Today was the day the operations started (well, ish because there were a few yesterday evening...)
At the start we talked to Dr. Eric and a patient - she (Jacklin) was a gorgeous young woman, however when you looked at her left eye it was bulging and milky-looking. Apparently, when she was 2 years old she had an accident, and the doctor who looked after her made a mistake and she could no longer see out of that eye, plus occasionally it would hurt her. But mainly the problem was that it didn't look particularly attractive.
We then went to see the surgery room. It was different... With English surgery rooms it's very clean and sterile. Well this was very not sterile, and the equipment was very basic... But somehow, so Dr Eric told us, people didn't really get infections, so erm, ok? Anyway after an exchange of pleasantries we watched the surgeries begin! (exciting moment)
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Jacklin had her eye taken out (usually you would expect someone to be deeply upset to lose a part of themselves) but after the operation, when we saw her, she had a patch over her eye and a massive smile stretching from ear to ear. A fake eye has been ordered to be put in tomorrow!
The blind man I mentioned yesterday went in just as we left, but I really want to see him, seeing the world all over again!
(Please pardon the lateness of the post, I had more Internet troubles... And just pretend this is 2 days ago... Yeah, I'm not awkward at all!)
Assessment Room Part 4
A blind man came into the assessment room. After an examination we found out that he has an infection in his eyes, and he has cataracts. But the doctors can remove the cataracts and cure the infection. (I'm so grateful that he would be able to see again, it was so sad to watch him, because he had no idea where he was or what was going on, but his wife was so caring and loving towards him.)
There was a mother and daughter, the daughter needed the surgery for cataracts, but it was complicated in her case and they needed state-of-the-art equipment to do the operation, which they did not have here in Mtwara. They would need to take the girl to Dar Es Salaam, and then they both cried because they just couldn't go there. It had been a big thing for them to come to Mtwara, but to go to the big city was just too overwhelming - and the cost would be too much as well.
Assessment Room Part 3
One lady had her cateracts removed years ago, but it was done the old-fashioned way and they removed her lens, and they gave her really thick glasses (that is simply how they did it, removed the lens, then gave glasses). But now Dr. Eric has ordered a fake lens (from Dar Es Salaam - it's on a bus as we speak! - Don't doubt the bus!) to put into her eye, so she doesn't have to wear glasses anymore (neat, huh?).
Assessment Room Part 2
It's sad to find out that some people can't be helped at all. Due to bad eye services (no opticians, etc) problems go undetected and some people have lost the communication between their eyes and their brain, or the cateract is too thick and nothing can be done because of it, except to can give them an injection in the eye nerve connectiong to the brain so it will at least kill the pain. The poor patients says:
"Give me a drug so I can see." And it's hard to say (as Dr Eric did to one poor man),
"No, we can't do anything".
It's a shame because normally all it takes is vitamin pills, or eye drops, or even an injection (*shudder* I hate them) at an early stage to prevent this kind of blindness.
Assessment Room (part 1)
When I was observing what was going on I learnt that, some eye problems can trigger other problems such as cateracts. Cateracts cannot be removed util they have "matured" (reached a certain thickness), if they take them off too soon then the eyes will probably be damaged - let's use an orange as a sort-of-example:
If the skin on the orange isn't ripe and is too tight then you will probably damage the orange eg. the juice comes out, (please not the eye wouldn't do that, but it would be damaged). However if the cateracts are too thick, like the skin on an orange it will come off easily but lots of "pith" (you know that weird, tasteless white suff?) is left behind, it's like that...
Sorry I didn't update yesterday (internet problems) so here's what happened yesterday!
We arrived at the clinic at 3:00pm (Roughly... Well it was the conclusion we finally reached). Soon after we arrived they started the assessments, the waiting room was FULL! There were so many people (and the nurses had already assessed that they needed treatment).
First we sat and watched in the Surgery Assessment room. (I think it's overwhelming reading it all in a big chunk, so its gonna be in smaller chunks)
Alright, what happens in the Assessment room will be in the next few blogs - "stay tuned folks!" :D
Alright the first entry of my blog ... (unnecessary suspense!)
We all know we have to get the nitty-gritties over and done with, so here goes:
My name is Emma-Lee, and I've come with my parents (Lesley and Nic Taaffe) and we're from Amptill, Bedfordfordshire in England.
We go to Ampthill Baptist Church, and I am a student at Wootton Upper School.
We are here in Tanzania to see MAF in action (http://www.maf-uk.org/) MAF has organised a group of doctors to come out here on an "eye-safari" which means they will be removing cataracts, and helping with other eye problems (which will allow people to see again). This is going to be very interesting - to see Africa with my own eyes, to really experience it and see if it is anything like what I have read and heard about it - and I am really excited! (Woo!)
We are going to a town called Mtwara, Tanzania (On the south coast of the country, on the Mozambique border). The locals speak KiSwahili and English. Tanzania has a pleasent tropical climate (25C - 30C) (yes, pleasant indeed! *puts on sunglasses* oh yeah!)
Well that wasn't too difficult *puts down book -"The Idiot's Guide to Blogging"*
