Back again- 1 year later

A lot has happened in the last year. I return again, as I have made my second trip to Malawi- delivering health care in an environment totally different from I am used to back at home.

I decided to post again, mainly because so much happens on a daily basis and it's easy not to reflect on things you have seen. At times, I feel like my mind is nothing more than a sensory overload.

Things have been really crazy at the hospital. I pretty much am the only doctor around as everyone has gone off on vacation? People in this hospital are so damn sick it's scary. The worst part is, it's all guessing game on discerning what exactly is going on.
I saved my first life yesterday as I happened to be rounding on the male medical wards and noted that this patient was in respiratory distress with audible wheezing. He tells me he is a known asthmatic, and has both sputum postitive TB as well as HIV. God he could have any known and unknown lung pathology known to mankind. I checked his O2 sat and he was at 40%. I was able to transfer him to the HDU aka ICU and with a combination of aminophylline, salbutamol nebs, oxygen therapy, he is stable.. that is for now. Whether this will remain..... we shall see.
There is so much suffering in this place, and everyone is so used to it that it's just a matter of daily life for the hospital staff. Suffering has turned into a "normal" state for most of the workers and rarely raises an eyebrow. We have very little to offer to these patients. I wonder if the patient I gave salbutamol today for pallaitive purposes will make it tomm. He was just happy that I took the time to set up a nebulizer treatment for him and gave me a thumbs up. His CD4 count is 2. He will surely die tomm.

I'll try to keep this blog going for as long as I can.