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