Kumasi (Round 2)

KUMASI UPDATE 
After a gruelling day of travel, and four long days at KATH we finally have lab tests done, follow-up appointments/eye exams/dermatology assessments completed, and a surgery booked for next week. Our babies have been troopers and I couldn't be more proud of either of the moms or their children today. They've endured a long, difficult, week and there's still more to come. The hospital has been a continued challenge but, as with the last trip here, there have been many small blessings that remind me we are here as a part of a bigger plan.

ANGELINA
Angelina's follow-up appointment at the Cleft Clinic was a successful, albeit brief, consult with the head surgeon. He was pleased to see her progress, took photos for his success board, and thanked us repeatedly for all we have done. I turned his thanks back to him, reminding him that his work has made a significant difference in Angelina's life and thanking him for accommodating her in the timeframe he did. The surgeon is an impressive man and I'm grateful for his support.

Angelina has undergone many other assessments this week as we have brought her to the KATH Eye Centre and dermatology clinic. The Eye Centre has left me with more questions than I have answers, and there are some tough discussions ahead to determine what the best way forward is for Angelina's eye health. I want the best for this baby, but also recognize the incredible limitations for ensuring sustainable eye care for her.

Angelina and her mother will return to Sandema tomorrow (Saturday), accompanied by one of my fellow interns. I anticipate this is the last trip Angelina will need to make to KATH and am grateful for the care she has received. We will be following-up with her to ensure her mild skin infection heals properly and to keep tabs on the continued healing of her beautiful smile. As it is, it seems like once her infection clears up the only evidence of her cleft lip will be some small scarring.

MARGARET 
We arrived in Kumasi a day early, for the July 3 Cleft Clinic, with the intention of doing everything we could to arrange Margaret's surgery. On the 2nd we trekked to the hospital early in the morning to start the process of getting her paperwork and files done, and then sat outside the Maxillofacial Surgery unit until staff we know came by. When they saw we'd brought a second child we were able to explain we were hoping we could do lab tests in preparation for the clinic the following day. Our nurses tracked down the doctors and got requisitions, and we headed across the campus for lab tests.

Wednesday morning, July 3rd, we arrived at the KATH Cleft Clinic at 8am (4 hours before the clinic was scheduled to start) to have our babies weighed-in, and added to the list of patients to see for the day. It was a relief to know a little of what was expected of us at the clinic and to be able to produce the necessary paperwork every time it was required instead of being sent away to go find it. Our early arrival ensured all the pre-clinic care was completed and we secured the first and second spots in the assessment line-up; 6.5 hours after we arrived at the clinic we were sitting with the surgeons as they assessed Margaret.

Both surgeons had scheduled off the next day, July 4th, and would not be performing surgeries as we'd hoped. Over a shoulder I caught a glimpse of their operating schedules and could see their days were booked solid for the next couple of weeks. The head surgeon told us he was concerned about getting Margaret's surgery scheduled as soon as possible because of how far we'd traveled to come to the clinic. Finally, after much discussion between themselves, and rescheduling several surgeries, the surgeons settled on adding Margaret to the Thursday, July 11th operating list. Both surgeons communicated to us how grateful they were for our work, and thanked us repeatedly for taking care of these children.

Margaret will be admitted to the hospital next week, and by Thursday evening her cleft lip & cleft palate should be fully repaired!

AND NOW… 
Because it is a two-day return trip to Sandema, and a 15 hour single-day trip back to Kumasi, we will not travel back up North before the surgery. Traveling back both doesn't make sense financially, nor does it make sense to put any of us through such extensive travel to have a day and a half in Sandema before coming back.

We have moved into a guest house that has working spaces and (usually) Wifi, so we will work remotely for the next week until we can be back at the CBR office. Katie and I have several projects on the go and we're looking forward to having some hospital-free days to tackle these. In our down-time I'm looking forward to exploring Kumasi beyond the KATH campus, and enjoying some food-treats that you can't find in Sandema.

As always, I'm ever-grateful for your continued support throughout this process. My summer work has been so different from what I anticipated but it has been a wonderful, challenging, and learning-filled adventure. Thanks for being a part of it.