Watoto...

...means "children" in swahili.

Unlike the beginning of my rotation here, the past week or so, we've had relatively few patients on Ward 3 (meaning only 2 patients per bed instead of 3 or 4). So, we've been getting done with rounds fairly early and I've been spending a lot more time in the Sally Test pediatric center with the kids.

Sally Test is basically a very large classroom on the pediatric side of the hospital. It was built as a place for the kids in the hospital to come and play, read stories, have snacks, etc. It's also where we have parent education classes every Monday and Friday. (I did yet another one yesterday, on sickle cell disease. Luckily I had just presented this topic to my ward team, so I had recently read about it.) It's fully stocked with all kinds of books and toys, and there's even a very nice outside area with jungle gyms and swings where the kids can go play. So yeah, the medicine is nice and all, but I think I could just play with babies for the next 3 1/2 weeks. Some of our more colorful characters:

Diana. Diana is 2 1/2 and EVERYONE in the hospital knows here. She is HIV positive, abandoned, malnourished, and had been living at MTRH long before I got here. She is on Lorein's side of the pediatric wards, and Lorein fell in love with Diana the moment she saw her, so we've all been getting daily Diana updates. When I first met her, she was the saddest little baby I had ever seen. She would just sit in her crib all day, staring out into nothing. Not interacting, not talking, not walking, no normal toddler stuff. Well, since she's been getting appropriate nutrition and medical care, she's turned into a completely different kid. She refuses to stay in her crib anymore, and spends her whole day toddling around Sally Test playing, eating, and generally getting spoiled. Whenever anyone new walks in, she runs up to them and cries until she is picked up. She has just recently learned to walk, and she is just fascinated with her newly-found independence. She walks around and around and around Sally Test, no destination in particular, she just loves to walk. I played with Diana for almost 2 hours today, and she is just the most precious baby. Very curious, very playful, and very demanding; she thinks she's much bigger than she is (she likes to try climbing to the top of the big kids' slide by herself). This is a baby who could really use a good home. I hope she finds one. (The picture above is of me and Diana in Sally Test).

Kevin. I've mentioned Kevin before. He was like Diana was at first, so sad, so withdrawn, just sitting in his crib all day. Well, on Monday, as soon as I walked into the wards, I noticed that someone was singing a gibberish song at the top of their lungs. It was Kevin. He was standing up in his crib, naked as a jaybird, just singing as loud as he could. He was also jumping up and down and banging the crib against the wall, then scooting it away from the wall (reminded me of something Brant used to do all the time as a kid!). Clearly he's feeling much better. After being relieved of various parasites and getting regular meals, who can blame him. So Kevin has been accompanying his brother Phillip to Sally Test for 2 days now. Like Diana, he is still much delayed in the areas of walking and speech, though he was motoring around pretty good today when he had someone to hang on to him. (It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it). He and I played stacking blocks today. We would stack them way high then knock them down. A very amusing game for a 3 year old. I'll have to take my camera back to the hospital with me, so I can get some pictures of new & improved Happy Kevin.

Phillip, Kevin's 5 year old brother. This kid is Ornery with a capital Rotten. He just LOVES to pick on his brother. Tease him, pinch him, steal his toys -- normal brother stuff. However, he gets VERY angry whenever anyone else picks on Kevin. Today when we were on our way in from the playground, Kevin fell down. Phillip turned around, helped him up, and held his hand as they both walked back into Sally Test together. It was so adorable I almost cried. Again, 2 kids who would do superbly in a good home. I hope they can get placed together.

There are also quite a few infants -- all abandoned -- that live in Sally Test. "My" baby is Zawadi, which means "gift" in swahili. He's 6 months old and cute as a button. Priti's baby is Blessing; she's a little older, maybe 2 months. So many babies that need good, permanent homes.

We also lost a patient overnight. His name was James, he was 8 and he had Hodkin's lymphoma. Usually kids with Hodkin's do pretty well, but he had "lymphocyte depleted" type Hodgkin's, which usually has a pretty poor prognosis. He'd been here at least as long as I have, gotten multiple rounds of chemo, but just was not responding. He was severely wasted and no longer eating or drinking, in addition to having jaundice and a huge mass in his abdomen that was probably metastatic disease. Yesterday we had just begun the discussion of sending him home with morphine, but he died before anything was settled. A very sad situation, especially for his dad, who was (of course) a very nice guy. But, this is another one of those kids who suffered so much, and we can only rejoice now that his suffering is over.