The first day we arrived at 4:00pm or 1600 Zambian time and took a quick tour of the hospital before dinner and then returned to the mission to help with a few cesareans (c-sections) before being told that our jet-lagged bodies weren't welcome in the OR (or the theater as they call it here) until we were rested - smart thinking. Instead we helped with some of the renovations they are doing to the male in-patient ward.
Yesterday, we set out for chapel before our first day working with Dan and Joan Jones at the hospital. From the gates of the mission house we're staying in you could hear the beautiful synchronized singing of the Zambians in their native Tonga language leading us to the small white church on the hospital grounds. When we arrived, the pastor gave a short sermon with a very simplistic Biblical approach. reiterating the same points over and over and just changing the words around. I didn't think much about it till today when I realized how life giving the words he spoke were, reminding me that God is the healer and I am only a tool through which He can work. It made today, my first day on my own, much less stressful and more efficient. But I'm getting ahead of myself, back to day two- I shadowed Dan around the maternal ward, pediatrics, and isolation room for rounds and then to OPD (outpatient clinic) for the remainder of the day where we saw many patients for ART (anti-retroviral therapy- for HIV+ pts) counseling. It was great to see what Dan and Joan do on a daily basis which pretty much means seeing each and every patient that is either in the hospital or registers to be seen on an outpatient basis, sending not one person home without being treated even if it takes all day and night. However, most of what I saw the first day was unrelated to what I would be doing the next day as I was to be in OPD and would not be seeing patients for treatment of HIV unless the issue was unrelated.
Today was awesome! I had my own patients as well as some help from Purity, my new friend and Zambian translator. We saw 9 patients in the morning and 3 more in the afternoon. It was slow in the afternoon which gave us a chance to get to know our translators a little better. The patients I saw had diagnoses of arthritis, hypertension, pharyngitis, heart murmurs (one being a very serious congenital defect that will need to be surgically repaired), GERD/H. pylori, anxiety, threatened abortion, and diabetes- some presenting with only one complaint and others with a myriad of vague/telling symptoms. After each patient, I would find Dr. Dan and have him confirm that I had an appropriate plan of action and wasn't missing anything with my treatment goals and patient eduction. I hope to get a little faster each day if the following days' patients are anything like they were today. I can tell I'm going to learn a lot in the next 5 weeks about all things medicine.
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