Christmas at Zithulele

My new toy :) Thanks Mum and Dad x

Sarah, Bernard and Jess's home-made Christmas tree. Quite stylish i think!

I had a great Christmas dinner with Sarah, Bernard, Jess, Ross and uncle Tony. Main course was a leg of lamb, which became Jack's Christmas present...

On Boxing Day, Uncle Tony wanted to go to Mncwasa river for a swim. The weather was rather dull so we didn't bring our swimming costumes as we assumed we would go for a walk on the beach instead. But the water was so lovely, we just had to swim in our clothes. Uncle Tony remembered his cozzie. L-R: Ross, Jess, Sarah, Tony.

Boxing day ended with a huge game of Warewolf during which we were shocked to see how well some people could lie!

Christmas spirit

Making stars to hang up in paeds ward

The Republic of the Transkei

It's good to know that the governement reviews and updates its forms regularly

Madwaleni's Rolling Hills Wheelchair Race

The start of the 800m race. Most racers are pushed.

Coming in for the finish line.The winner of the 5.4km race: Mute from Zithulele

Prize giving: medals and t-shirts for all participants. Followed by a braai. Well done Madwaleni therapists!

The new pharmacist is keeping busy

Sign on door of POP (plaster of Paris) cupboard

A moment of beauty

We live in such a beautiful place. Something i find particularly special are the weather phenomena of lightening and rainbows. Unfortunately i couldn't capture the beauty on camera very well. After i took this photo, i went to Ian's house to tell him to look, and he was doing the exact same thing as me: standing in the rain on the stoep taking a photo. By the way, this is the view from our stoep.

The opening of the rehab hut

The rehab hut is complete! We opened it yesterday with a big party and awareness event. As a therapy team, we proved ourselves as competent event organisers. And what a lot of work it was. But hopefully the message came out load and clear: disabled people CAN DO stuff!

Ben (clinical manager) making a speech with Phumla translating:

Matrons alongside cleaners singing songs of praise:

The crowds checking out the hut:

Reading the posters we made about services available:

Laura trying out the mobility course:

Mute, Gillian and Josh:
Sbulele taking control of the food:

Lots of dancing:

Poster-making

You know how OTs get teased for making posters? Well, captured on camera, we have two physios making posters for the Rehab Hut opening :)

Embracing a pressure care challenge

A 14 year-old boy was recently admitted with pressure sores. This happens because when there is abnormal sensation (this boy has paraplegia) a person does not adjust their position and blood supply to weight-bearing areas is compromised. If this happens for long enough, tissue dies. After we issued this boy with his first ever wheelchair his pressure sores spiralled out of control resulting in 3 pressure sores down to the bone on his "bum" and several others on his knees. Pressure sores are deadly and we have unfortuntely seen several patients die of what is actually a preventable condition.

One day, the seriousness of this patient's condition struck me and i decided to do everything i could possibly do to stop this boy from dying. The only way to really get rid of pressure sores is to not lie on them and wait for them to heal. This gets complicated when there are many sores and thus the positions available for lying/sitting are few. This patient had the added complication of contractures in his hips and knees which made positioning him in prone (on his stomache), which is the only position he can lie in without being on his sores, very difficult. See picture below (this is the best we could do using wedges).

I decided the answer would be to build a positioning device that would allow his to lie prone in as much alignment possible. Marlie (awesome physio) had came to the same conclusion and together we began to apply basic seating principles in a whole new way. Neither of us had ever seen anything like this done before, so it was an exciting innovating challenge. The planning:

The basic structure:The final piece - with abduction block added and lateral supports on the left to correct the windsweeping posture:

Before:After:

Before:

After:

After lying comfortably :) in prone for a few weeks, his hip and knee ranges increased to such an extent that the cushion angles needed to be adjusted and he could then lie almost flat :)

The pelvic pressure sores eventually healed and i'd like to believe i played some part in saving this boy's life.

My biggest lesson from this project: If you can dream it, you can do it!

Paeds at play

During hectic days, there are often small moments that keep me sane. This is one of them. I had dropped off some toys at paeds ward and started the children playing each of their own bed. I came back a few hours later to take the toys away and this is what I found. 3 of them building a giant house together! so sweet!

Good times with the junior Zithuleleans

Somehow I ended up witnesses this delightful scene the other day. Johan was happily playing in MUD! Big respect to Sal. And Emma was very adement that she didn't want to get dirty. Here she is with a flower she picked and gave to me.

Next thing, Emma has taken her clothes off and is in the mud with her brother
So cute! and so much fun!

Embracing exercise

JT convinced Liz to ride with her while she ran, and I joined the party too. Good fun :)

Don't we look hard-core?!

A day out in Coffee Bay

On Sunday, after a very rainy Friday and Saturday, we were itching to get out of Zithulele. After various debates about surfing and leaving times and places to eat, we ended up having lunch at a new place called Kaleidoscope Cafe. It is also a shop which sells very many interesting and pretty things, which were great fun to explore.

I fell in love with the butterfly fridge magnets that they sold. With so much mail from Kayleigh, we are running out of magnets! I ended up buying 7 butterflies each a different colour. And they look beautiful in their new home :)

Tumour dog is hanging in there

Introducing Tumour Dog. He appears to live on the hospital property and is named after the humungous tumour on his back left foot (unfortunately not very visible in this picture). His general condition seems to be getting progressively worse: note the hair falling out. We are waiting to see who will be the one to put him out of his misery.

Times of plenty

The linen cupboard in general ward. Good times.

My miraculous job

I've been recently reminded of how the Lord enabled me to stay here and have a job. Here is an extract from a letter i wrote to some friends in February this year:

It is with great relief that I can tell you that I officially have a paying job here for as long as I want it! For those of you who didn’t know, for most of last year there was no chance I could stay here in my current capacity even if I wanted to. Then about September, out of no-where (haha, we all know Who brought that along) a new senior post appeared. That meant that Megan could apply for that post and I could apply for hers. So Megan applied for the senior post (and no-one else did, so that meant the post was practically hers and the other one was practically mine), but the wheels turned incredibly slowly (even slower than usual EC DOH style). By the end of November, Megan’s post had still not come through which meant that I couldn’t apply for “mine” yet. I was confused about what I should do to help the process along. One day I went to Ben (our CMO) and asked him who I should talk to (because I had so many names and I didn’t understand the mysterious ‘sacred’ hierarchy of the EC DOH). He reply was “God. It doesn’t look likely that you will get a post”. So that was a little stressful, but I know God too well to worry about it. In the beginning of December we started the process of applying for a job for me (even though there wasn’t technically one available yet). I submitted a million forms (all of which HR already has but for some beaurocratic reason needs to be resubmitted), got my finger prints taken by the local police and even had a job interview. I went home 2 weeks before Christmas with no job.

I came back on the 27th December and found out that I had an appointment letter – to a post that was occupied! Can u imagine anything more ridiculous! How do 2 people share a post?! So I thought maybe I didn’t have to work for a while – no such luck, the measles outbreak hit. The 15th of January (payday) passed with no bank transfers and so did the 31st (my old payday). Then out of the blue on the 8th of Feb (when I had just come back from a wonderful week in Joburg and Cape Town) I was paid!

Signs of development

Our new road is complete! This may be a bit boring for people other than Kayleigh and Sam, but the new road signs give the area a whole new feeling of being slightly more civilized and less rural. It's hard to believe its the same road that we used to pray we didn't slide off the cliffs when it rained and turned to mud. (Apologies for the poor quality of these photos).

On the Coffee Bay road the "detour to Zithulele in 200m" sign has been replaced by a proper T-junction sign.


And here is our new turnoff sign. Mysteriously, we still seem to be "Zithulele Mission Hospital ", even though the name was changed 16 years ago. I kinda like it. It reflects the hearts of many of us.

The speed limit is officially 60. Although it is possible and very tempting to exceed this, we have had too many major accidents recently. Do not be fooled, the bends can be lethal.

A very appropriate sign i think. It pretty much describes the whole road.

Kayleigh will pleased to see that the "Cliffs of Doom" now have railings. And even sharrows :)

EVERYTHING is now signed. Who would have thought the turn to Tafelohashe and Mapame would be signed?!