"There's no 'maybe' in medicine"

6/4/14
Today was by far the interesting in terms of medical cases I was exposed to.  When we arrived at the hospital we went to a meeting with all the doctors about violence, suicide, murder, rape, etc. and how to fill out forms regarding these matters.  Then we went with Dr. Lyapa and saw the OPD patients.  Nothing really new came up here, one man had an STI and needed to be tested for HIV, while many of the patients were coming in for hypertension follow-ups.  I enjoy taking blood pressure, but the number of hypertensive patients is through the roof and is starting to get old.

Early in the afternoon, we went to the other OPD building to the minor surgery room and watching and assisted with some procedures.  One man had an external stabilizing brace drilled into his leg with some of the muscle protruding from the skin (this was from a motorcycle accident).  He was coming back to get it redressed, the problem is, many patients do not have their wounds redressed as often as the need to be, and instead of every day, the gauze is changed about once a week.  This makes infections and sepsis really common.  A little boy, about 5 years old, came in with a fractured radius or ulna (can't remember) just above the wrist.  I got to assist in this procedure and the doctor had me take his thumb and fingers and pull very hard to realign the bone.  Of course the boy wasn't on any painkillers and he screamed and cried while I did this and the doctor wrapped his arm in a cast.  He was a real trooper, poor guy.

In the afternoon, most of us went and played soccer and then came back to the house for a global health tutorial on the transmission of HIV from mother to child, what is called MTCT.

I finally ended the day by going on the night shift in the obs and gyney department.  This was really amazing because we got to see the end of a C-section with twins and another 2 full C-sections after that.  The doctors all let us take videos and photos of the operation, as well as selfies with them, which was really cool.  Definitely an incredible experience to see how they pull the baby out and hold it upside down by its feet... and definitely not the care I was expecting.  Such an exhausting day, like always, but tonight made it especially worth it.