What are you, chicken?

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Well I'm counting my chickens and as of today they are two! For about eleven dollars I bought two chickens in the market (live chickens, not the kind wrapped in saran wrap in the frozen section of the supermarket). The plan is to raise chicks for fresh eggs and after they "beef up" abit, I plan to enhance my diet with a variety of tasty white meats:) I took this picture because, for some reason I'm not ashamed or embarrased to prove to you that, I am now the (proud) owner of two chicks:)

As far as my dogs go, I'm sorry to say that my remaining dog, McCain passed away yesterday morning. She was so depressed, she wouldn't eat or drink. She died peacefully and for that reason I'm partly glad that she won't suffer from the loss of her brother and sister any longer.

At the hospital, work has been going well. Today I saw about twenty patients in the clinic, which has been about the average number of patients I see in clinic each day. In my down time I pass through the maternity ward or go to ultrasound to scan pregnant, and gyn patients.

There were a couple of interesting patients. One patient came to me telling me she had a 9 month pregnancy with symptoms consistent with an upper respiratory tract infection. She told me that she had been feeling fetal movement up until the last week. She showed me her antenatal clinic card which had documented her antenatal clinic appointments for the past few months. On exam she was obese and had a slightly distended abdomen, although I couldn't feel the fundus of the uterus. I scanned the patient and it looks like for the past nine months, her "pregnancy" was in fact an ovarian mass! The uterus was normal size and the cavity was empty. I informed the patient that unfortunately she won't be expecting to deliver a baby any time soon.

Yesterday I received a not-so pleasant surprise from Tanesco (Tanzania's Electrical Supply Company). One of the electricians came to my house and literally pulled the plug on my electricity. He told my housekeeper that he was cutting my electricity because I haven't paid any of my bills since I arrived in the house in September. (None of the bills had ever reached my house or the hospital btw). So today I went to Tanesco and received a bill for the months of October through December which totaled about twenty-six dollars. I also received my bill for the month of January which came to about one hundred dollars. I laughed when I saw the amount of the bill and argued with the manager, but he insisted that the amount is correct. To make a long story short, I now have electricity again and I am waiting to hear from the hospital as to whether or not they will reimburse me for the cost of electricity.

Tomorrow is an OP (operating day). It will be a light OR day as we are preparing to move into the newly constructed operating room. I have one case scheduled - a rescue cerclage for a woman with an "incompetant cervix". She has a pregnancy of twenty-two weeks with a cervix dilated 3 centimeters (and no preterm contractions).

Sorry for such a lengthy note today. I think I've cheered up a bit since the death of (all of) my dogs this week:( And in addition, I'd like to ask you the following question - What are you, Chicken? Bwak Bwak!:)