Settled Down

 
 
 
 

Ok so things have finally settled down! Saturday we got my luggage--just in the nick of time. The KLM offices were closing when we arrived but nevertheless I have all of my stuff---thanks to Linda for all your help! Also, I have figured my cell phone out and exchanged money...so I am set.

I stayed at Dr. Kabuye's house over the weekend outside of Kampala and we came back to the hospital yesterday. The first thing I realized is that they work a lot less hard here. Doctors in the US are always struggling to find time to relax but here life is slower. We got to the hospital at around noon yesterday (after stopping in Kampala to check for prices on trips, will talk about that later). We then spent a couple hours working on the computer. I worked to finish up my AMCAS application for medical school (which I just submitted). Then at around 2 we had lunch...still no real work. Finally around 3 we did rounds and talked to each patient. This took about 2 hours and then we were done.

I got a little nervous that the trip would be kind of boring, but luckily I got to meet one of the two peace corp members working at or next to the hospital (YES I do have americans to hang out with). She said that it is common but I was reassured that I could always hang out with her or Katrina the other girl, who I have yet to meet. The best part is she has lots of books to read, I already finished one of the two I brought and I was waiting to start the other one until things really got slow...but now I have a lot more.

One of the patients that really struck me when we did rounds yesterday was a man with prostate cancer, or that is the best diagnosis of his problems. He came in with back pain but since he cannot afford a PSA test all we could do is a back x-ray to see if there are any signs that he indeed has prostate cancer. If it turns out true then the only treatment for him, that he can afford is castration. Removing...them....will stop the production of testosterone which will eliviate most of his pain. However, it only lasts for 2 years and at that point there is nothing else but pain kilers which he cannot afford on a regular basis.

What is really neat is how good Dr. Kabuye is at making diagnosis. He is limited to barely any tests that he can perform to confirm diagnosis so he must be able to view the problems with his eyes. I have not met that many doctors but in my opinion he really has an eye for spotting small clues, which is probably the only benefit for not having adequate medical resources.

Finally, today was pretty much similar. We conducted more rounds in the patients but also we did ultrasounds on female paitents--this is one of the new machines. One lady had pain in her throat which turned out to be an iodine deficiency enlarging her thyroid. One lady had an incomplete abortion that needed completed, which is quite disturbing. Others did not really have anything wrong. They just like having an ultrasound because the machine is big and impressive and they can see the screen--I am pretty sure Dr. Kabuye does not charge for it.

Also just late today, a man I saw yesterday with pnemonia and HIV had just passed away. His x-ray was very disturbing--he had lost his right lung and pretty much most of the second. Also a child died in the morning in the town and Dr. Kabuye had to do a post mortem analysis to see the cause of death. The child was apparently fine yesterday but the lady that was taking care of her because her grandmother left town(her parents are dead) claimed a piece of chalk choked her to death. Apparently it was suspicious but it turned out to be true. I could not come in to the morg because Dr. Kabuye said it was too unclean for me--I don't have the antibodies and the place is apparently not even 5% the cleanlieness of a US morg according to Dr. Kabuye. But I got to see the photos he took after and the chalk piece had lodged in her trachea and killed her.

But that about sums up the last two days. Oh yea, not sure if I will be able to go visit any national parks. Found out to just track gorillas, the permit itself is $500. They know most tourists are very wealthy and they capitolize on this. But the Teresa and Katrina, the peace corps, are trying to figure out something. Hopefully I can tag along with them if they do anything.

Here are some more pictures I have taken. The banana type plant is actually matoke. Similar to banana but not as sweet. It is the most prized food here. The hole in the ground is the toliet I use at Dr. Kabuye's house on the weekends. The hopsital has much nicer facilities so it makes me want to just stay here on the weekends. The other photos are just random, some are picures of traffic in Kampala.