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When I left art college and began working in a design studio full time I would occasionally moonlight as an illustrator away from the office. I had a couple freelance jobs here and there, but never enough to warrant me working as a full time illustrator. My dream back then was to illustrate children’s books. 

Today while I was trying to write my last assignment for 2009 I went hunting on my external hard drive for a previous lab report I had written earlier in the year. I ended up getting way off course and navigated my way into some really old files from back in my illustrating days. I came across one artwork I started but never actually finished. It wasn’t a commissioned piece, just something I started for fun. I looked at the specs on the file and, to my surprise, it was originally created in 2004. I had let it sit unfinished for 5 years! I got sick of my assignment so I took the afternoon off and finished what I started. Click thumbnail for larger view.

Last friday I was in a science lecture and the presenter briefly touched on a pathology called aortic dissection, a nasty piece of work indeed. I got the impression it wasn’t part of her original seminar and that she just seemed to spear off in a different tangent that lead to her talking about it. Good thing she did.

Last night I walked onto the cardiothoracic unit to start my shift and the nurse giving handover was telling me about this one particular patient. You can probably see where this is going. He had, you guessed it, early onset of aortic dissection. Going back to the lecture, I initially thought the chances of this pathology happening would be pretty low, let alone me ever nursing a patient who had it.

Unfortunately there was nothing the doctors were prepared to do. The patient had also consented to NFR, which says a lot about how the individual perceives their state of being. During the night I had to monitor systolic blood pressure manually Q2H. As sad as this sounds, I think last night was the first night I have taken BP manually since beginning work at PCH. It’s all too easy to just grab the automatic machine. He was ordered stat doses of Ca2+ channel and beta blockers throughout the night as his systolic was a good 50 mmHg above the reference range the doctors would have liked.

Honestly, it was one of the worst shifts I’ve had. I’ve had a couple times in the past whereby the person I’m looking after is a person on borrowed time. It’s not a nice feeling at all. How can you look at someone in the eyes knowing they could go at any moment? Even worse is when the person looks back at you and knows it.

Aortic dissection, basically, is the ripping of the tunica intima, the inner layer of the aorta. Over time (and also taking into account lifestyle factors) plaque builds up and clings to the tunica intima. When a decent build up of plaque has formed and is compounded with hypertension then you get resistance against the plaque that is attached to the tunica intima. If the force is prolonged then turbulent blood flow can get underneath and begin ripping the plaque away from the wall of the aorta, generally taking the wall of the aorta with it. Sadly, when that happens, death is within seconds as the contents of systemic circulation spills out into the chest cavity.

They didn’t really promote days like this during orientation to nursing studies and it’s not something I really think about. When I took handover at the start of my shift I was ready to walk out right then and there. It certainly gives one a renewed outlook on life, coming home from a shift like that. It certainly makes one appreciative of family, friends, and this life that God has given us.

Are you ready for CHOGM? During the lead up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala this question was on the lips of every Ugandan national. I remember I was in the east of the country during the build-up, only two hours from Kampala. You could not walk down Main Street in Jinja without a national on a motorbike yell out “Hey mzungu, are you ready for CHOGM!?” I walked passed a guy mowing his lawn and with a smile and a wave he yelled out, “I’m getting ready!” To be honest Uganda was never ready for CHOGM, despite the hype and anticipation of the people. 

The question had to be beckoned, where was the money coming to fund the new roads, construction for fancy hotels for the diplomats, a brand new imported Mercedes fleet, and a general wash and wax of the capital? It was fast becoming the biggest high-roller weekend in the country’s history, and sadly the people were not the one’s to benefit.

What irks me is that you can drive a few hours in any direction of Kampala and you are hit with the sight, smells, and sounds of poverty. I remember there were people dying of an ebola outbreak at the same time, yet CHOGM took centre stage in the national media. The whole thing was one big facade. It was a chance for Uganda to pretty herself up before the world, to mask herself from who she really is, a country that is in need. If Uganda had just been herself, let the world see her as she really is, who knows what effect that would have had in terms of external aid. Instead, the truth was covered by fancy hotels and cars. What’s more, the money, unequivocally, could have been spent where it really mattered.

This post comes about after New Vision released this story yesterday. 

I would not have told the descendants of Jacob to seek me if I could not be found.

~ Isaiah 45:19b

I remember reading this article well over a year ago and I came across it again the other day. Such a great story.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89164759

Today, Brisbane Times covered this story about the Congolese army being involved in the murder of Rwandan refugee civilians. The story was better covered here at Reuters. What I find really hard to believe is why on earth the United Nations would integrate former Tutsi rebels, so that may well include military personnel from the old RPF (Rwandese Patriotic Front) lead by Kagame back in 1994, as part of a peace keeping collaboration with the Cogolese army. What are they thinking? Seriously. Although the Congolese army have launched operations against the Rwandan Hutu rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), I couldn’t think of anyone worse than former Tutsi rebels being involved. Sources indicate that it was a former Tutsi rebel commander that ordered this attack, and unbelievably they don’t want to bring him to justice in fear of the army losing stability, “Zimulinda’s arrest would have had worse consequences than the crimes of which he is accused” It makes you wonder if there is any room left for humanity in all this.

The Tutsi rebels will have no qualms about killing innocent people with Hutu blood, not to mention the extremists responsible for the 1994 genocide. Although, in the eyes of the Tutsi’s, it must be impossible to excuse the actions of the Hutu extremists, no one deserves what these Hutu civilians have endured, innocent or not.

“I think the general details are fairly straightforward in terms of the (army) going into a camp which was occupied largely by women, children and the elderly, carrying out a determined attempt to eliminate everyone in the camp,” said Philip Alston

“At least 50 people were killed. Some 40 women were abducted and raped. Some of those have not reappeared since,” he added.

To add insult to injury, this clown, one of the most wanted suspects in the 1994 genocide, pleaded not guilty this week.