Day 10

Day 10

I spent the morning in minor theatre and there wasn’t much going on at first. A woman who had come in previously was back to have her stitches removed. She came in with knife wounds and I redressed her last week. Basically I was just handed a scalpel blade and a needle and was left to remove the stitches that were ready to come out. I then assisted with a little girl who had a snake bite on her foot but I really just held her and hand and said “pole” (sorry) a lot. This experience was nice in that, for a moment, I was her source of comfort. Later a man came in who had been assaulted and had a severe chest wound and pneumothorax ( I will investigate what this means later). He needed a chest tube so I, and about 20 other anxious students, gathered around the doctor to watch the procedure. It seemed that taking initiative was best so I tried to answer questions and be of any assistance. I left for a bit to see if any patients were waiting since all of the students were in one room and when I returned the intern asked if I wanted to suture. I’d done a teensy bit of suturing in june but it turns out that its more tricky than I thought. The face flesh is really tough and I honestly thought I was hurting this guy more, only to have the doctor tell me to push harder. Anyway it was a success and Im anxious to get more practice with it.  The take away from today is to enjoy being around other students because we are all scrubs (no pun) anyway and it makes for a good time when you admit your vulnerability and answer a question incorrectly.

The afternoon was spent in Old Town, a market area that had a lot of cool products and spices. I love the feeling of being around people hustling and bustling about. It is also Ramadan now so we wore long skirts out of respect for the very vast Muslim population in Mombasa. It was interesting for me to make the decision about whether to where the skirt or not but in the end I decided that an extra-dose of modesty would not offend Jesus. I think this falls under the “live peaceably with all men” portion.

Picture time!