The past few days have been a blur.....work wise it has been really busy. Was on call Monday - started the day with a TAH (total abdominal hysterectomy) for symptomatic fibroids, followed by salpingectomy for ruptured ectopic. Call itself was busy until about 11 with two cesarian sections. Then received the dreaded call at 4:30am from male surgical ward to see a man who was in a fight with severe lesions to his scalp and small skull fracture. We brought him to the theatre for surgical toilet but he died today, probably large intracranial bleed.....
Yesterday as well as today were both fairly busy....one ruptured ectopic yesterday and another today (total of 3 ruptured ectopics in the last 3 days).....either I'm a ruptured ectopic magnet or there is a much higher incidence of ruptured ectopics in southern Tanzania; i think the latter because there is definitely a higher incidence of PID (pelvic inflammatory disease) here which is a risk factor for ectopic pregnancy!
A little bit of excitement today.....one of the doppler ultrasounds arrived from Dar (Hospital administrator brought one, the other two will arrive by truck). I introduced the doppler to the nurses and other doctor working Maternity department. The look on their faces when we tested the doppler on a laboring patient and heard the fetal heart rate was like the look of excitement a child would have opening up presents on Christmas!.....Although this doppler is a bit different than the one I had anticipated, it works fine and in my opinion will greatly improve monitoring of fetuses in laboring patients, so we can reduce infant morbidity and mortality. I feel like receiving the doppler ultrasound will be a big improvement in our level of care, but still we are making baby steps in larger goal of reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity/mortality.
On a separate note, just finished one of the best meals I've had since arriving in Tanzania. No, I didn't find a new restaurant, this meal was home-made......not by me of course. I invited two of the nurses from the maternity deparment to my house to cook and try to teach me how to cook. After about two hours of preparation and cooking they made a delicious rice pilau with meat and potatoes.....the flavors with onions/tomatoes/lime juice was excellent and they made enough food to last weeks..... While they were busy cooking I was busy taking notes and trying to remember how to prepare this meal. Its doubtful whether I can reproduce what they made, but nonetheless was an interesting experience and helped improve my Kiswahili cooking vocabulary if nothing else! When the food was ready, we ate the rice pilau/beef and potatoes along with a couple glasses of wine. Asante Waguuzi toka Wodi nane! (thank you nurses from Maternity ward!)
Yesterday as well as today were both fairly busy....one ruptured ectopic yesterday and another today (total of 3 ruptured ectopics in the last 3 days).....either I'm a ruptured ectopic magnet or there is a much higher incidence of ruptured ectopics in southern Tanzania; i think the latter because there is definitely a higher incidence of PID (pelvic inflammatory disease) here which is a risk factor for ectopic pregnancy!
A little bit of excitement today.....one of the doppler ultrasounds arrived from Dar (Hospital administrator brought one, the other two will arrive by truck). I introduced the doppler to the nurses and other doctor working Maternity department. The look on their faces when we tested the doppler on a laboring patient and heard the fetal heart rate was like the look of excitement a child would have opening up presents on Christmas!.....Although this doppler is a bit different than the one I had anticipated, it works fine and in my opinion will greatly improve monitoring of fetuses in laboring patients, so we can reduce infant morbidity and mortality. I feel like receiving the doppler ultrasound will be a big improvement in our level of care, but still we are making baby steps in larger goal of reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity/mortality.
On a separate note, just finished one of the best meals I've had since arriving in Tanzania. No, I didn't find a new restaurant, this meal was home-made......not by me of course. I invited two of the nurses from the maternity deparment to my house to cook and try to teach me how to cook. After about two hours of preparation and cooking they made a delicious rice pilau with meat and potatoes.....the flavors with onions/tomatoes/lime juice was excellent and they made enough food to last weeks..... While they were busy cooking I was busy taking notes and trying to remember how to prepare this meal. Its doubtful whether I can reproduce what they made, but nonetheless was an interesting experience and helped improve my Kiswahili cooking vocabulary if nothing else! When the food was ready, we ate the rice pilau/beef and potatoes along with a couple glasses of wine. Asante Waguuzi toka Wodi nane! (thank you nurses from Maternity ward!)
Picture above was taken in the late afternoon from the outside of the guest house in Ndanda where I normally eat dinners. There are a bunch of houses beyond the palm trees, sort of a little village where a lot of the hospital employees and families live....Only a few houses are visible but I liked the reflection of the sun against the "forest" of trees in the background.
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