I never realized that nicholas cage acted in such horrible films. Few days ago I bought a 20 DVDS in 1 DVD from some guy off the street. The name of the title was will smith vs nicholas cage. With a cheesy name like that how could i resist-after all I always wanted to be an expert on will smith and nicholas cage flicks. I've seen some interesting items for sale while i make my morning commutes. Among my favorite ones include a barack obama belt buckle, "yes we can" bubble gum, and a "hello boss" t-shirt. Hello boss.... haha I get called that at least a million times a day-that's the malawian way of saying hello sir can i get your attention. Other common phrases I hear is "hello my friend" and "hello brother". I love malawi so far. It's been great.
The hospital has been busy at usual-but yes i am working hard and saving lines and learning tons. Today after work I just sat by one of the street shops and ate roasted maize. Sat on a huge rock and just thought about my day. It was an incredible day as usual-most days are-however i had to reflect on what i saw today.
Usually when things are quiet on my team. patients are as "tucked" in as they can be. I just walk around looking to see who is sick-who can use my help. I always find one or two. IV's coming loose, fluids not on, ppl not getting medication, ppl on the brink of dying. Today I just walked by one of the rooms and here is this poor lady laying with agonal breathing. audible crackles in chest, looking at me helpless-hopeless. Almost immediately i touch her-ice cold. Next I look at her arm for any IV. Any Iv at all? Nope. So i put an IV in, check her BP. systolic in the 50s. Oh great and she has crackles in her lungs. knowing her bp was more impt i asked the nurse to bring me an oxygen tank and i started fluids wide open. I ran to the stockroom to find any pressor that i could find. ah ha dopamine. now how do i mix this. I dilute it and finally come up with something i can inject and run back to the patient. The patient looks at me takes one final deep breath turns her head and passes away in front of my eyes. should I do CPR. wait i can't intubate her. all i could do was inject the dopamine. no atropoine in site. Squeezing the bag of saline so it could run faster. It was too late- she passed away.
I turned to see if i could get anyone to translate. The guardian-the mom was in the room. can someone please tell her mother that she lost her daughter? i saw tears and moments later a loud wail and a look of "why did u let this happen" in the mother's eyes. I felt horrible.. this is life at a government hospital. ppl on the brink of dying. Why are resources so limited here and plentiful elsewhere. It's just not fair.
So i ate maize today and just thought a little. Looking forward to going back to the house. May i'll switch it up and watch a will smith flick. Nicholas cage is getting sooo boring. or maybe play soccer with the grandkids of nancy. that's always fun.
Well i haven't thought about the weekend yet-however i'm debating whether to take a weekend trip to monkey bay to see lake malawi. should be fun. The clinical officer i work with gave me a list of must see places.
all in all a busy day. some treating seizures with phenobarbital, many LP's, 2 identical cryptococcal meningitis cases and a dude who has been in the hospital for 2 weeks that has a subdural hematoma. I wish i were a neurosurgeon so i could evacuate the blood and let him feel better. steroids really aren't helping.

that's it for now.