Getting wet!

Monday November 1st

Its been very wet today with rumbling thunder in the background as I write this. I have to time my trips back and forth between the guest house and the hospital carefully to avoid getting soaked!

Its been another busy day for me having an LP, chest aspiration and paracetesis (draining fluid from someone’s abdomen) all within an hour at one stage. There are so many young people in their teens and 20s with serious problems which are difficult to get to the bottom of without suitable testing facilities. An example is a 14 year old boy jaundiced with a very large liver and a lot of fluid in his abdomen for whom the blood test for hepatitis B is prohibitive at 15,000/= (around £4.50).

One of the things I am struggling with is the approach of some of the junior doctors While very experienced  they tend to go through things quite quickly and assumptions sometimes get made about what is wrong with people and they can seem very defensive when there is discussion or some disagreement about the best management. Im trying to be very relaxed about it as I know TIA (“This Is Africa”) and everything has a feel of absolute chaos at times but my Mzungu mind still is keen to try to introduce some order and logical thought into proceedings!

This woman in 20s had very nasty herpes simplex (cold sores) all aound her left ear and upper lip

A quick test done on the ward showed she was HIV negative. Her immune system is probably suppressed due to malaria. She recovered well with a course of the anti viral drug Aciclovir.