Keeping busy

Tuesday October 26^th

Another full day. There has been much to see and do on the medical wards which are definitely becoming my main area of responsibility. One man admitted this afternoon almost certainly has a brain tumour but there is no CT head scanner (in fact there are still no xrays due to the kamikazee rat who shorted out the transformer for the machine) here so one has to do the best that one can. On a happier note a 14 year old boy who was admitted last week with cerebral malaria and a haemaglobin of only 2.8 (should be 12 or more) at admission went home today and seemed fully recovered.  I was hoping to do a caesarean section myself today but the woman proved to have a ruptured uterus and bladder requiring a complex repair most of which was undertaken but someone at the same level as ST1 (that is just over 2 years since qualifying!) It is certainly amazing the level of skills and competence of the junior doctors here at the moment. Overall there is a very good and supportive relationship between all the doctors which is very encouraging to see and very helpful to me trying to fit in in a useful way for such a relatively short time.