Things that you wouldn't hear in a Canadian Operating room

There are some interesting things that happen in any operating room, but I have come across some things that I have not heard before I came to Galmi. I can't every remember saying “It's only a 20 week size uterus” or “At least the power went off at a good time in the procedure” along with “Thank goodness the ventilator has a built in power supply”. All those things happened today, and we ended up doing just fine. It only took about a minute for the lights to come back on, and we had controlled the majority of the bleeding before they went off, so no problem. I could not tell from the ultrasound if there could be a cancer in the uterus or one of the ovaries, but it turned out she just had huge fibroids.

I had to say good bye to our Urologist and our Internist last night as they were flying back home today. Fortunately the General Surgeon here takes the “general” part very seriously, and the Family Physicians are very good at Internal Medicine.

Today was a quieter day as there is no clinic in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday. There was a Doctor's meeting that I went to, but I am not going to be here long enough to act on too much of what they discuss. They were talking about using concentrated iodine for the treatment of hyperthyroidism (which we don't do much anymore in Canada), so if any of my Doctor friends has any papers about that, please send them along! Interesting to hear them talk about counting the drops that an IV is running at to get the rate. I don't think I have heard that since medical school. On the other hand, technology is prone to breaking down, so the old fashioned ways are more dependable.

With the malaria season winding down, there are a few less patients in the Hospital. The doctors are thinking that they may be able to start doing some more teaching for the staff here. There is always something more to do!

Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.