______
This is my weekly update. Yes, it is exactly one week since I last have access to internet, as I am now physically back in Kampala, to settle some stuff and cos we are invited to dinner at the Korean missionary's home. They have also invited us to go on an outreach tomorrow, into the villages. It is definitely a new experience for me.
But indeed, the past week has been nothing short of interesting, in a different way. I am now doing my rural rotation in Wakiso Health Centre, in Busiro East district of Wakiso Town. We first arrived at the health centre on Monday afternoon, after a long wait for the driver from the university. This was something like a polyclinic, a mini hospital of sorts, for they have one doctor, who doesn't seem to see patients at all, as he is usually doing his administrative work. The main people seeing the patients are the clinical officers (they've got diploma in medicine, not doctors but something like paramedical staff) and the nurses. Here the nursing officers can prescribe. So we met the doctor in charge and of course, it was waiting for the health officer to bring us to the place of residence.
Here the accommodation is quite cheap, 10000 shillings per night, equivalent to less than SGD10. But disadvantage is that it is near a pub, so they're blasting music till 1.30am every night. (Ha, but yes, I've gotten use to all the noise in my place of residence at the university, so I can sleep despite all the noise, even when the light is on. Good training. Never used to be able to do that in Spore.) And the room here is much smaller than that which I've been staying for 5 wks. There is a small attached bathroom. But it is really really small. About slightly less than 1metre square.
Here things are more primitive. So yups, its quite rural. In Kampala, I get power failure once a week. But here, the power failure is almost everyday, then after certain time in the afternoon there is no water. At night there is not a single drop of water. So yups, they've provided jerry cans for us to store water. Interestingly, as this place has a pub, they have a backup generator. So we still have lights (if at night) when the power failure comes. Except the generator is just outside my room and they use petrol to run it so I smell it everyday. However, the light isn't fantastic. Can't really read with this light. Been using my torch and rechargeable batts ha.
So yups the main problem is with the water. Yesterday, there has been no water from the tap for more than 30 hrs ha luckily there was rain and they stored some water. So I've replenished one jerry can of water! That's all ha.
BUT no worries, people. I am fine with this living condition! ha sorta expected! Rural what! Ha this was what I wanted to experience so yups. And army has trained me well. I can choose not to bathe and still be clean! hahahahaha erps shan't go down to details. But heh interesting life here.
Eating out everyday, at the hawkers. Food here's cheaper, but the bottled water is more expensive than in kampala. But life here is really simple and interesting and slack. Cos I start seeing patients at 9 plus, then by 1plus 2 we're done and would be off for lunch and home!
Ha, yes, I get to run clinics here on our own. Not really confident at first but you soon get the hang of the things here. (erps must say it is really NOT good practice, but yups, we just do as they do here lor… can't really try much radical stuff) so got a feel of how it is like being a GP. But yes, the cases here are definitely much more interesting than GP in Spore sees. My first case was syphilis. Then hyperthyroidism. (the clinical officer gave me the ???WHAT??? look when I diagnosed hyperthyroidism. Think he'd have given some propanolol and reassurance and send the patient off.) Think: for somebody who was tachypnoeic, sick looking and not looking dehydrated, (I couldn't take any history cos of lang barrier, so I;m not sure what the patient told him) he took the blood pressure. It was 140/90 and he diagnosed it as hypertension. Treatment for this "hypertension" was IV fluids and observe. Firstly, the BP isn't all that high. It is just abit high. Then even if this was hypertension, the treatment wasn't IV fluids. And for her condition, I need to find out why she is so tachypneic and having some shortness of breath. I examined, chest was clear, everything else was fine. I couldn't take the history, so could find out no more.. So just had to agree to let the senior health officer treat it as hypertension and give IV fluids.
Many others… the first day I was full of ???? in my head. Ha but later recovered and yups, just did best what I could, using what little knowledge I have to help. At least, I saw patients with a stethoscope. The clinical officers didn't even use any. They just SEE patients. Don't even examine sometimes.
Ha feeling quite tired now, that's why this post does not seem coherent. Anyway, in SUMMARY: have adapted to the new environment pretty well and yups life is interesting!!! Looking forward to the outreach… and Kimchi!!! 4 more weeks and I'd be back!
________hmmm since i still have about 25 mins shall blog abit more...
Must really admit that i can really be quite a dirty person... cos the past few days there has been no water (luckily we usually buy bottled water to drink, so drinking is really not a problem for us...), even resorted to collecting rainwater. BUT there has not been much rain too! hahahaha the locals have the habit of storing lots of water... that explains the malaria... but i guess you cant help it given such a system. They've spared one jerry can of water for us! haha but yups i didnt bathe la haha but i got those wipes haha so im still smelling good! not tt smelly
heh and i just realised that it is the finals of the american idol soon!!!! hahahaha hmmm heard that these 2 finalists are really good. hope to watch em! i think the younger david will win! hahaha he's so good la! must tape must tape!
heh kk gg off liaoz... gg to village tomorrow for outreach. guess it should be fun ne! take care folks, i'd be back!
No comments:
Post a Comment