Waterfalls, and Kribi, and Chimps...OH MY!

I'm a few days late writing this but I was so tired from the weekend I needed an evening to catch up!

This week was so fun! Most of my patients are doing so well and are moving on to the Hope Center. They are all so anxious to get out of the hospital that they get so excited to go and the excitement wears off on the staff! We take a photo with the patient and send it to the Hope Center with them, the picture is like a little treasure that they walk around showing off. Then they say Au Revoir (goodbye)  Hope Center. nothing is lost in that translation!

My friend Assiatou is still here and just as pleasant and sweet as always. Earlier this week I nearly cried when I saw that she had ACTIVE dorsiflexion and plantar flexion(the ability to point and flex her toes)! I was SO surprised, she is 18 and was burned at 6 months so I didn't really count on her having the ability to move after having the contracture for so long.  She will probably be leaving to the Hope Center soon! Today we walked without her splints, and with one real shoe. She continues to use a walker because she's a little scared but she's going to graduate to crutches before she leaves!

Assiatou, with new dressings!

My newest friend Zidan has made so much progress that he gets up with his walker independently now! Zidan had a contracture of the L ankle/foot due to a Quinine injection from malaria treatment. Why they would inject into a shin/leg? I don't know but as I have started to say TIA(THIS IS AFRICA!) Who the heck knows why they do the things they do! Or possibly I'm misunderstanding because the medical record is so brief.

Zidan is SO adorable, he always has a huge smile on his face. I'm slowly picking up some french so I usually walk up to my patients and say "marche" (which is the french word for walk) and that turned into me clapping and saying "marche, marche, marche". Well now Zidan says "marche, marche, marche" every time he sees me, and it has caught on with the rest of the kids on the ward. I'm starting to think that they think my name is Marche!

Zidan before

Zidan before

More before with his great smile

I'm so impressed he could walk!

After his first surgery to loosen the leg from the shin

First time up!

There's the smile!!

This was taken just last week, and I have an even better one for my Christmas card!

I have been learning so much, and not just related to PT but in medicine in general. I love it!
I recently learned that you can shrink Hemangiomas(benign blood vessel growth) with a certain Beta Blocker, Propanalol to be exact. After I learned this I researched it a bit and it was found serendipitously by researchers who were studying hemangiomas. They had a few children in their study with cardiac conditions that required Propanalol and it shrunk the hemangiomas. No one can really explain the mechanism but one study I read suggests that the beta blocker causes capillary vasoconstriction and cell death at the capillary level.  There is no scientific study or proof, this is just a theory. It just so happens that the little girl with the Hemangioma is a DOLL!

Kari! She is full of Sas, She had just been putting her hand up in the photographers face....hence the laugh!

Look at those lashes!

As if the snuggles from the babies weren't enough we got to snuggle and play with Chimpanzees this weekend! We visited a Chimpanzee rescue, the baby chimps are raised by human papas because they were abandoned or their parents were hunted.  It was SO fun! We snuggled and bottle fed the babies and played with the older ones. The older ones would just walk up to you with a hand up and you'd pick it up and either toss them or spin them in circles and they loved it!

I went with a random group and ended up making so many new friends! After the visit to the chimps we stayed the evening on a beach in Kribi.  My favorite part of the evening were the meals at the hotel, not because the food was so delicious(it was :) ) but because we ate at a big table like a big family! We also went on a canoe trip to a pygmy village and visited a waterfall, but after a summer in Hawaii both the beach and waterfall were a little underwhelming. Yes, I am now a beach snob...dang you Hawaii!!

This guy was so particular with the papaya, he carefully spit out every seed. 

This is how they would ask for you to hold them, and if you didn't grab their hand and sling them up they'd just climb up you!

Just chilling

Cheeky little monkeys

Does anyone know what kind of monkey this guy is?

Once the chimps mature they go live on Pongo Songo Island with the other adults. They were so demanding with the bananas, they'd eat them in one bite then clap until we threw more. 

Latex trees-the sap is white and drips out from a scar in the tree. Like Syrup?

Palm Oil Trees

Boat ride to the Chimps-we were so happy to be out of the car!

Papaya!

This guy's name was Miel, and he was the biggest and so tall... he walked around like a human it was so funny!

Just a sweet babe with a swinging chimp in the background!

LOVE!

Just checking to make sure its really empty

Milk drunk

Group photo

New friends!

Kribi fishing boats

I laugh every time I see this picture, I made Chris get in it. I asked if this was his happy face and he said yes. 

Pygmy house construction, I took this because it looks like adobe

Pygmy house, the visit was not what I expected and very depressing so I didn't take any photos of the people. 

Peaceful Canoe ride

We didn't have to paddle!

I keep saying this but week three was just as amazing and the last two, and I'm excited for the rest!
This adventure continues to be amazing and if you're in healthcare and considering it-Apply now!!!