Well we have officially completed our second week of therapy here in Zambia. We are half way done with our experience here and it is bittersweet. We have all become extremely attached to these babies and it's going to be so hard to leave them. I'm glad to hear that you are all enjoying your experiences at your off-sites! Samar, that's awesome that you encountered a patient with global aphasia. I want to hear more about that. We have continued to track these babies and we assessed our feeding/swallowing groups today. We didn't have as much of a gain in progress as we did last week overall, but some babies are flying through their missed milestones. Nelson is our premature baby and he has been having trouble feeding because he is so tiny. We have been working really hard to get him to have a stronger suck both nutritively and non-nutritively. He finished his bottle (4 oz.) in 16 minutes today which was HUGE for him. On Monday it took him 15 minutes to eat 1 oz. it's awesome to see the therapy working. :) Caroline was stoked this morning as were we.
Okay now to the cultural differences...I think Brittany and Jake have mentioned a few of them in previous posts. In therapy, cultural differences aren't as noticeable with the kiddos but we have seen a few. One of the main differences is the type of diseases we are working against and the environment that we are in. The most difficult difference is when we are working with the toddlers in Haven 2 and they speak mainly in Tongan. A couple of them know how to code switch but most of them don't. Some of the babies are also anxious around us because we don't look like people they are used to. When we go get a baby for therapy, an auntie always makes us take the babies' blanket with us and they take it very seriously. I think that's about it so far. Sickness is still lingering throughout our group and we just ask for your prayers for good health and safety. Miss and love y'all!
They're all beautiful kids. Ya'll are lucky. Our patient with global aphasia just got discharged to a nursing home, he will probably be getting ST there. It came to a point where there really wasn't much we could do, due to the severity of his aphasia. Hopefully he gets better soon- no telling what his prognosis will look like. How did ya'll strengthen that baby's suck reflex?...that's amazing.. good work everyone!! I'll be praying.
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful. I know you have all become attached.....but we all miss you too !!! So tell us about some of the things you do on your down time. We all got to see the lunar rainbow, which was fantastic, but what about some of the other things you have seen or just regular evenings when you are done with therapy?
ReplyDeleteI know it is going so fast..only 4 weeks left at my new site :(
Those children are just beautiful. That's incredible that you saw such an improvement with baby Nelson in just a week! I would also like to know what exactly you did with him to see such a great improvement in such a short period of time. I will definitely continue to pray for you all and the work you are doing there. I would love to hear more individual success stories about the milestones being met. And do you try to communicate in Tongan with the babies in Haven 2? That must be difficult! We miss you all so much!
ReplyDeleteThe babies seem to be so happy when they are with you all! It's a bummer to hear that the progress has slowed down with the feeding/swallowing group, but it’s wonderful to hear that some of the babies have reached missed milestones! Keep up all your hard work! Sorry to hear about the sickness among you all. I will continue to send prayers your way for health and safety!
ReplyDeleteBefore you all left, I thought about the way you might be received by the grown zambian people but not about the way a toddler might react to someone who looks and talks so differently than they do. I can see how that could be a barrier in communication and acceptance. I'm sure you have to handle those types of situations very delicately with the toddlers... since we know how tempermental they can be. ;)
ReplyDeleteI know that you asked Samar about her global aphasia patient, but I'll go ahead and post on mine in case you are interested. :) The lady that I am working with has receptive and expressive aphasia and apraxia. She can identify LARK objects by function but not by name; she can finish nursery rhymes but not common phrases; and she can point to body parts by imitation, but not on pictures. She is British, so her jargon also has an accent. She is so sweet.
ReplyDeleteIt really must be traumatic for theses babies who have been through so much. I am glad to learn about that emotional safety net the aunties are providing for them and that they recognize it.
Oh my they are beautiful...reminds me of little Trevon (pronounced: Trey-vahn). He is the SWEETEST baby boy ever--little guy has the biggest cheeks I've ever seen and seems to be a phono child. About every other week he has some sort of cold (though it might be allergies--there was no spring here until the week I showed up, it stopped snowing and the sun came out so things just bloomed overnight...literally). Mom says he snores like a full grown man at night..so Kathie referred him to an ENT (we think he may have sleep apnea). So hopefully he goes and the ENT can help open up his sinuses, which will help little Trevon make his nasal sounds (he can't say m, n, or ng)...
ReplyDeleteI also never thought about the fact y'all would look strange to the babies! That's funny, but I'm sure they got used to you--especially if you had their blankies :-)