April 4, 2016: A Blog Post by Makenzie

Torential Rains fill the built-in gullies next to the road.

Today we began our first day at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda and it was a rainy one. While this is expected given the time of year here, combined with the construction it made for an interesting journey over to the hospital. We were greeted warmly by the pharmacists and interns and each set out to see various activities throughout the hospital. I worked in the dispensary with a pharmacist to see how that process works within the hospital. It is a similar process to a community pharmacy, but also very different. Drug shortages are an issue within the hospital and many people are sent out to purchase on their own the IV/oral medications needed at another pharmacy. These are then brought back to their loved ones in the hospital.

Kassi, Lauren, Makenzie and Casey eat their first Ugandan food. The brown sauce is G-Nut sauce (made of a nut very similar to peanuts) and this was a big hit with Kassi. Lauren is sitting in front of Dr. Bohan’s Green Peas and rice which Makenzie was eating Beans and Rice.

Casey and Kassi rounded with a team in the Pulmonology unit and saw cases of CHF, ascites, and diabetes. While the rounding set up is similar to that in the United States, the questions and resources are quite different. They were asked to determine an insulin dose without an A1C or blood glucose or really any type of reference in a severely uncontrolled diabetic. Lauren and Dr. Bohan met and rounded with a doctor from Switzerland who was supervising some Ugandan physicians and saw cases of PCP, C-Section infections and tetanus. We also all had exposure to the maternity ward, which was something unlike any of us had experienced. There were mothers and babies in every free inch of space. We are looking forward to discussing this with a few visiting OB/Gyn physicians who are also staying at the Mulago guesthouse with us and getting their opinions on the situation. Today we start another adventure at the Institute for Infectious Disease and will help them develop a renal dosing protocol for the drugs they dispense. We will keep you all updated as the process continues!

We ended the day with a relaxing meal of delicious Thai food at Tamarai in Kampala.