The Dynamic Duo

Sometimes the daily frustrations of life here are overwhelming…the water in our house hasn’t worked for days so I haven’t showered for a long time (probably TMI, I’m sorry) but even if the water is working we have to filter and boil it before we even brush our teeth with it, and the internet hasn’t been working for days and I desperately have needed it in order to fill out all of my CO PT license application. (it takes a month to go through and I’m supposed to start on March 11^th)

But today I need to focus on something positive rather than on all of the frustrations so I’m going to share about the “dynamic duo” that my dad and I have become here at Kijabe! We have been giving in-services to the physio department over the past week. One thing PTs (mainly the techs) do here is casting. Therefore, my dad and I gave a PT seminar on casting which was “extremely helpful” to them. First of all, it was fun for them to be able to meet my dad who of course was very enthusiastic and full of energy. Secondly, they all were very excited to learn about how to cast properly. Thirdly, they were in desperate need of a new cast saw and we were able to bring one from the US and donate it to the Kijabe physio dept. The physios are not actually educated on casting in school but it is something that the hospital expects them to do. (For example, throughout the day we’ll be treating patients in the outpatient physio ward and nurses/doctors will bring their patients straight from surgery in their gowns and so that we can cast them right then and there.) During the in-service my dad and I sat up in front of all of the Kenyan physios while he put a cast on me and quizzed me on lower quarter anatomy and then he talked about how to properly cast. Thankfully they were also able to learn how to safely take a cast off and they practiced with the new cast saw on my cast.

The second in-service we gave was on ACL reconstruction. The lecture started off on a rough note when I asked “Who can tell me what the ACL is?” And all I got was a bunch of blank stares. I’ve talked with several UK/US Doctors who say that this is actually part of their culture. When asked questions during lectures Kenyans typically do not answer. But my dad was able to tell them about what he does during an ACL reconstruction surgery and then I was able to talk about the rehab process, both inpatient and outpatient. It was fun to get to teach them together! My dad was able to complete one of the first ACL surgeries here at Kijabe hospital with the Kenyan orthopedic residents he is training yesterday and I was able to complete her PT session with the Kenyan physios today.

It’s been really fun to work on the same patients together! The pathology of things you see here is crazy- things I’ve never heard of or learned in school and things that my dad has never seen in his 30+ years in the medical field. The hospital gets a high population of trauma because of the large number of car accidents that happen in Kenya. Trauma accidents are in the top 5 leading causes of death here and it kills more Africans than both AIDS and TB.

The MRIs and x-rays of patients that you read here are just unbelievable. My dad and I will be looking at them and the only response possible is just for your jaw to drop. There are so many examples I can share but a lot of them don’t do proper justice unless you see the pictures for yourself. Unfortunately I can’t upload them because of the poor internet but a good patient example is an adolescent girl who was burned across both of her legs 10 years ago and she developed heterotopic ossification so badly that her left knee joint was completed fused in extension for TEN YEARS! Therefore, she has not bent her knee since then and has been unable to move well at all. So she came to Kijabe hospital last week and wanted to get her leg to move again but her quads are completely atrophied. My dad was able to complete the surgery on her with several of the Kenyan orthopedic residents and they got her knee to bend to 120 degrees while she was under anesthesia and now I am doing her physiotherapy. The rehab process with her is extremely difficult because her knee is so painful for her to move and it’s also hard to teach her how to use her quad muscles again when she hasn’t used them in 10 years. But I’m thankful that we can try to help her and I’m also thankful for the learning process we are undergoing.

It’s been fun to get this unique opportunity of working closely with my dad. We are both pushed beyond our normal areas of practice and have been challenged in many ways but I think I speak for both of us when I say that we are thankful for this learning and growing experience together!