New Beginnings

Remix to my favorite Florence and the Machine song. Brings me...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:26:00 -0400

Remix to my favorite Florence and the Machine song. Brings me back to Bonnaroo.

Still haven’t gotten sick of this song. Can you turn it...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:58:00 -0400

Still haven’t gotten sick of this song. Can you turn it down?

RUMA These pictures were from a fun photoshoot with some friends for a start up clothing company....

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:18:41 -0400

RUMA

These pictures were from a fun photoshoot with some friends for a start up clothing company. Right.Up.My.Alley.

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Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:17:57 -0400

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Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:17:40 -0400

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Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:16:15 -0400

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Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:11:52 -0400

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Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:11:24 -0400

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Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:57:23 -0400

Instagrammed

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:59:00 -0400

Instagrammed

Donni Charm

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:09:00 -0400

Donni Charm:

I did an athletic photoshoot for Donni Charm this summer- a fun womens fashion line that makes tank tops, sweaters, and scarfs. More importantly, Megan Fox and Kendal Jenner are in the same article as I am, so I’m basically famous. Click Donni Charm to view the blog and check out the clothing. Photo credit to Alisha Segel.

Kwaheri Kenya

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:38:42 -0400

The rest of the mission went pretty well. I finally delivered a baby on my own and it was very fun!! Healthy baby boy that I couldn’t think of a good name when the lady asked me to name her child. Everything is so different, you see babies just lying around unsupervised on beds with no side rails. Another thing is how much boys are acknowledged over girls. Later, we went over to an American clinic that was doing free outpatient surgeries-mainly hernias, cleft lips, and goiters. I got to start some IVs and watch surgeries I’ve never see before. During the flight home, 1 last unexpected crisis was thrown our way. We heard that our plane had an emergency medical landing that was stopping in Munich. With an hour left of the plane very annoyed that she’s missing the end of her movie, my momma walked up, grabbed the emergency drug kit, and saved a man from his heart attack in mid air! It was very commendable. All in all, this trip was not what I expected it to be but it taught me to adapt and overcome the obstacles thrown my way. Treasure every last person and thing that makes you happy because it’s too easily forgotten that we’re all blessed with freedom and happiness.

Elephant famiry

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:01:32 -0400

Elephant famiry

Surgeon's lil helper

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:39:00 -0400

The last few days at the Migori hospital were kind of laid back but exciting because I got to do some new hands on things. I was poking my head in the maternity ward to be able to deliver a baby, but no action was happening. I got to check a woman’s cervix to see how dilated she was- I was nervous but I did it accurately. She was 6cm for a long time, not progressing for hours and they called a stat c/section. Kenya differs from America in many ways. One is that if you’re White and have a lab coat on, you have complete authority. Therefore, I was able to be the surgeon’s first assistant for the surgery (while my mom did anesthesia). Not many people can say they’ve done that. My job included cutting stitches, pushing the baby out of the uterus, suctioning etc. It was really fun!

The grass is grangrener on the other side

Sun, 29 May 2011 13:07:00 -0400

I can handle almost anything - Love blood and guts but my jaw hit the floor in the OR because it was so disgusting. Patient was a 20 year old female 6 months pregnant with her fifth child (me too). Complaints of abdominal pain, NG tube had liters of green pus coming out blah blah blah. Lets cut her open. Before I begin with the surgery story, I’d like to mention that there is no communication between staff and patients. They literally just roll them to the OR and put them out without explainin what they are doing, that they are getting anesthesia, nothing. It’s really bizarre. So anyways, the medical care in Kenya is SO limited as I’ve mentioned. Premature babies even if they’re already 8 months gestation basically have no chance for survival. The first thing the doc did was take the baby out. It was really sad because it was alive for maybe a minute, and they tried to resuscitate but it wasn’t working. My head is down watching the surgeon, and all of the sudden i hear this explosion accompanied by a smokey smell by the newborn. Apparently, someone thought it was a good idea to try to shock the baby with a lightbulb and a wire. No, I’m not joking, this really happened. Everyone was so confused but the surgery continued. These intestines were enormous and absolutely foul. This tiny girl had like 15 pounds of gangrene bowel cut out of her. I’m really sorry for the picture but I just had to post it. All in all, it was a hard day since I’ve never seen nurses and doctors just let a baby die like that, but it just goes to show how fortunate we are because of technology and educated staff we have.

^There was more taken out than just this

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Fri, 27 May 2011 10:00:00 -0400

Migori, Kenya

Thu, 26 May 2011 14:34:00 -0400

I arrived in Migori yesterday and have 4 new house-mates that are all American—even some in the big 10 network! We were told how safe this town is, yet I can’t leave the house after 6:30 p.m due to gangs lining the streets. The hospital is a 3 minute walk and if I ever wanted to go at night (if there was a c/section or something) then I’d have to call a cab. That was a bit shocking. Anyways, I made it out alive after my first day working in a Kenyan hospital. A lot of crazy stuff goes down that wasn’t acceptable 50 years ago in the United States. I walk in, and there is a dead body laying right in front of me on the ground with 2 alive patients on tables in a dental office (there’s no such thing as an ER at this hospital, so a few dentist chairs was all that was open). There was a car accident involving 6 guys probably my age and cattle tumbling down a hill—don’t understand whole story since they weren’t fully conscious. So they’re just sitting there on tables with IVs in with no staff around- the only people there were me and a few other undergrads. I won’t go into detail about their conditions, but I would like to inform you that 60% of this hospital is HIV+, there are no gloves or hand sanitizer available and these patients are bleeding everywhere from the accident. Luckily, I shoved gloves in my back pocket before I left the house. We needed to take one guy for x-rays since he can’t move his pelvis, and the beds don’t even have wheels on them. There’s barely any gauze, nothing to clean wounds with, there’s no doctors around, nada. I hung a bag of normal saline that was already opened and used for washing blood out of someone’s mouth because that’s all I could find. About an hour and a half later, a doctor came in to stitch the wounds. Mind you, that the sutures they used should probably be used to catch a catfish-NOT stitch up a human arm. Watching them stitch is like watching someone try to sew leather with a fishing hook—you have to put that much force into it because nothing is the right gauge. I should take a video next time. Oh, there are no laws about taking pictures of patients so I can post pictures of what I’m talking about soon. With no trauma training, I think I did a pretty good job today and definitely kept calm. Lala salama.

Masai Mara reserve

Tue, 24 May 2011 09:48:00 -0400

After much debate, we’ve decided to join back with our group tomorrow. Thank you for everyone that was worried about me and gave me advice- I appreciate it :) For the past 3 days I’ve been doing safaris which have been so unbelievable. I can see heards of elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelopes- all from my room. Wild monkeys and warthogs roam around the hotel pool which was really hard to get used to. Once we get out and drive around the Masai Mara, we can see everything else like lions, cheetahs, rhino etc. The top moments so far have been a lioness nom-nomming on an impala and watching elephants drink & bathe in a river. The babies are too g-d cute. I feel like I’ve been here for months and I’ve only been gone a week and a half.

If all goes according to plan, I’ll start working on Thursday. Although saving the world has been delayed, I’m still hoping to make the impact that I came here for. Hakuna Matata, right? (Yes, that’s real swahili)

*Other lion king words that are real swahili are pumba (stupid) simba (lion) and rafiki (friend)

Safety first, kids

Sat, 21 May 2011 16:55:07 -0400

Where do I begin? We were heading out for an 8 hour drive to Migori and the driving here is life threatening. Our preceptor even had us pray for a safe journey before we left. Passing people on the road in America is done only if some old geezer is going slower than molasses. In Kenya, it happens about twice a minute. It’s so scary because you come within feet of the oncoming car like it’s no big deal. As we were driving, a car coming towards us was dangerously passing another car, and was going too fast…or something of that nature. This small red car tumbled down about 150 feet down a cliff alongside of the road creating a huge whirlwind of dust right before our eyes. We immediately pulled over and rushed to the scene and helped get the passengers on the ground. The car was smashed in completely. The driver, presumably a taxi driver, was alert and only had a few bleeding cuts on his face. The passenger who was a foreign lady was not as lucky. She was laying on the ground breathing but unconscious. Being that we were on our way to a medical mission, we had all of our supplies with us. Our preceptor and one of the students on my trip jumped into another car to rush them to the ER without conveying a plan. Shaken up and confused, the rest of us were left abandoned at the scene with nothing but our van with a driver that spoke NO English (no head nods or anything) who is driving like a psychopath and getting us lost in a bad area. People that know me know I love living life with adventure- and even I thought I was going to die in this car. Fast forward a few hours, I am now in a hotel with my mom still in Nairobi- not with the rest of group. Our safety was jeopardized today and we’re taking some time to think about if the trip is truly safe. In summary, I’ve spent 3/4ths of the day in tears listening to what my heart and my brain both have to say. Help.

Just a mzungu trying to be one of the boys.

Sat, 21 May 2011 16:17:30 -0400

Just a mzungu trying to be one of the boys.