Aug 21
Bladder Stone
When a mother came to our hospital with her two-year-old boy suffering from a rectal prolapse it seemed like a standard case.
In children, the main treatment is to improve the child’s nutritional state and the rectal prolapse will fix itself. In the meantime, buttock strapping can protect the rectum and provide relief.
However, this child’s mother also noted that the patient cried and pulled on his penis whenever he needed to urinate. A quick ultrasound of the child’s bladder revealed a calcified mass inside.
Apparently, the stone was acting like a ball-valve and blocking the exit point for urine through the urethra. The child’s straining to urinate is what likely caused the rectal prolapse. I removed the stone from the bladder through a small abdominal incision. Afterwards, the patient stopped pulling on his penis to urinate and the rectal prolapse resolved.
Looking at the size of that bladder stone (in a two-year-old!) I can’t imagine the pain he has struggled with (enough to cause a rectal prolapse!). I’m its removal has completely changed his quality of life and probably his mother’s as well!
Aug 18
BMC Construction
The Baptist Medical Centre where we live and work has been blessed with a very generous donation from the Helmsley Charitable Trust in the US. With the new funds, the hospital administration has been able to finish the new Outpatient & Administration building that was started five years ago. They have also begun a new project to build new hospital wards.
I recently flew my drone over the campus to get a birds-eye view of the progress of the construction.
Aug 16
Best Backyard Ever?
Above is a shot of our “backyard” – the open fields to the east of our house. Below is a drone shot looking south of our house. You can see the small school house just to the right of us and farther back in the distance is “Alafɛa Fɔŋŋu” where tuberculosis patients reside during their treatment.
Isn’t our region beautiful in the rainy season?!
Aug 14
Trey Turns 11
This fella turned eleven today! We’re holding off on a birthday party until his grandparents and some of this local friends who are gone on holiday get back. Nonetheless, he got to open some birthday presents and one was a drone. Below are some shots he took with it.
Aug 10
If you care for a child while his teeth come out, he must also look after you when you teeth come out.
Aug 8
The Bird Trap
The Yellow Fronted Canary (crithagra mozambica) is a popular bird to keep as a pet in northern Ghana. It has a pleasant, uplifting song and chatters all the time.
I recently ran across some boys while out exploring on my bike and they answered my question of “How do folks catch these birds?” These kids had engineered some brilliant traps to snag these canaries in the wild.
Each trap is hung from a tree with a canary already in it – its song will attract others to the trap. On the top right of the trap is a spinning wheel with a millet stalk as its axle. The canary will land on that wheel to peck at the millet in the center and it will spin and drop the bird down into the cage.
A second contraption is also added on the top left. This is a spring loaded trap door that snaps shut when a bird lands in it and pecks at the millet bait.
Kudos to these two young inventors for making such a clever contraption!
