in Kabula Lodge and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here! Right outside of my window I see my balcony that has leaves covering the bars with orange-pinkish flowers that I’ve never seen before, other rooms of the Kabula Lodge lay a little further out below me,  and many huts and houses are scattered about in the distance where the mountains are. The best part is that the weather is like mid-Fall in Houston minus the humidity.

Over the past two days we’ve gone to market to get phones, did some grocery shopping, and ate at an Indian restaurant, Baba’s Dehli Karbar (my first time at an Indian restaurant was in MalawiJ!). I must say this is the most walking I’ve ever done, but after sitting in a plane for 2 days where you get legit meals (not the insufficient choices of pretzels, peanuts, or cookies for a 5 hour flight) you don’t mind so much.

 

Tomorrow will be my first day at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and I’m anxious to meet the doctors and nurses I’ll be working with for the next 8 weeks! I’ve brought the Babalung: neonatal apnea monitor, SAPHE Pad: postpartum hemorrhaging measurement tool, 2 versions of morphine dosing cups (one being InvertaBottle), and IV Drip: intravenous volume regulator. Kathleen brought the NeoSyp(she brought a modified version that looks even more professional): neonatal syringe pump. Over the next 8 weeks we plan to show and demonstrate the use of each device to the nurses and doctors; we will record their feedback so improvements can be made on each one when we return home. On top of that we will assist the doctors and nurses in any way we are qualified to, create our own project to do, and aid Jocelyn with the CPAP study.

SOOOOO READY FOR TOMORROW!!!

With love,

Bridget

Things that were new to me:
Bargaining for a cell phone
Designated litter areas
Being without napkins and hand soap (though you can buy them at some stores when in stock)
Using a bed net

 

Things I wish I had:
My debit card instead of my credit card! WHOOPS!!!
A thicker sweater and long tights
FRESH MEAT TO COOK!!!

 

For my parents…I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast these days – Toast, jam, and eggs / flavored oatmeal (that I brought)
For lunch these days – Chicken Kiryani (Baba’s Dehli Karbar)
For dinner these days – Chicken-flavored veggie pasta with garlic toast (cooked by me!)