3rd day...

I have learned how to hear a fetal heart rate with the fundascope! In fact, I unfortunately trusted myself enough to know that I was not able to hear a 36 weeker....I handed the fundascope to the "nurse midwife" (a male nurse) who also couldn't hear it. We had the doctor, who happened to be in the room, listen and he, too, could not find it. So we sent her to ultrasound. She returned an hour later with a slip of paper with the letters IUFD. This was easy for even me to understand. (Intrauterine fetal death) The mother was a 40 year old with HIV and only had one leg. She walked with a large stick for support. It was sad, and clearly is not handled with "kid gloves" but instead is told matter of factly to the mother and she is send on her way. She is to report back for induction when possible.

Otherwise today was good. No baby's hit the ground! And I'm becoming much better at fundal height measuring with my hands as well as with a measuring tape. I can typically estimate the fetal age with my hand measurement as close as 2-3 weeks (assuming their dates are correct in the first place). So I am learning as well as being able to help. Today we must have seen 50 pregnant women, you see there are no appointments they just arrive and are seen in the order that they arrived. So some days there are very few patients and others there are a lot.

I believe we have worked out our plans for the weekend. We will be taking a "dalla dalla" (not sure of the spelling in swahili but it means a small bus of sorts) to Moshi which is an hour drive. There we will meet with Dr Hoon's friend John, and will have a tour of the waterfalls at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro. John is the hiking guide Dr Hoon hiked Mt Kili with. We might spend the night at a friend of a friend of a friend of mine's house. But that has not been worked out yet. We might also just return that same night.

So far my only loss is 300 US dollars, due to an ATM not giving me money! But it is posted to my bank account as removed! No longer just pending, so it is truly gone! Fingers crossed that will be the biggest loss during my trip! And yes I have tried to contact SunTrust, but they wrote me back and stated that they could look into it but my card would have to be canceled...which is not an option.