Saturdays are just half days at the hospital, but even just a half day is plenty of time to run across something exciting. We had 2 patients come into the Casualty unit with TB. I've never seen chest x-rays look so dirty. One patient has TB and has been smoking 3 packs a day for 20 years. He's in bad shape.
One young patient came in referred from another outpatient center with severe headache, vomiting, and new-onset seizures. He had gotten a CT at a stand-alone imaging center in town (we don't have CT machines here), and sure enough... Neurocysticercosis. Unbelievable. Neurocysticercosis is caused by a tapeworm found in bad pork, and it causes cysts in the brain which can be seen on a CT. It's almost never seen in the States, but apparently it's quite common here. This is one of those obscure diseases we learn about but never really expect to run into. All the doctors here were so nonchalant about it since they see it all the time, but I was amazed. Just another reason to avoid the meat here.
This week 2 pre-med girls from Delhi visited the hospital for an "exposure trip," I guess just to see what they were getting themselves into. In India, medical students don't have to go to college; it's just straight from high school into med school, which is 5 years. These 2 girls are both 19 and have finished with high school and are now taking a year off to study and prepare for med school's entrance exams. They want to go to India's Christian Medical College and eventually serve the poor. They're 19, but a very young 19, and knew so little about medicine (they had never heard of a C-section, for example). They seemed quite overwhelmed and intimidated, so I tried my best to explain what was going on. They called me "Dr. Angela." When I asked what kind of doctors they wanted to be, one said, "My heart beats for psychiatry," so she became my favorite. The two of them left today, but before they did they each gave me a note written on pages torn out from their journals thanking me for my help this week and wishing me blessings. They each gave me a chocolate bar, too. So sweet. It warmed my heart. It encourages me to see girls wanting to go into medicine here, where it is still very dominated by males, and it is especially encouraging to see an aspiring psychiatrist. Please say a quick prayer for them for me.
I spent the entire afternoon getting decorations together for the couple's dinner tomorrow night, an there's still a lot to do tomorrow. I think it'll be a success though. If I don't get to post tomorrow it'll be because I'm busy with that, and the computer lab is closed on Mondays so it may be a couple of days before I can check in again.
Hope everyone is staying warm back home!
One young patient came in referred from another outpatient center with severe headache, vomiting, and new-onset seizures. He had gotten a CT at a stand-alone imaging center in town (we don't have CT machines here), and sure enough... Neurocysticercosis. Unbelievable. Neurocysticercosis is caused by a tapeworm found in bad pork, and it causes cysts in the brain which can be seen on a CT. It's almost never seen in the States, but apparently it's quite common here. This is one of those obscure diseases we learn about but never really expect to run into. All the doctors here were so nonchalant about it since they see it all the time, but I was amazed. Just another reason to avoid the meat here.
This week 2 pre-med girls from Delhi visited the hospital for an "exposure trip," I guess just to see what they were getting themselves into. In India, medical students don't have to go to college; it's just straight from high school into med school, which is 5 years. These 2 girls are both 19 and have finished with high school and are now taking a year off to study and prepare for med school's entrance exams. They want to go to India's Christian Medical College and eventually serve the poor. They're 19, but a very young 19, and knew so little about medicine (they had never heard of a C-section, for example). They seemed quite overwhelmed and intimidated, so I tried my best to explain what was going on. They called me "Dr. Angela." When I asked what kind of doctors they wanted to be, one said, "My heart beats for psychiatry," so she became my favorite. The two of them left today, but before they did they each gave me a note written on pages torn out from their journals thanking me for my help this week and wishing me blessings. They each gave me a chocolate bar, too. So sweet. It warmed my heart. It encourages me to see girls wanting to go into medicine here, where it is still very dominated by males, and it is especially encouraging to see an aspiring psychiatrist. Please say a quick prayer for them for me.
I spent the entire afternoon getting decorations together for the couple's dinner tomorrow night, an there's still a lot to do tomorrow. I think it'll be a success though. If I don't get to post tomorrow it'll be because I'm busy with that, and the computer lab is closed on Mondays so it may be a couple of days before I can check in again.
Hope everyone is staying warm back home!
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