Week Two

My second week at the hospital I was in the physiotherapy clinic. Three days a week they have a special clinic for parents who have children with cerebral palsy. I have very complicated feelings about the PT clinic. I loved the opportunity to watched the delayed development of the children and how the therapists try and encourage the children to develop those skills and strengths. On the other hand, there was a lot of crying. Like a lot. It wasn’t until the last day that one of the therapists explained to me that they’re not always in pain, they’re just confused and frustrated. She asked how I would feel if I was forced to write with my non-dominate hand and I admitted I would hate it. She said that’s how the children feel. And they have no other way to communicate except to cry. Which is fair. I have language and I still want to cry all the time. But when all of the children start crying together and their screams harmonize, it becomes…a little overstimulating. But the physiology of their development and the therapy was so interesting it was still my favorite week at the hospital. Their CP clinic is a new project Dr. Charles has been working on with the PML Hospital. Their goal was to reach 100 mothers and they’ve been teaching people since August. They educate the mothers on causes of CP, ways to handle their child safely, feed them safely, and exercise them to encourage any sort of independence that they can. They also try and dismantle stigma and unteach myths that the mothers hear about their children’s disease. It’s not their fault, they’re still good mothers, their children are not cursed. One of the mothers came in with twins, one of which had CP. On the last day of the CP clinic she had to take the other child to the OPD because she had a slight fever and wasn’t feeling well. The medical student I was with and I watched her son while she was gone. He was the most adorable child. We fed him lunch and held him until he fell asleep a few hours later. I think I fell in love with every child in the clinic. Who am I kidding, I fell in love with every child I saw at that hospital. That weekend we went to the Legon botanical gardens and went to church and institute on Sunday. It was so fun. We tried fufu and got to see a bunch of beautiful trees and nature. It was a good weekend!