5 Days until Kenya!!!

I am now 5 days away from my trip to Kenya! This past weekend I moved into a new apartment so I haven't had much time to focus on packing for my trip. Now that I'm all moved in my sights are set on Kenya!

A little more about the program... I will be a student at the Center for Wildlife Management Studies in Public Health.

I will be arriving in Kenya through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi. From the airport I will meet up with the entire group and drive for about 4 hours to Kilimanjaro Bush Camp (KBC), where I will be staying for the duration of my trip.

KBC is located on the slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro and 25 km to Oloitokitok town on the Kenya/Tanzania border. On a clear day there will be an excellent view of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The camp is fenced within 25 acres of a 60 acre piece of land. The camp has spacious grounds with student bandas, chumba, office block and staff houses. There will be approximately 28 students in the program, and I will be living with 3 other students in a shared cottage (banda).

The program is an intensive five weeks field based course that will be conducted among the Maasai community. I will be involved in designing and implementing a household health survey; in analyzing data and preparing a report. I will have the opportunity to present and discuss the survey findings with community members to identify follow-up health interventions.

I will have limited access to internet and other forms of communication, but I will try and make as many postings as I can! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Summer Update

For the past week I have been bandage free! Yay! My nose is feeling much better...I can breath better already and the swelling is almost down. It's still a little sore, but it's been very manageable.

Last Thursday I took the MCAT. (AH!) I won't find out my score for 30 days... probably a good thing so that I won't have to worry about it until then! I feel like I didn't do the best, but worse case, I retake it. No big deal!

Now that the surgery and MCAT is behind me, I am looking forward to my trip to Kenya! I leave in 11 days!!! Woohoo!!! On Monday I had lunch with the girls from Madison who are going on the trip with me. We ate at Buraka, which is a restaurant that serves African cuisine. I had the traditional Kenyan dish and beer (yummm). A little preview for the weeks to come! I can't wait! I have gotten almost all of the supplies that I need for my trip now too, so close to being ready :)

Today is the first day that I finally felt a little better!  I'm still really sleepy and sore, but at least I was able to sit up and move around a bit. My bruising is starting to get a lot better as well. As you can see in my picture I don't look quite as black and blue today. I can NOT wait to get my cast off on Friday! Tomorrow I decided that to cheer myself up I'm going to get a much overdo haircut :) and maybe even spend some time outside with a friend yay!

Post-Op

I didn't write sooner because I'm feeling pretty awful. The surgery went well, it just took a lot out of me :( I'm dealing though--thank god for pain meds and sleep. My swelling has gone down a bit since the first day after surgery, but I'm still really clogged up in my nose. Breathing through my nose right now is non-existent, but after I'm all healed up I should be breathing better than before! 

random

Tonight we rented "He's just not that into you". What a great movie haha It's about time that women stop telling each other bullshit and just tell the truth when a guy obviously isn't into them.

Tomorrow I go in for my surgery, stay tuned for more updates on that!

Surgery

After years of nose bleeds and restless nights not being able to breathe properly, I have made the choice to get surgery! Tomorrow I have my pre-op visit...finding out exactly what their going to do to me and how much pain I'm going to be in.

I was born with a deviated septum, which is a fairly common problem in many people. This means that the wall between my nostrils is crooked. I cannot breath at all out of one nostril and because the septum is pushed to one side it tends to get dried out and crack--causing nose bleeds.

Growing up I was known to have nose bleeds, which can be embarrassing and really annoying. It's safe to say that for a long span of time I would have daily nosebleeds. One memorable nose bleed occurred on the trip back from a shopping excursion a couple hours from my hometown. It began to bleed in the car and I soon exhausted all of the available kleenex. Well, me not wanting to cause a fuss played it off and held my head over a shopping bag for the remainder of the trip. I watched as it became more and more full. Needless to say, the bleed lasted the drive and by the end I had a few inches of blood in the bag.

Nowadays, my breathing is the main issue. I have a lot of problems breathing out of my nose especially when I lay down. Most nights I sleep with my mouth open...waking up to a wonderful desert mouth and scratchy throat (yay).

This brings me to my decision to have surgery. I went in for my first consultation about 2 weeks ago, and signed my self up for the soonest surgery date! After listening to my doctor describe some of the other imperfections of my nose, I decided that it would be a good idea to fix those things as well. (It helps that insurance will cover it!) I have small hump on my nose and a prolonged tip--Years of contact sports didn't help this department. This means that I will be getting a "septo-rhinoplasty". A brand, spanking new nose!

Let the blogging begin!

I never thought it would be this easy to start my own blog! This could be addicting...