Let the Medicine Begin

Before I log off for the night I thought I should let you know that I've also started my 'medical elective' part of things. I need to go soon but will give you a taste. I arrived at 8:00 and we began with ward rounds - things are very relaxed and nothing like Canada but I'm learning heaps. To give you an idea of things that I've seen I will list them. On the first day I saw (with the doctor - I'm basically shadowing at the moment, participating in some of the history taking):
- Malaria, almost everyone has malaria
- Diabetes (multiple people with diabetic ulcers, diabetic foot, amputations)
- A woman with 7 perforations of the terminal ileum due to Typhoid (enteric) fever
- A family with schistosomiasis
- Amoebic Dysentery
- A necrotizing snake bite - the doctore debrided and area about 15cm square on the back of this boys hand.
- Multiple cases of septic arthritis
- Hypertension
- Saw a woman who was expecting (that had malaria)
- Several cases of ring worm (tinea capitis for the medical nerds out there)
- The doctor drained an abscess of several mililitres of purulent green pus and blood in the arm of a 2 year old.
- Saw a woman who hasn't been taking her AIDS medications properly
- A woman and child with SEVERE burns that are now healing and the dressings were being changed.

Today we did round and three minor surgeries and saw:
- Malaria like you wouldn't believe (kids have febrile convulsions because of the malaria sometimes)
- Conjunctival haemorrhage due to excessive coughing.
- A girl wil full sickle trait (homozygous) with a sickling crisis
- An infant with an infected cord
- Another necrotizing snake bite

Then for the surgeries - the doctor repaired a small epigastric hernia, did one side of a bilateral inguinal hernia, and removed a 1cm sessamoid bone from the medial side of the proximal phalanx of the middle digit - all in a days work.

Then we went for lunch and watched a football (soccer game). Speaking of soccer - the score is still 0-0 but this is perhaps one of the more significant cultural events while I'm here and I don't want to miss it. I hope all is well in your respective corners and will write more as time allows.