the 3rd week/weekend

Last week I worked with another of the volunteer Drs here. Dr Sindhu is an attending (consultant) from America and very good at her job. It was a good learning experience for me as I was allowed to take much of the consultation by myself and by the end of the week felt much more confident in forming treatment plans and constructing a consultation. She is also a good teacher and more than willing to share her wealth of knowledge.

One patient from last week that sticks in my mind was not originally one of our patients but one of the few acutely unwell patients that come through the doors of our clinic. Mrs T was suffering from pneumonia and was acutely unwell. We tried as quickly as possible to get some fluids and antibiotics into her system but found we were limited by the resources available here. The patients O2Sats were in the 80s and yet we had no oxygen, we scrambled around for a giving set to administered some fluids we had discovered. As well as giving a couple of hits of hardcore antibiotics. Eventually Mrs T began to pick up but she urgently needed to get to a hospital. Luckily our driver was on hand to transport her to the local hospital.

The next day the Drs from the clinic + me went to the local hospital for a scheduled tour. It was so interesting to see how a hospital here in Haiti operates and we were also able to see out patient from the previous day, who was doing really well and ready to go home. The hospital itself was pretty basic but they did the best with what they had. It was clean and had trained staff running it, which is a real blessing here.

On Friday we had our first death from cholera. It was a small child well know to the clinic and the team here. It was a somber atmosphere on the compound that day but also warned us that cholera season is coming. We spent saturday clearing out the cholera room for triaging other possible cases. However we have lost the funding for the cholera protocols, this means that we do not have the ability to run a proper cholera facility which could put a lot of people in danger of contamination. We do the best we can and luckily have not seen any cases that I am aware of this week but it is a daunting thought.

Saturday evening was spent in a much more upbeat manner. Some of the volunteer Drs/therapists/midwife here work with an organisation called american solidare and are from chile. They have a house round the corner and know how to throw a good impromptu dance party. So after arriving in the torrential rain and virtually having to swim to the front door (rainy season is on its way) the night was spent dancing to spanish music, which honestly all sounded the same to me. When I finally made it home at about 4:30am I was well and truly ready for sleep and ideally a kebab. Unfortunately they don't have those here!

Sunday was spent chilling on the compound with a quick trip to the supermarket. any excursion of the compound is entertaining and almost a rollercoaster ride as you battle the traffic and roads of Port-au-Prince.

Tonight I came home to find a massive spider outside the room next door to mine, NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR!!!