Mommas and Migraines

Today we spent our morning at New Brighton Clinic. I started off with Kayla and Sara in the "treatment room", where general things like vitals, weight and height, and smaller things are taken care of. We saw a nurse take out stitches and staples, and I highly suspect the man was involved in a fight including a gunshot wound to the stomach and a fistfight due to the location and type of injuries he had. We then were relocated to the antenatal area because they were open. See, the OB nurse was sick, so they didn't have another OB nurse to take over and work that area, so they had closed that section of the clinic. Last minute a nurse from pediatrics came to work with the patients, with 2 nursing students from Port Elizabeth University in tow. There were originally two patients, but it turns out that one of them wasn't even pregnant! She had done something funky with her birth control, which made her think she was 5 months pregnant. The routine urine test came back negative, and it was obvious she wasn't 5 months pregnant because her stomach was completely flat. So she left, and we shifted our focus to the other patient in the room who was actually pregnant! Since it was her first time there, they did an extensive exam. First they checked blood stuff, like hemoglobin and HIV testing. The HIV test is terrifying because, although it only takes 15 minutes to give results, it's occurring on a small card right on the table. The nurse had the sense to cover it up with something so the patient wasn't staring at the card for 15 minutes, but she still was distracted by it while the nurse was trying to take her medical history. Finally they showed her the results, and there was a tense moment where all of us were praying it was negative...and it was! It's one less baby who will have HIV and, at least for now, one less young person. Then they did the head-to-toe complete physical. They use a measuring tape from the top to the bottom of the stomach and this wheel paper thing to determine how many weeks along she was, and she was about 28-30 weeks. As what I learned in class came back to me, it got me excited about OB again.

We got back from there and, because it was rainy, people wanted to go shopping. Unfortunately a migraine got in my way enough to keep me in bed. Sadly shopping didn't work out for them due to transportation issues. We ate out at an amazing seafood restaurant, and Gary chipped in 80 rand each from the "kitty", which contains all the extra money we spent on the main fee of the trip. I tried this cajun kingclip fish thing, and it was amazing! Then we just came back, and I called some people and now off to bed!