After the Match

A lot has happened over the past week or so, making it difficult to attend to a blog. I have been walking home from Selian a lot this past week, and have noticed I am on my last belt notch now- going to have to start eating more for dinner!


Selian: I have bounced around hospice care and medicine wards again last week. Beginning in March the hospital changed from private Lutheran to a government hospital (with no shift in the Lutheran function). The basic change is that children, pregnant women and the elderly are provided FREE care, with small bills for items such as linens, etc. There has been the anticipated increase in patient load, and this is likely to continue for some time. One disadvantage to the timing of this is that when ALMC (the new Lutheran hospital) opened, they took several of the most qualified team members with them- nursing, clerical, attending doctors. Selian has scrambled to rebuild, but it will take time. The hospice patient I described last week with HIV/Kaposis ended up having pulmonary TB as well. He died last Saturday afternoon, likely from the kaposis and TB disturbing his lung function. It was a very sad time in chapel when I heard about it during morning report. He presented so late in the disease course that there was not much we could do, and he was too sick to transfer to KCMC for the chemotherapy he needed. This past Tuesday I helped orient 2 new students from New Zealand. The pic posted here of Selian is from just outside the chapel- looking in the background you can see Mt Meru!

The Match: There has been a lot of excitement this past week leading up to Thursday evening (we found out at 8 PM). With Laura and Charlie leaving for home on Monday I took Wednesday afternoon through Monday off. Thursday morning we walked into town for some food and also bought a nice bottle of Jameson and Johnnie Walker whiskey to celebrate. They were nice to help calm the nerves during the final hours. We had several people over for dinner- Mat & Jane, David & Julian (new zealand med students), Mark & Linda. Bryant, Laura and I made some chicken masala and lentil indian dishes for dinner. After we found out we were very happy to find out we were going to stay in Minnesota at Regions Hospital in St Paul. Since then I have received several emails from the program welcoming me- very nice to feel wanted!

Public Health: I have lately been working on a project for my public health degree related to malaria. I am hoping that I can use it to complete my MPH degree. Right now I am basically looking through last years lab book and taking noted on all the patients who had malaria slides taken. Were they + or - for malaria, how many slides completed, etc. Then I start looking through their files to see if they were given anti-malarial medications, ever had a real temperature, etc. The reason for all this investigation is because I noticed that malaria was diagnosed here in almost every person, even if there was not a scientific reason for it. The hope would be to eventually create a study that would help them test malaria better or treat more appropriately.

Life: Last night we went to an outdoor bbq and movie night. Sarah hung a sheet in her back yard and we watched "The Gods Must Be Crazy", that is until the power went out at 9... Laura and Charlie left for home last night. We had a very fun morning together, and spent the last few days spending a lot of time together. I am noticing their absence though- not being woke up at 6:45 every morning to "Hi!" from Charlie in the crib right next to us for one thing.