Salone rollercoaster...

I don’t know about you but I love rollercoaster rides.
The faster the better, the more loops the more fun.
Up and down, up and down.
Today felt much like a rollercoaster ride.

The rollercoaster ride I experienced was “The Ride of Emotions”.
Maybe you know the ride.
The one that takes all day, taking you through an array of different emotions.
Joy, sadness, surprise, frustration, excitement, amazement, devastation, to name some.

Join me on a segment of the day’s ride…

JOY - Ramatu, one of my hydrocephalus patients, showed up again after days of delay.

SADNESS - My former neighbor, 3 year old Jeneba, who I had sent to the feeding center where she also received TB treatment in 2007, was not doing well, still only weighing 7kg and not walking or talking.

SURPRISE - 4 month old Lamin, who I saw last Thursday with a moderate to severe pneumonia, showed up for review, 5 days late so I was wondering if I had lost him.

FRUSTRATION - N’gardie, the 1 year old weighing 4.6kg, did not show up for review today with her granny and aunty, so I am now hoping that they went straight to the feeding center.

EXCITEMENT - Ibrahim has been coming to the clinic for review for months waiting to hear if the expat cardiologist was scheduled to arrive and today I could finally tell him that he would be arriving in country next week.

AMAZEMENT - I went to our pharmacy to look for a specific drug for a patient (that we do not have on our inventory list) and found a box of that drug in our donated drugs pile; and it wasn’t expired yet!

DEVASTATION & SORROW - I visited a 4 year old patient with cancer at his house and saw how much this child was suffering and knew there was nothing I could do for him except for supportive care..

It was quite a ride.
And of course, most days here are like this.
I guess that is what makes this work special.
Being able to share so many moments with so many emotions with my patients and staff.