I thought after blog entries on beards and giraffes, I should maybe post something slightly more informative!
This is intended to give you a bit of insight into the sort of physiotherapy I’ve been doing out here. Please excuse any technical jargon. I’ve got to pretend to these physios at home that I still know what I’m talking about.
Being the first physio here, I have had the luxury of a fairly flexible schedule and have been treating patients in a variety of settings. In a single day I was treating leprosy, pneumonia, shoulder impingement of a colleague and muscular dystrophy- certainly a mixed bag!
One of my main roles here is to be involved in the leprosy work. We are the only place in the whole Upper Nile region to have access to leprosy meds and service many different tribal groups. (in some cases needing 3 translations to get your question across). Leprosy patients return monthly for their medication which lasts for 1 year. My input involves teaching exercises, making splints, and giving advice about how to avoid further injury or disability. The pictures below show one of our patients Dimfa, and also Vicky teaching patients at a self-care group, where we teach patients to care for each other as well as give items such as shoes when necessary.
Hereford County Hospital will be glad to hear that I am continuing to put some respiratory physio to good use in our nutrition village for malnourished kids. There have been quite a few aspiration pneumonias that have satisfied my sputum desires. See poor Martina in the picture below about to be put through a bit of Exp Vibs and AD. Unlike most of the wee kids she didn’t scream her head off!
The third main area I’ve been working in is community outreach. This involves going out into the refugee camp with Cornelius our translator and looking for patients who need physio. Patients have varied from old spinal cord injury, Down’s syndrome, hypoxic brain injury, and developmental delay.
We found this 18yr old guy called Thomas who had not walked in 7 years. It is really difficult to get a history from these patients but we have come to the conclusion he probably has some form of muscular dystrophy. He has never received any treatment and while his upper body is strong his legs have atrophied and has developed contractures at his knees.
We were able to give him advice and exercises for his legs and provided him with a walking aid. The picture below shows him taking some of his first steps in over 7 years! (obviously I did a full risk assessment before letting go of him to take the photo!)
In the next few months I hope to do some training with the nurses and community health workers so they can continue some of this work when we leave.
The hardest part of job is seeing so many children whom we can do so little for. Especially when you know back in the UK life would be very different for most of them.
In many cases, the best physiotherapy I can provide is simply to pray.
P.
