Day 16

It is amazing to me that it is already day 16, those first few days seemed to really drag by but now it seems they were just the tug of the rubber band being pulled back and now I have been shot into hyper speed. I stayed at the hospital for a longer day today, in the event that we had some interesting patients come in the afternoon. I did get to watch as a 2 day old baby had her extra fingers and toes removed. She came in with 12 fingers and 11 toes and left with the standard set. I spent time talking with her father who also has the abnormality and he explained how he would never want his baby to endure what he had to as a child. It was sweet and I took the time to reassure him that she wouldn’t even remember this procedure. He stood anxiously waiting until the process was over and I think I was just as relieved to be finished as he was. It still amazes me that someone so small can have minor (and sometimes major) surgery. The other extreme case that I saw today was a man who had been severely assaulted and had a huge gash behind his right eye. The interesting part of this situation was that he kept trying to get up and leave as the ophthalmologist was treating him. It was a circus in there for a while. The doctors and interns just stood back as this man continued to get up and fall down. He could hardly see due to the swelling and was either drunk or suffering brain damage from the beating because he could not stand up for longer than a few seconds and fell on the same side every time. Even after receiving local anesthetic he claimed that they were hurting him and would try to leave the room. He was maybe 6’5’’ so I was a little hesitant about getting too close. In the end, the doctor was able to get sutures in and we wheeled him back to casualty to await his further treatment. Everything else was just the typical day in minor, a lot of redressing and removing sutures. I was thanked profusely by a man when I took half an hour to remove his sutures. Here I am thinking that I should get a move on it and all he has to say at the end is that he can see I am going to be a good doctor because I took my time and made sure not to hurt him. It’s the little things, I tell you. I did see Beatrice again and her injuries are greatly improving. The take away from today is to make sure I have a snack if I am going to stick around for an 8 hour day. It is chapatti day at the house though, so I’m sure the feeling won’t last. I’ll log this in under the “taking care of others requires taking care of yourself” category.

Eye wound

                                        in the middle of trying to get a handle on our escapee

                                                                 Beatrice on the first day

Beatrice today :)