After all the hype of the weekend- going out dancing and getting crazy- we had to return to King Edwards for one last week of work before we went down to the Western Cape and all it had to offer. Although we had been in Durban for so long this week proved to be the best one so far, and, I think the best one I had in South Africa.
So somehow I wrangled my way into going out with the paramedics on Monday. Awesome!! I got there and met a guy named Marcus, the supervisor of the hub that I showed up to. He taught me quite a lot of interesting things about the history of SA as well as the various names for the emergency codes. Apparently the South African version of an MCI (mass casualty incident) is called an 'Echo-Delta'- he worded it as 'the sky is falling'. I'm totally going to have to put together a SA glossary for all the random phrases and abbreviations I learned. Anyways, I digress. After hanging with Marcus, I immediately got placed with an ALS paramedic named Maihen and we went out on a call for a inter-hospital transport. We sat there for like 2 hours before the guy was stable enough to be moved, but thank goodness it was blue sky sunny or I might have went crazy. After that we went to the Airport and visited the crew of Air Mercy, the SA equivalent of Life Flight. I got to see the helicptor and the plane as well as play some ping pong with the crews! Such excellent guys, it was a shame I was only able to go one day. Other than that, the day was slow. Check out the photos!
Tuesday was probably my favorite day in the whole South African trip. Tuesday morning we returned to IAL and met up with Dr. Rajaruthnam in cardiothoracics. Leanna and I immediately got taken to the operating theaters and dressed down to go into a Coronary Artery Bypass Graf (CABG)- pretty much a double bypass open heart surgery. We arrived in after the sternum had been sawed and the chest cavity was exposed. All I can say was that in the four and a half hours we were there watching, my head was spinning for three and three quarters of it, and then 45 minutes of me starting to figure out what was going on. It was incredible! They hooked the patient up to bypass and drained the heart, it was like a balloon deflating, then another doctor starts cutting the leg! I was like uhh, but then the surgeons explain that they use the saphinous vein from the leg for the bypass as there has not been a suitable artificial one created yet. Crazy huh? Apparently veins are there in sufficient number to just take one and tie it off. But anyways, it was just amazing to see the intricate suturing of a vein to the heart, using these near-microscopic needle and thread. When he got the vein sutured to the heart, they would re-inflate the heart to check the seal, then rapidly deflate it to continue. Just amazing. After what felt like 20 mins but was actually an eternity, they successfully restarted the heart then began the closing sequence. While the second surgeon was finalizing the suturing of the chest, the main one showed us an angiogram of where the blockage had occurred. As he did so he kept looking over at a panel of stats on the patient and all of a sudden he froze and stared- the patients arterial pressure had suddenly dropped to 55. He immediately started walking over to the patient holding up his hands and sharply ordering the other surgeon to 'Re-open!'. By this time he had already taken off his gloves and gown and was waiting for the sisters to re-prep him. In literally less than two minutes the patient went from fully re-sutured and bandaged to completely open, heart exposed and all. There was nothing quite like it; in that two minute window the intensity level of the OR skyrocketed and we really got to see what it took to be a professional heart surgeon. Cool, controlled, and with no hesitation whatsoever, the head surgeon took over and placed a stint in the patients femoral artery to stabilize the pressure. I have to say that seeing this procedure and the control and management of the problem after was the high point of my trip. It can get repetitive and stressful going to class everyday and studying for hours and hours every week, but moments like this one make you remember what exactly it is you are working for.
The rest of the week we spent at a TB and HIV class for the sisters at St. Marys. It was quite slow-paced but I did get some interesting statistics on SA and Swaziland HIV prevalance.
Friday: TO CAPE TOWN!!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Week 4: King Edwards and IAL!
The fourth week is once again being spent at King Edwards. Monday was spent in MOPD and mostly at the university, trying to get my laptop wired in. Slowwwwww day! Tuesday started off poorly, with a failed cardiac resuscitation following a fault with a pacemaker. I left to clear my head and went and spent some time in emergency with Drs Kugesha and Vandermerwyn. Saw an interesting thumb dislocation and x-rays of it. Had a mutton bunny for lunch, quite delicious. Also probably the reason I am sitting here writing all of these blog entries. Spent the rest of the day in CT with a lovely doctor named Muleva. Learned SO MUCH. Radiology is surprisingly interesting, I was able to learn how the CT scan works and the different angled photos it takes and how to interpret them. She showed me how to differentiate different abcesses in the brain from regular tissue, and how different contrasts can help view different problems in both bone and soft tissue. She also showed me axial scans of different patients and showed me how to differentiate air, bone, and soft tissue and explained how the machine scans by density, and how discolorations of surfaces on different internal organs can mean problems with perfusion and abcesses. This lecture was similar to the 2 hour maternity lecture by Civa at GJ Crookes, and I left with my head spinning and looking forward to sorting it out. I also managed to set up a trip with EMRS (the ambulance teams of S. Africa) for Friday! Woo woo. Definitely bringing my own masks and gloves for that one. On Thursday we went to Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital and it was INCREDIBLE! It was like being at home, and many people recommending our trip there called it 'first-world'. Built in the late 90's and opened in 2002, IALCH is probably the most modern hospital in South Africa, and one of the most advanced in the Southern Hemisphere. Leanna and I spent the day at IAL in the cardiothoracic clinic (only public one in S. Africa), with a brilliant cardiothoracic (CTRC) surgeon named Rajaruthnam, or 'Dr. Raj'. We spent our time in consultations and got to see patients with various ailments ranging from collapsed lung due to pneumothorax all the way to bronchiocarcinoma with chest wall invasion. That was quite an incredible case, we looked at the chest x-ray and Raj asked what was wrong with it. I remember saying "Where are the ribs?". He then explained how a massive tumor had built up along the right side of her chest and was literally eating away her ribs on the right side. It was a scene I will probably never forget. We also got invited back to IAL next Tuesday to go in to CTRC surgery with Raj and hopefully see some kind of heart valve replacement or bypass. We will definitely get to see something though, the waiting list is longer than 6 months! It is now Friday, and sadly I was unable to go to EMRS due to a transportation problem. Hopefully it will be rescheduled for Monday or Tuesday, and I will let you know. Today has been rather uneventful, but we did get to see the craziest CT scan of pleural and pericardial effusion with a massive abcess compressing the heart. All in one scan. It was a little bit crazy with the doctors looking at it more to see what was right than what was wrong.
ALL CAUGHT UP!! I AM STILL WORKING ON PHOTOS, APPARENTLY WE CANT UPLOAD THEM TO ANY OF THE SITES! I have over 1000 photos now, so if I am unable to get them up in Durban, I might be able to in Cape Town a week from now.
STAY TUNED, and Cheers!
-Chris
ALL CAUGHT UP!! I AM STILL WORKING ON PHOTOS, APPARENTLY WE CANT UPLOAD THEM TO ANY OF THE SITES! I have over 1000 photos now, so if I am unable to get them up in Durban, I might be able to in Cape Town a week from now.
STAY TUNED, and Cheers!
-Chris
Apparently people from Scotland have never heard of S'mores.
DRACHENSBURG AND LESOTHO!
We got picked up mid-day Friday to go to Drachensburg, a small town 3 hours north of Durban. We ended up going in a van with a Scottish family and an energetic driver named Rafael. Expecting another run-down hostel, you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at a magestic log cabin in the middle of a farm lined by green hills with horses roaming. It was incredible! See the pictures! The next day we got up and went on a 3 mile hike in the Ukhahlamba (no idea) park and learned some history of the Bushmen Zulu’s who lived there long ago. This is another one where I must refer you to the photos. We got some excellent insect photos, and a great one of a lizard I might consider submitting to NG. The scenery was incredible, with canyons and hills on either side of our walk. So fun! We also came across a suspension bridge over a small river, and for fun I decided to go across the bridge… underneath… and have the funniest picture of an ‘oh shit!’ moment of me hanging from the bridge across the water. We got a treat in the weather too, we had sunlight and blue sky the whole day!
Later that day, we went horseback riding up in the hills of Drachensburg. I had this brown horse, a lazy girl named Flash, and our guide had to keep coming back and yelling at Flash to go. Apparently I am not a horseman. It was a great day, and we had tea at the top of a large hill overlooking all of the countryside. We even went down and got to let the horses run. What an excellent transition it is from trotting to running! It was almost surreal and seemed to go in slow motion as I stood in the stirrups trying to hold the reins and not fall forward as the horse was hurtling through the field. When we got back and got off the horses I was expecting to hurt and walk funny, but for some reason it wasn’t that bad and Flash definitely seemed to be more excited getting back than leaving. We got some pretty neat photos of the whole thing, check them out!
Saturday night was probably the best night we have had so far, we played a bunch of games with the Scots and made a huge campfire and had s’mores. Apparently s’mores is an American thing, no one but us had had them before, and an Indian family living nearby were just as impressed as the Scots and Rafael was. We rocked out to different tunes on Andy’s iPod and all-in-all had a great night.
On Sunday, we got up at 8:00 and headed to Sani Pass, the no-mans-land between South Africa and Lesotho, a small kingdom-country within South Africa. Sani Pass. Just the two words make me cringe. Sani Pass is a road that goes up a valley to Lesotho. If you could even call it a road! It was like a hiking trail, and there were rocks and gouges the whole way up it. A normal car would not make it up it, the only things able to get up it were large 4x4’s. It took roughly 2 hours to make it up Sani Pass to Lesotho, and apparently the whole thing was like 14 km’s. At the top, we got our passports stamped and officially entered the Kingdom of Lesotho. See the photos for this one, the immigration office was a shack with a fence. After taking pictures, we were told by our guide that it was quite illegal and we could have gotten arrested so that we needed to put cameras away haha. “What cameras?” became our motto of Lesotho customs and we hightailed it into the country to see the border towns. The people lived in mud and rock huts (see photos) with stone and mud floors heated by a large stone fire pit in the center. It was quite an ingenious system where the whole floor became heated through an in-ground fire in the middle. The whole area was quite sad in its simplicity and in all honesty I would go quite crazy there. My photos are quite limited for this in the fact that it just felt.. wrong. The only ones I have are of houses, and the one lady who our guide knew and introduced us to. There were other tourist buses and they went right up to the people and took pictures. It just didn't seem right so we went and talked with people, leaving the cameras in their cases. After the town tour, we went to Sani Pass cafe, situated at 9400 feet and making it the highest pub in Africa. The pub sat on a bluff overlooking the whole pass and provided one of the most amazing views of the valley into South Africa. After lunch we headed back down the pass and home. The ride down was much easier than the ride up, and it took much less time. Once down, we met up with Rafael and headed home, exhausted after a long and adventurous weekend.
We got picked up mid-day Friday to go to Drachensburg, a small town 3 hours north of Durban. We ended up going in a van with a Scottish family and an energetic driver named Rafael. Expecting another run-down hostel, you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at a magestic log cabin in the middle of a farm lined by green hills with horses roaming. It was incredible! See the pictures! The next day we got up and went on a 3 mile hike in the Ukhahlamba (no idea) park and learned some history of the Bushmen Zulu’s who lived there long ago. This is another one where I must refer you to the photos. We got some excellent insect photos, and a great one of a lizard I might consider submitting to NG. The scenery was incredible, with canyons and hills on either side of our walk. So fun! We also came across a suspension bridge over a small river, and for fun I decided to go across the bridge… underneath… and have the funniest picture of an ‘oh shit!’ moment of me hanging from the bridge across the water. We got a treat in the weather too, we had sunlight and blue sky the whole day!
Later that day, we went horseback riding up in the hills of Drachensburg. I had this brown horse, a lazy girl named Flash, and our guide had to keep coming back and yelling at Flash to go. Apparently I am not a horseman. It was a great day, and we had tea at the top of a large hill overlooking all of the countryside. We even went down and got to let the horses run. What an excellent transition it is from trotting to running! It was almost surreal and seemed to go in slow motion as I stood in the stirrups trying to hold the reins and not fall forward as the horse was hurtling through the field. When we got back and got off the horses I was expecting to hurt and walk funny, but for some reason it wasn’t that bad and Flash definitely seemed to be more excited getting back than leaving. We got some pretty neat photos of the whole thing, check them out!
Saturday night was probably the best night we have had so far, we played a bunch of games with the Scots and made a huge campfire and had s’mores. Apparently s’mores is an American thing, no one but us had had them before, and an Indian family living nearby were just as impressed as the Scots and Rafael was. We rocked out to different tunes on Andy’s iPod and all-in-all had a great night.
On Sunday, we got up at 8:00 and headed to Sani Pass, the no-mans-land between South Africa and Lesotho, a small kingdom-country within South Africa. Sani Pass. Just the two words make me cringe. Sani Pass is a road that goes up a valley to Lesotho. If you could even call it a road! It was like a hiking trail, and there were rocks and gouges the whole way up it. A normal car would not make it up it, the only things able to get up it were large 4x4’s. It took roughly 2 hours to make it up Sani Pass to Lesotho, and apparently the whole thing was like 14 km’s. At the top, we got our passports stamped and officially entered the Kingdom of Lesotho. See the photos for this one, the immigration office was a shack with a fence. After taking pictures, we were told by our guide that it was quite illegal and we could have gotten arrested so that we needed to put cameras away haha. “What cameras?” became our motto of Lesotho customs and we hightailed it into the country to see the border towns. The people lived in mud and rock huts (see photos) with stone and mud floors heated by a large stone fire pit in the center. It was quite an ingenious system where the whole floor became heated through an in-ground fire in the middle. The whole area was quite sad in its simplicity and in all honesty I would go quite crazy there. My photos are quite limited for this in the fact that it just felt.. wrong. The only ones I have are of houses, and the one lady who our guide knew and introduced us to. There were other tourist buses and they went right up to the people and took pictures. It just didn't seem right so we went and talked with people, leaving the cameras in their cases. After the town tour, we went to Sani Pass cafe, situated at 9400 feet and making it the highest pub in Africa. The pub sat on a bluff overlooking the whole pass and provided one of the most amazing views of the valley into South Africa. After lunch we headed back down the pass and home. The ride down was much easier than the ride up, and it took much less time. Once down, we met up with Rafael and headed home, exhausted after a long and adventurous weekend.
Week 3: Back to Durban
Andy and I spent the third week at King Edward Hospital in Durban, while the girls spent it in Scottburgh. What made this place great was the fact that it was right next to the University of KZN School of Medicine. The whole week was spent between different departments at the hospital and lectures and labs at the university. Having an American accent here is like having an all-access pass. We were able to show up to random lectures and speak with the professors and they invited us to other courses that were part of different years curriculums! It was so excellent. I spent Monday in ultrasound with Drs Frekke and Atiesh. I learned how to identify the different anatomical organs of the abdomen through the ultrasound monitor and to better tell what was supposed to be there and what wasn’t. Despite the complex view, it turned out to be surprisingly simple once explained and repeated many times. Tuesday was spent mostly at the university, in the LAN and in a lecture on the Pleura and different complications of the Pleural space. The professor did an excellent job explaining the structures and functions of the pleura and I went down and told him so after. He then invited me and Andy to go to a dissection lab the following morning! Tuesday was also the day that I met Deenash Singh, a doctor in the MOPD who has up to this current point (Tuesday, week 4) made our stay much more enjoyable. Will discuss later. Went to the cadaver lab on Wednesday, and got to see some incredible specimens of the brain and abdomen. Was unable to spend much time there as I later had a meeting with Singh. Hung out in MOPD for an hour, then went to ER where I met Dr. Kugesha. The ER was dead that day, and Kugesha explained that Friday and Saturday nights were the time to go, especially on payday weekends. Made plans to go friday during week 4. Went to surgery later that day, saw some plaster of paris leg castings, and left. Thursday: more time in ultrasound, hung out with Singh, and hung out at university. In all honesty, Week 3 was probably the least exciting so far, but I made some great contacts. Friday we didn’t attend KEH, and got picked up at 9:30 am for the meeting with Dr. Naidoo on TB. After that we went back to the hostel to get picked up to go to Drachensburg!
What would Africa be without a safari?
SAFARI WEEKEND:
Friday, 5:30 AM: Get up, eat breakfast and stumble to the van to get taken to the hostel where we were going to get picked up by a backpacker travel van called the Baz Bus…
1:00 pm : Arrived in St. Lucia at a backpackers hostel called the Bloo House. It was literally a blue house, with a huge yard and fire pit and hammock. See the pictures! Got settled in and walked to find lunch.
4:00 pm: Water safari! Went out on a huge boat looking for hippos and alligators and storks and cranes, all of which we found! The hippos were my favorite, they just chilled in the water and watched us all go by. See the pictures! To quote Andy: “[it was] better than hdtv!”
8:00 pm: Dinner at this marvelous seafood restaurant, the name of which eludes me. I have taken quite the liking to fried calamari, not sure how, but it is damned good. The pictures apparently only showed quarter portions so I ordered two of one thing, thinking it was another, had like 3 meals worth of fish and chips. Even better, food is so cheap here the whole thing only cost me like $15. Meals here are never ever more than $20, and that is for like a huge steak and potatoes and at least two drinks. Most full sit-down restaurant meals cost less than $10, I’m loving it here.
10:00 pm: Chilled by the campfire, then went to bed to crash for the next mornings safari.
Saturday, 5:30 am: up and dressed, get to the gate for pickup to head to Hluhluhwe wildlife reserve! It took a good while to learn how to say that word, it is pronounched ‘Shluh-shloo-ee’ and not the ‘huh-louie-louie’ that we had grown quite fond of saying. Oh man, Zulu is fun. Try saying ‘Xhosa’ or ‘Nxobile’. My favorite is ‘Nxamamanga’. I’ll try to upload some audio clips!
8:00 am: Arrived at Hluhluhwe, hell bent on seeing elephants, rhinos, impalas, monkeys, and lions! See the photo album, words can’t describe this one.
11:00 am: Got to the management offices in the middle of the park right in time to seeing monkeys opening a window and stealing all the food inside! It was so funny seeing monkeys walk out with bags of chips. They went into the trees and I have the best picture of a monkey eating from a bag of chips he stole from the office. Rick, our guide, was pissed off about it, but we all thought it was quite funny.
12:00 pm: Lunch! We had a barbecue with steaks, sausages, and macaroni salad. In South Africa, barbecues are called braai’s, and it was probably one of the better bbq/braai’s I have ever had.
4:00 pm: Arrived back in St. Lucia with four hours to kill before going on our night safari! Cruised around St. Lucia and ate dinner.
8:00 pm: Night safari! Went out in a big truck careening through fields in search of the nocturnal wildlife. Our driver was great, he flew through the fields in the black of the night with the wheel in one hand, a spotlight in the other. There was one moment where he found a herd of buffalo and killed the engine and as the buffalo ran we rolled downhill with them, it was like being part of the herd! So awesome. The spotter was pro also, they were able to find frogs and even aardvarks just by the sparks of their eyes! It was great, check out the pictures! I even got to hold a chameleon!
11:00 pm: Back in St. Lucia, went to the local pub to play some pool against the locals. Marjon and I were unbeatable, going 3-0 before deciding to call it a night.
Sunday, 10:00 am: Ok there might be some discrepancies with my time here, they are all guesses due to the fact my watch broke and I hadn’t been journalizing. We all head to the Baz Bus and leave roughly around 11.
1:00 pm: Bus won’t go over 20 km/hr. Yes, that is like 12 miles per hour. Driver has to keep pulling over. Overheating? Fluids? Leanna, some Swiss guy, and myself are determined to find out.
1:30 pm: Alternator is shot. Bus can’t go faster than 20 kmh, and we are still 2 hours from Durban. Driver doesn’t know how bus works. Persuade driver to stop at hostel in Sloweh? Might be different name. Driver says bus is going to keep going until it stops, then get another bus to get us. All passengers get off at hostel and refuse to get back on. I call the bus manager, he is a jerk and says VW is wrong and the bus is fine, instructs driver to continue until bus breaks down. Says next bus will come Tuesday! Hostel bartender shakes head and gives us free drinks till the next bus decides to come.
1:45 pm: Driver leaves us at hostel! I call Roy (our hospital driver) and tell him to call Baz Bus and figure out how the hell we are going to get home.
1:55 pm: Baz Bus manager learns all passengers got off and the same bus returns! Driver is furious when we again tell him we won’t get on and get stranded. I am amazed bus is still going.
2:10 pm: Driver again leaves, and hostel manager organizes transport in two mercedes for all of us to get home.
5:00 pm: FINALLY back in Durban. Say peace out to the Swiss and head home with Roy.
All in all, great time. "Even better than HDTV" - Andy.
Friday, 5:30 AM: Get up, eat breakfast and stumble to the van to get taken to the hostel where we were going to get picked up by a backpacker travel van called the Baz Bus…
1:00 pm : Arrived in St. Lucia at a backpackers hostel called the Bloo House. It was literally a blue house, with a huge yard and fire pit and hammock. See the pictures! Got settled in and walked to find lunch.
4:00 pm: Water safari! Went out on a huge boat looking for hippos and alligators and storks and cranes, all of which we found! The hippos were my favorite, they just chilled in the water and watched us all go by. See the pictures! To quote Andy: “[it was] better than hdtv!”
8:00 pm: Dinner at this marvelous seafood restaurant, the name of which eludes me. I have taken quite the liking to fried calamari, not sure how, but it is damned good. The pictures apparently only showed quarter portions so I ordered two of one thing, thinking it was another, had like 3 meals worth of fish and chips. Even better, food is so cheap here the whole thing only cost me like $15. Meals here are never ever more than $20, and that is for like a huge steak and potatoes and at least two drinks. Most full sit-down restaurant meals cost less than $10, I’m loving it here.
10:00 pm: Chilled by the campfire, then went to bed to crash for the next mornings safari.
Saturday, 5:30 am: up and dressed, get to the gate for pickup to head to Hluhluhwe wildlife reserve! It took a good while to learn how to say that word, it is pronounched ‘Shluh-shloo-ee’ and not the ‘huh-louie-louie’ that we had grown quite fond of saying. Oh man, Zulu is fun. Try saying ‘Xhosa’ or ‘Nxobile’. My favorite is ‘Nxamamanga’. I’ll try to upload some audio clips!
8:00 am: Arrived at Hluhluhwe, hell bent on seeing elephants, rhinos, impalas, monkeys, and lions! See the photo album, words can’t describe this one.
11:00 am: Got to the management offices in the middle of the park right in time to seeing monkeys opening a window and stealing all the food inside! It was so funny seeing monkeys walk out with bags of chips. They went into the trees and I have the best picture of a monkey eating from a bag of chips he stole from the office. Rick, our guide, was pissed off about it, but we all thought it was quite funny.
12:00 pm: Lunch! We had a barbecue with steaks, sausages, and macaroni salad. In South Africa, barbecues are called braai’s, and it was probably one of the better bbq/braai’s I have ever had.
4:00 pm: Arrived back in St. Lucia with four hours to kill before going on our night safari! Cruised around St. Lucia and ate dinner.
8:00 pm: Night safari! Went out in a big truck careening through fields in search of the nocturnal wildlife. Our driver was great, he flew through the fields in the black of the night with the wheel in one hand, a spotlight in the other. There was one moment where he found a herd of buffalo and killed the engine and as the buffalo ran we rolled downhill with them, it was like being part of the herd! So awesome. The spotter was pro also, they were able to find frogs and even aardvarks just by the sparks of their eyes! It was great, check out the pictures! I even got to hold a chameleon!
11:00 pm: Back in St. Lucia, went to the local pub to play some pool against the locals. Marjon and I were unbeatable, going 3-0 before deciding to call it a night.
Sunday, 10:00 am: Ok there might be some discrepancies with my time here, they are all guesses due to the fact my watch broke and I hadn’t been journalizing. We all head to the Baz Bus and leave roughly around 11.
1:00 pm: Bus won’t go over 20 km/hr. Yes, that is like 12 miles per hour. Driver has to keep pulling over. Overheating? Fluids? Leanna, some Swiss guy, and myself are determined to find out.
1:30 pm: Alternator is shot. Bus can’t go faster than 20 kmh, and we are still 2 hours from Durban. Driver doesn’t know how bus works. Persuade driver to stop at hostel in Sloweh? Might be different name. Driver says bus is going to keep going until it stops, then get another bus to get us. All passengers get off at hostel and refuse to get back on. I call the bus manager, he is a jerk and says VW is wrong and the bus is fine, instructs driver to continue until bus breaks down. Says next bus will come Tuesday! Hostel bartender shakes head and gives us free drinks till the next bus decides to come.
1:45 pm: Driver leaves us at hostel! I call Roy (our hospital driver) and tell him to call Baz Bus and figure out how the hell we are going to get home.
1:55 pm: Baz Bus manager learns all passengers got off and the same bus returns! Driver is furious when we again tell him we won’t get on and get stranded. I am amazed bus is still going.
2:10 pm: Driver again leaves, and hostel manager organizes transport in two mercedes for all of us to get home.
5:00 pm: FINALLY back in Durban. Say peace out to the Swiss and head home with Roy.
All in all, great time. "Even better than HDTV" - Andy.
Welcome to The South Coast, where the playas play.
For the second week, Andy and I headed to the South Coast to a small town called Scottburgh. We spent our days at a hospital called GJ Crookes. We met the COOLEST doctors at GJ, and I spent most of the days with a young shaven-headed Indian doctor called Civa. Similar to week 1, Monday was maternity day. I seriously spent like the first 2 and a half hours of Monday getting lectured on the ins and outs of delivery, complications, drugs and dosages, monitoring and management, filling out a solid 5 pages of notes! With the threats of a test looming, I made it my goal to learn the uses and dosages of the 8 drugs he told me about, and the different conditions and tests during labor and within a few days was able to confidently answer Civas questions while on rounds. Monday night we found a local bar and somehow got talked into going on an open-water shark jump on Wednesday! Good times! I spent Tuesday in ER with a doctor named Lilly and saw some interesting TB meningitis and AIDS-related illnesses. Also, some guy showed up threatening Civa, but he wasn’t there and then had to have a guard shadow him the next day! The other doctors were ruthless, teasing him for being paranoid. Long story. On Wednesday I went in to observe my first surgery, an above-knee amputation of a gangrenous diabetic. It smelled SO BAD. It sucked, but in retrospect it was probably a good idea to get one of the worst ones out of the way first. I learned so much from it, the surgeon was a wizard and cut and tied with such dexterity that it made my head kind of spin. The whole ordeal took an hour and a half, but it seemed to go much faster. Later that evening we got to speak with an elderly lady who escaped Zimbabwe and actually met Robert Mugabe! She told us how squads were taking over the farmers lands and how she took a bus out of the country and how it had wooden seats and she got sick from it. She also showed us a $50 billion Zimbabwean dollar note and how it was worth 2 rands (roughly 20 cents American). We also went surfing and boogeyboarding. Good times all around. Thursday was uneventful, I was sick most of the day, most likely due to starting taking the anti-malaria drug Malarone. After work, we went back to Durban to prepare for the upcoming Safari weekend in St. Lucia…….
The first weekend!
The first weekend was excellent! We got invited to a Zulu wedding and it was an EXPERIENCE. So we live in the province of KwaZulu Natal, which is the Zulu capital of the world. So get this, they like house music. It is like repetitive techno with big beats. They played it at the wedding when the bride and groom walked out! And the old people themselves like knew the music and were singing along and it kind of made our mouths drop. Apparently DJ Fresh (big house guy here) is like equivalent to our Sweet Home Alabama stuff etc that everyone knows in America. What made the day even funnier was that we went to the wrong wedding! We got a call an hour in asking where we were and we said we were at the wedding and they said no you’re not and we missed the one we were supposed to be at, but hey the food was good and the wedding was cool! See the pictures. Went to the gateway mall on Sunday, biggest in the Southern Hemisphere! Got a nifty O’Neill sweatshirt! Next up: Scottburgh!
Conclusion of Week 1!
END WEEK 1:
I left off with brief explanations of the earlier part of my week at St Mary’s. Over the course of the first week, I travelled between the various areas of St. Marys. I spent Monday in OB/GYN, where I saw vaginal suturing post-delivery. The delivery system is crazy at St. Marys, women are in and out in 4 hours! They literally make the women sit in the chairs until they are 3 inches dilated, then take them to the back to start the delivery. Monday was probably my least favorite day, OB at St. Marys was definitely not a boys area. On Tuesday, Leanna and I spent the day in Ithemba, the HIV/AIDS clinic. We walked into Ithemba and there were lines of chairs in every room and along the hallway, all filled with people who were HIV positive. Ithemba is a clinic where people that qualify for HAART (Highly active anti-retroviral therapy) can get it free of charge. Unfortunately, in order to qualify for HAARTs the person has to have a CD4 cell count of under 200. A CD4 count of 200 is defined by the World Health Organization as the level at which a person is susceptible to opportunistic infections, most everyone calls this point AIDS. The ventilation in Ithemba was also bad, requiring us to wear masks as we helped the nurses take vitals and screen patients to the drug regiment areas. I spent Wednesday in MOPD (medical outpatient department) with an extremely sharp older lady called Sister Pilay. Basically it consisted of me sitting in on consultations while she either treated and prescribed medications for patients or sent them to one of the two doctors working. She also included me in the differentials, asking me if I recognized different symptoms and how to spot them. She also showed me what to look for in determining cases of pediatric HIV and showed me how to palpate the different lymph nodes. Finally, I got some excellent experience listening to lung sounds and actually got to hear crepitation! The only day that might have been better than Wednesday was Thursday, where Marjon and I travelled out to a REMOTE area called the Kinswani in the valleys past Durban. Getting there was like a thrill ride, our driver literally hurtled down these dirt roads along a mountain side and the whole time I was gripping the seat in front of me with one hand and holding my camera with the other. After getting to the valley and literally driving through a couple fields, we arrived. The people of the Kinswani live in mud yurt-like structures with sheet metal roofs called huts, where there is no running water, nor electricity. The people live purely off the land, getting money for the sale of food they grow on their land. I got some incredible photos and look forward to finding a way to upload them for all of you guys. I spent Friday in the Pediatric department and saw lots of burn, TB-related respiratory/meningitis, malnutrition, and broken bones cases. The pictures explain these a lot better than I can, so stay tuned.STILL SORTING OUT PICTURE ALBUMS!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Week 1: St. Marys at Kwazulu-Natal
Where to start??? If I could sum up my first week in South Africa, I would use HURRICANE. Every day and night was busy, and every night I came home and promptly fell asleep. When I say that I am talking 6am until at least 8pm (often later), and repeating the next day.... for six straight days.
To start from the beginning.....
SUNDAY:
Met our driver, an extremely pleasant and heavily accented Zulu man named Roy, who got lost taking us to our house in Woodlands, Durban. My host family is wonderful, and consists of two sisters and two brothers and a single mom. My host moms name is Angel, a big bustling Zulu lady who runs everyone around, cooks, cleans, occasionally does laundry, and somehow finds time to run her own nutritional supplements company. She speaks English quite well, but sometimes she randomly starts laughing at things I say. My two sisters are 22yo Tobilae (Toh-bee-lay), and 12yo Nosipho (No-see-poh). Tobilae suffered a CVA (stroke) when she was 12, and is unable to speak anything other than Zulu and very limited English. Nosipho is a lot of fun as well, and thinks I am crazy for putting cold milk on cereal. THESE PEOPLE HAVE NEVER HEARD OF KETCHUP OH MAN. My two brothers are 17yo Sifiso (Sfee-soh), and 1yr8mo Blessing (Boy). The adventures with Sfiso are too numerous to count, and I will be relaying many of them in future posts to come. Boy is the cutest little kid and he always steals my flip flops and walks around with them. On his feet. How he gets around with them, which are almost literally half his height, is pretty incredible. I'll post pictures soon. Everyone speaks Zulu, and I am slowly picking up words and phrases. I will have to post audio sometime, they make clicks and hisses and weird noises with words and letters and it seriously took like a week to get used to. Leanna was actually taken aback with someone talking to her in Zulu who kept making 'kissing noises' at her until we realized that it was just part of the language. To say the least, it has been interesting.
MONDAY:
Today was our first day at St. Marys Hospital at Mariannhill. St. Marys is a religious hospital run by Sisters. There are few doctors and the sisters do most of the work that doctors would normally do. There are two operating rooms at the hospital, a pediatric ward, an OPD, a HIV/AIDS clinic, and a OB/GYN ward. There are also general wards, and some rehab areas.
NOTE: Let me give you the run down on ranks in South African medical personnel. Doctors: self-explanatory. The second rank is not nurses, but Sisters. Sisters are roughly equivalent in authority to American nurses. Sisters are always clearly marked by a maroon-colored shoulder placard. The third rank are nurses, which are equivalent to CNA's and technicians. The knowledge of the doctors here is really really widespread in the fact that some could probably be physicians in America, and others not so much. The South African education system allows students to enter a 5 year medical school right out of high school at 18, then follow up with two years of internship, then one year of community service. Doctors are certified at this point, but can choose to specialize in a particular area by returning to school of varying lengths, which they call residency. It's a little confusing, but I always get shocked looks when I tell people how long it takes American students to finish med school and residency! 'Crazy!' is a term I have heard quite often.
Returning to the story, we pretty much got a tour and got dropped off in different areas for the day. Mine was in OB/GYN and the first thing I saw was vaginal suturing post-delivery. It was really intense in the fact that they don't use local anesthesia and that the patient was screaming in Zulu. What was even more interesting was the surroundings, it was like walking back in time 25 years. I counted maybe 5 ECG's in the whole hospital, medications were left on shelves in torn up styrofoam cases, and the beds were tarnished sheet metal covered by tattered cushions. In the delivery area, women were in and out within four hours. Like drive in, wait in the chairs until they were I think 5cm dilated, then taken in back and prepared for pregnancy. It was insane! Like women would be sitting in waiting area in contractions, some yelling, and the sisters would be like meh, what can we do? The head Sister in that area was Sr. Thusi (Too-see), an efficient Zulu woman who at first appeared cold and unwelcoming before slowly warming to me when I persisted in following and asking questions. Later on, we got picked up by Roy and went to the university to get ID cards and register for internet/email. This took forevvver and then we were missing a paper and had to find some guy to make it, then his computer crashed so he had to do it manually, so we couldnt get it till later and just walked around for a while until we went home. We got home around 7:30, and had our first official night with the families, watching movies and eating chicken curry until falling asleep.
The rest of the week, and photos, to come tomorrow!
I'm late for a meeting!
Cheers,
Chris
To start from the beginning.....
SUNDAY:
Met our driver, an extremely pleasant and heavily accented Zulu man named Roy, who got lost taking us to our house in Woodlands, Durban. My host family is wonderful, and consists of two sisters and two brothers and a single mom. My host moms name is Angel, a big bustling Zulu lady who runs everyone around, cooks, cleans, occasionally does laundry, and somehow finds time to run her own nutritional supplements company. She speaks English quite well, but sometimes she randomly starts laughing at things I say. My two sisters are 22yo Tobilae (Toh-bee-lay), and 12yo Nosipho (No-see-poh). Tobilae suffered a CVA (stroke) when she was 12, and is unable to speak anything other than Zulu and very limited English. Nosipho is a lot of fun as well, and thinks I am crazy for putting cold milk on cereal. THESE PEOPLE HAVE NEVER HEARD OF KETCHUP OH MAN. My two brothers are 17yo Sifiso (Sfee-soh), and 1yr8mo Blessing (Boy). The adventures with Sfiso are too numerous to count, and I will be relaying many of them in future posts to come. Boy is the cutest little kid and he always steals my flip flops and walks around with them. On his feet. How he gets around with them, which are almost literally half his height, is pretty incredible. I'll post pictures soon. Everyone speaks Zulu, and I am slowly picking up words and phrases. I will have to post audio sometime, they make clicks and hisses and weird noises with words and letters and it seriously took like a week to get used to. Leanna was actually taken aback with someone talking to her in Zulu who kept making 'kissing noises' at her until we realized that it was just part of the language. To say the least, it has been interesting.
MONDAY:
Today was our first day at St. Marys Hospital at Mariannhill. St. Marys is a religious hospital run by Sisters. There are few doctors and the sisters do most of the work that doctors would normally do. There are two operating rooms at the hospital, a pediatric ward, an OPD, a HIV/AIDS clinic, and a OB/GYN ward. There are also general wards, and some rehab areas.
NOTE: Let me give you the run down on ranks in South African medical personnel. Doctors: self-explanatory. The second rank is not nurses, but Sisters. Sisters are roughly equivalent in authority to American nurses. Sisters are always clearly marked by a maroon-colored shoulder placard. The third rank are nurses, which are equivalent to CNA's and technicians. The knowledge of the doctors here is really really widespread in the fact that some could probably be physicians in America, and others not so much. The South African education system allows students to enter a 5 year medical school right out of high school at 18, then follow up with two years of internship, then one year of community service. Doctors are certified at this point, but can choose to specialize in a particular area by returning to school of varying lengths, which they call residency. It's a little confusing, but I always get shocked looks when I tell people how long it takes American students to finish med school and residency! 'Crazy!' is a term I have heard quite often.
Returning to the story, we pretty much got a tour and got dropped off in different areas for the day. Mine was in OB/GYN and the first thing I saw was vaginal suturing post-delivery. It was really intense in the fact that they don't use local anesthesia and that the patient was screaming in Zulu. What was even more interesting was the surroundings, it was like walking back in time 25 years. I counted maybe 5 ECG's in the whole hospital, medications were left on shelves in torn up styrofoam cases, and the beds were tarnished sheet metal covered by tattered cushions. In the delivery area, women were in and out within four hours. Like drive in, wait in the chairs until they were I think 5cm dilated, then taken in back and prepared for pregnancy. It was insane! Like women would be sitting in waiting area in contractions, some yelling, and the sisters would be like meh, what can we do? The head Sister in that area was Sr. Thusi (Too-see), an efficient Zulu woman who at first appeared cold and unwelcoming before slowly warming to me when I persisted in following and asking questions. Later on, we got picked up by Roy and went to the university to get ID cards and register for internet/email. This took forevvver and then we were missing a paper and had to find some guy to make it, then his computer crashed so he had to do it manually, so we couldnt get it till later and just walked around for a while until we went home. We got home around 7:30, and had our first official night with the families, watching movies and eating chicken curry until falling asleep.
The rest of the week, and photos, to come tomorrow!
I'm late for a meeting!
Cheers,
Chris
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Quick Update!
Hey everyone! I snuck away from Safari weekend for a few mins to write this letter telling you guys to expect a big update!! I am currently in St. Lucia on safari, and can't wait to tell you guys about the first week at the deeply Zulu St. Marys Clinic and the second week at GJ Crookes in the beautiful beach town of Scottburgh! Expect the first post of the first two weeks by Tuesday, with pictures and a story about safari weekend by weeks end.
Hope everyone is well, and thanks for tuning in!
-Chris
Hope everyone is well, and thanks for tuning in!
-Chris
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Flight To Durban.
I'll break down the flight for you guys in 2 words: 46 hours. (Including layovers). It's neither easy for me nor fair for you for me to leave it at that, so the first phase of my LONG travel adventure started at PDX and temporarily ended in Las Vegas, Nevada....
I walked out of the plane tunnel and I kid you not, the first thing I saw was SLOT MACHINES! Realizing that I had 10 hours before my next flight to New York, I figured I would go down to the strip and see what Vegas had to offer. But getting down to the strip was an adventure in itself. I decided to take the buses down to the strip and encountered some interesting characters on the way! And everyone had a different way of explaining the transit system and where and when I had to be at a place to make it back in time. After switching buses three times I found myself outside the Flamingo, with a miraculous view of Caesars and the Paris Casino. I LOVED Caesars! I wandered around the great casinos and Pure nightclub for at least 2 hours, and can't wait to go back and experience it in all its glory as a guest and during a time in which everything is open. (I arrived after 11pm, so most of the shows and attractions had already started or were closed). I'll sum up the rest of my experience on the strip real quick-like: Paris: didn't bother. New York New York: hooker central, seediest place ever. Planet Hollywood: Nice atmosphere, tiny casino, few attractions. MGM Grand: Biggest letdown of the night, only two bars I could go, long lines- one I actually decided to wait for couldn't get in because I was wearing flip flops.
By this point I was cranky, sore and tired, and walked to the Luxor for a cab back to the airport.
When I got back to the airport, I took a 2 hour nap and then got my stuff out of a locker and waited to board the plane. That was when the pilot got on the PA and said that we were going to be leaving 30 minutes late, and when we finally did leave, we had an 8 plane queue to get out of the airport. It took a little under an hour and a half to get through the queue and wheels up.... Problem: I had a 2 hour and 6 minute layover in New York..... I arrived at JFK with FOUR MINUTES to catch my connecting flight to Dakar, Senegal. Imagine some guy sprinting through 16 terminals carrying a duffel over his shoulder dragging a mini-suitcase behind him through a packed corridor and food court. Yeah, I was that guy. Somehow I made it! But my luggage didn't...
Despite the setbacks in Vegas and NYC, a Cape Town doctor and myself ended up getting a front row three person row all to ourselves so we had massive leg room and arm space, and myself getting excellent company for the 19 hours it took to go from NYC to Cape Town. Once in Cape Town, I took a terrible flight to Durban and am pretty sure my on-flight prayers helped that pilot land that plane. Moral of this paragraph: Don't fly Mango.
MORAL OF THIS STORY: Pay the extra $50 for less connections and layovers.
Coming soon: THE FIRST DAY, WHERE IS MY LUGGAGE, and PHOTOS!!!
Stay tuned!
I walked out of the plane tunnel and I kid you not, the first thing I saw was SLOT MACHINES! Realizing that I had 10 hours before my next flight to New York, I figured I would go down to the strip and see what Vegas had to offer. But getting down to the strip was an adventure in itself. I decided to take the buses down to the strip and encountered some interesting characters on the way! And everyone had a different way of explaining the transit system and where and when I had to be at a place to make it back in time. After switching buses three times I found myself outside the Flamingo, with a miraculous view of Caesars and the Paris Casino. I LOVED Caesars! I wandered around the great casinos and Pure nightclub for at least 2 hours, and can't wait to go back and experience it in all its glory as a guest and during a time in which everything is open. (I arrived after 11pm, so most of the shows and attractions had already started or were closed). I'll sum up the rest of my experience on the strip real quick-like: Paris: didn't bother. New York New York: hooker central, seediest place ever. Planet Hollywood: Nice atmosphere, tiny casino, few attractions. MGM Grand: Biggest letdown of the night, only two bars I could go, long lines- one I actually decided to wait for couldn't get in because I was wearing flip flops.
By this point I was cranky, sore and tired, and walked to the Luxor for a cab back to the airport.
When I got back to the airport, I took a 2 hour nap and then got my stuff out of a locker and waited to board the plane. That was when the pilot got on the PA and said that we were going to be leaving 30 minutes late, and when we finally did leave, we had an 8 plane queue to get out of the airport. It took a little under an hour and a half to get through the queue and wheels up.... Problem: I had a 2 hour and 6 minute layover in New York..... I arrived at JFK with FOUR MINUTES to catch my connecting flight to Dakar, Senegal. Imagine some guy sprinting through 16 terminals carrying a duffel over his shoulder dragging a mini-suitcase behind him through a packed corridor and food court. Yeah, I was that guy. Somehow I made it! But my luggage didn't...
Despite the setbacks in Vegas and NYC, a Cape Town doctor and myself ended up getting a front row three person row all to ourselves so we had massive leg room and arm space, and myself getting excellent company for the 19 hours it took to go from NYC to Cape Town. Once in Cape Town, I took a terrible flight to Durban and am pretty sure my on-flight prayers helped that pilot land that plane. Moral of this paragraph: Don't fly Mango.
MORAL OF THIS STORY: Pay the extra $50 for less connections and layovers.
Coming soon: THE FIRST DAY, WHERE IS MY LUGGAGE, and PHOTOS!!!
Stay tuned!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Welcome to my South African adventure!
Hello, my name is Chris Moser and I am going to South Africa for the fall term of my senior year at Oregon State University. This blog is going to serve as a journal of my endeavors as well as a site for information on my experience and ways to get in contact with me. Please feel free to send me an email with questions not addressed on this page. Let's get down to it!
Where I am going:
I will be spending my first 5 weeks in Durban, South Africa. Durban is a large, fairly modern city with a population of between 4 and 5 million people. Durban has a warm, and very humid climate with the fabulous Indian ocean and great surfing! It also has a significant Indian influence, Durban has the largest Indian population in the world outside of India . It was the banning of the Indian indentured laborers from the purchase of land in Durban in 1922 that was one of the first laws to sow the seeds of the apartheid legislation that was to follow.
The last 5 weeks will be spent in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town is the second largest city in South Africa, behind Johannesburg, with a population of 3.5 million. Cape Town was originally developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling (supply) station for Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India, and the Far East more than 200 years before the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869 (wikipedia). It is the largest tourist hub in South Africa and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
What I will be doing:
Simply put, I will be taking part in a medical internship. The rotation sites in Durban are more focused on public health issues and HIV/AIDS while the sites in Cape Town are more clinically-focused. Durban will experience a wider range of health facilities including rural health care, hospices, teaching hospitals and public and private clinics. In Cape Town, I will get to spend time primarily within two major urban hospitals and associated township clinics, getting familiar with the different wards within these two large medical systems. I will probably opt to spend most of my time in the Emergency and Orthopedic departments as these are my current top selections for medical school.
Where I will be staying:
I will be staying with different homestay families over the course of the internship. These are people that graciously have opened their homes to study abroad students, and the first family I will be staying with in Durban is a single mother household with three children. I am not sure of the second family I will be staying with, but will post that information upon receiving it.
When I leave and how long I will be gone for:
I leave for South Africa on Wednesday, September 24th, and will return to the United States on December 11th.
How to get in contact with me:
I can be reached either by email or mobile phone, but the number is a South African number and I recommend purchasing a phone card from www.nobelcom.com as it is much cheaper than normal cell phone carrier international long distance rates. You can also get in touch with my mom to call me, as she will likely have multiple cards. Due to the moving nature of the internship, I will not have an address to have things sent to, but feel free to send me yours and maybe you will hear back!
My email: moserch@onid.orst.edu
My cell phone: TBD
My moms email: Artzymom2@hotmail.com
My moms cell phone: avail upon request.
STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG FOR FUTURE UPDATES! I WILL SEE YOU ALL IN 3 MONTHS!!
Where I am going:
I will be spending my first 5 weeks in Durban, South Africa. Durban is a large, fairly modern city with a population of between 4 and 5 million people. Durban has a warm, and very humid climate with the fabulous Indian ocean and great surfing! It also has a significant Indian influence, Durban has the largest Indian population in the world outside of India . It was the banning of the Indian indentured laborers from the purchase of land in Durban in 1922 that was one of the first laws to sow the seeds of the apartheid legislation that was to follow.
The last 5 weeks will be spent in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town is the second largest city in South Africa, behind Johannesburg, with a population of 3.5 million. Cape Town was originally developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling (supply) station for Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India, and the Far East more than 200 years before the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869 (wikipedia). It is the largest tourist hub in South Africa and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
What I will be doing:
Simply put, I will be taking part in a medical internship. The rotation sites in Durban are more focused on public health issues and HIV/AIDS while the sites in Cape Town are more clinically-focused. Durban will experience a wider range of health facilities including rural health care, hospices, teaching hospitals and public and private clinics. In Cape Town, I will get to spend time primarily within two major urban hospitals and associated township clinics, getting familiar with the different wards within these two large medical systems. I will probably opt to spend most of my time in the Emergency and Orthopedic departments as these are my current top selections for medical school.
Where I will be staying:
I will be staying with different homestay families over the course of the internship. These are people that graciously have opened their homes to study abroad students, and the first family I will be staying with in Durban is a single mother household with three children. I am not sure of the second family I will be staying with, but will post that information upon receiving it.
When I leave and how long I will be gone for:
I leave for South Africa on Wednesday, September 24th, and will return to the United States on December 11th.
How to get in contact with me:
I can be reached either by email or mobile phone, but the number is a South African number and I recommend purchasing a phone card from www.nobelcom.com as it is much cheaper than normal cell phone carrier international long distance rates. You can also get in touch with my mom to call me, as she will likely have multiple cards. Due to the moving nature of the internship, I will not have an address to have things sent to, but feel free to send me yours and maybe you will hear back!
My email: moserch@onid.orst.edu
My cell phone: TBD
My moms email: Artzymom2@hotmail.com
My moms cell phone: avail upon request.
STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG FOR FUTURE UPDATES! I WILL SEE YOU ALL IN 3 MONTHS!!
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