King Faisal Day #10 Last Day

As I walked into King Faisal, Betty was walking out. She said that she had worked the night shift and was going home to sleep, Said was scheduled to work the night shift and wouldn't be in (He'd told me that already) and there were only 3 radiographers scheduled to work. So I know the opportunities to teach today are going to be few. One of those scheduled was the Chief Radiographer and he's kept hopping doing administrative things throughout the day. Christopher is scheduled to work in CT which leaves Diogene to work with the radiography students. The first exam of the day Christopher and I almost get completed before he's needed in CT. Diogene stepped in but by the time we finished he was being called for other exam. During the next case one of the radiography students came in and I worked through the study letting him scan explaining as we went.

We've been moving in baby steps and it's time to take another step. The exams we've been doing have had a verbal report to the radiologist. I've posted to the SDMS "Discussion Forum" a request for help with sonographer worksheets. A great response with Dea Shatterly, Chris Schara, Kelli Gohrs, Suzzane Swindell and an offer from Viki Patsdauter. So I've got some variety and today I've brought my laptop so I'll create worksheets for King Faisal. I went to the King Faisal website and grabbed the logo and went to work making a complete set of worksheets for the common exams. It was not long before I had first drafts for the Radiologist to review. He would like normal values to be listed and we spot a few errors, I realize I've left off a couple of exams and they don't look as similar/uniform to each other as I'd like. So as is common with projects like this, it took longer to "get it right" than to produce the first round of originals.

I was optimistic about how much time it would take and didn't bring my power supply for the computer. At lunch time it's a quick ride home to get the transformer and then a walk down the cobblestone street to Afrikabite for lunch. Terry and I both were concerned about the long term viability of this lovely restaurant based on our view of the evening crowd. But I see that they have a steady stream of customers during lunch. On the way back I caught a ride with a man from Fiji who saw me waiting for a moto and went out of his planned path to drop me at the door of the hospital. He had his little dog in the back seat and the three of us hit it off immediately. His wife works with the reconciliation work and they've been here for 4 years. It was too cool to pet a pet.

The imaging department has been receiving a "sprucing up" this week. New desks, chairs, cabinets, an intensification of cleaning, and removal of items that weren't in keeping with a patient care area. The results are quite nice. It was good before but is now quite sharp.

I get a chance to visit with two of the three Obstetricians today. They share use of the ultrasound machine and probably perform more sonograms with it than the Radiology department. I showed them the three OB/Gyn worksheets and asked each of them the question "If there was a trained sonographer, , whom you trusted, , , would you be in favor of receiving images and a sonographer's worksheet report rather than scanning every patient yourself??" both were quick to say they'd love to have someone else actually performing the majority of the studies so they could concentrate on other issues and perhaps get done each day at a reasonable time. I've observed these two physicians scanning and they are doing great studies following all of the standards that I'm used to seeing in the U.S.. If there are to be sonographers in Rwanda, the support of the Obstetricians will be key.

Near the end of the day there are a couple of ultrasound patients and the department is already slammed with other cases. They've been going all out since the morning and I decided to not make the patients wait and just did the exams and showed the results to the Radiologist. I'm happy with the finished worksheets and leave them both hard copies and electronic versions on the radiologist's computer. As I leave, only Diogene is around. He's going on leave after today and won't be around during the remainder of my stay.

I'm out the door feeling blue and the rain means a wet walk/ride home. I remind my self we're taking baby steps and there will be others behind me to help the process get further along. Back at the house I'm feeling down so I got the autoharp and played for about 40 minutes in the cabana. The music and the words really lifted my spirits and when I'm done I'm good to go. Philbert arrives from cleaning at the new house and tells us there won't be moving this weekend "maybe next week". I don't think he's in too much of a hurry to switch to the new digs. I'm fine here or there. . .

I visited with Shaloy by Skyping her cell phone (twenty minutes for $0.43!) just before bedtime. She'd just gotten back to Georgia after a whirlwind trip to Phoenix. My niece Bailey got married Thursday. Shaloy and my mom hooked up together for the event. Tomorrow, I'm going to spend the morning at the Kigali Memorial Centre (another genocide memorial here in Kigali) and then in the afternoon my buddy Ken is getting my place ready to participate in Sabbath School again.