Kanga

Here I am at Chemchemi (sp?) the pond where I go to swim in the afternoons. I just arrived after a 45 minute walk along a dirt road. I usually listen to my ipod along the way, sometimes to music other times to medical lectures that I have downloaded.... I have about three weeks of obgyn lectures downloaded on the ipod so the long walk is a perfect time to study :)

Its difficult to see in the picture, but the priests are swimming in the pond behind me. Its just after 4 pm and a perfect time to swim. It was a beautiful day today, probably in the low 80s, and then cooled off to maybe mid 70s by the time I walked home.

Today I started in maternity rounding on labor and delivery/antepartum/postpartum and then went to the theatre as usual. There was a vaginal hysterectomy on the surg. schedule today which I was looking forward to doing. After I finished in maternity I went to the theatre hoping to find the patient, but I saw the general surgeon already in the middle of the case, actually almost done. I was a little disappointed, because vaginal hysterectomies are not that common and I was looking forward to doing it, but the surgeon told me she had to cancel the first case because of a fever, and not to worry I would have plenty of opportunities in the future...... After the case, maternity was quiet so I just assisted the surgeon on the remaining cases today - a herniorraphy, followed by the removal of an obvious cancerous tumor from the buttocks of an elderly lady. Finally a toe amputation in a young girl after a snake bit her and caused gangrene and osteomyelitis. The girl was amazing in the sense that she was so calm and appreciative of everything the hospital staff was doing for her, in the moments before she was about to loose her big toe!

As a generalization, patients here are alot more appreciative of the care they receive compared to those in the States, which is definitely nice. Side tracking a bit - its interesting that although patients get preop counseling on all the risks/benefits/indications to surgery there is no consent form that is signed. I guess I should not be that surprised given that I am working in Africa, but still the documentation of informed consent is a big deal.

Its a three for one special today, with three pictures. I was hoping to put the pic without the shirt on beneath the other one, as a before and after, but I can't figure this blogger posting picture thing out.

The top picture is of a Kanga; A Kanga is a lizard that looks exactly like a crocodile or alligator only about 10 or 20 times smaller.

There is a baby kanga that lives in Chemchemi. I almost tripped over him when I arrived because I did not see him in the sun while he was sunbathing. After a little while he jumped in the water and I swam with him to the other side of the pond.

This evening I did not make it to the kitchen in time to tell the sister that I wanted to eat in the Abbey because I did not have any food in the house, so I went to the one and only restaurant in Ndanda, Subiaku. Some nights they play music, tonight they had live music because there was some sort of hospital party.

I'm taking surgical call tomorrow. So I'm going to go to sleep early tonight. I'm not sure what to expect on surgical call - it could be an adventure! I'll keep you posted! Again, thanks for writing comments; Hope all is well in North America!