Much Ado About Nothing

Much has happened, and at the same time nothing has happened, since I last updated this blog. What is amazing to me is how quickly the time passes here. Already, we have been in Gabon (or rather, not been in the United States) for 4 weeks. What is also striking to me is that I have started to feel somewhat bored. My days at the hospital are very interesting with new diagnoses every day. What can become monotonous, however, is my free time. I both value and feel uneasy with the fact that I have no errands to run, no projects to work on, and no appointments to keep. I have read more for leisure here than I have in the past year and a half at home (granted, a very good thing). At the same time, however, I miss the variety of every-day life at home. I miss making plans on the fly to meet up with this person or have coffee with that person, to go for a walk one night and stay-in and watch a movie another night. With transportation being somewhat difficult here, I almost feel as though I am stuck on an island. While I am not homesick per se, I am variety-is-the-spice-of-lifesick.

**The following paragraph is medical. There’s nothing gory, but if that’s still not your thing, then skip to the next paragraph.**

These past few weeks have also been somewhat sad at the pediatric hospital. One newborn (whom I never even saw) died of omphalitis (a raging umbilical cord infection that can spread to the rest of one’s body) after being delivered at home and having his umbilical cord cut with a dirty pair of scissors. Another newborn delivered in a similar manner now has neonatal tetanus. To think that both of these children would likely have grown up to be perfectly healthy happy children is devastating. Both illnesses are entirely preventable, but education and resources continue to be quite difficult to come by and deliver. We’ve also had many more interesting (and therefore, sad) cases such as the baby born with hydrocephalus and ambiguous genitalia, the 2 month old who died from respiratory distress, and the 5 year old who died from malaria. The patient who currently occupies most of my time is a 9 month-old boy with a very large belly. His grandmother noticed that his stomach seemed to be growing fairly rapidly over the course of 4 months and brought him into our clinic. Dr. Slava, our Ukranian surgeon, performed an ultrasound of the child’s abdomen and found a large cyst whose origin we could not decipher. While the surgeons wanted to initially perform an exploratory laparotomy (i.e. open him up and see what is in there), the anethesiologist here did not feel comfortable putting a 9 month old to sleep. Several days of trying to figure out where to send this child and his impoverished family ensued with no real promising answers. Currently, the anesthesiologist has decided that he feels more comfortable with the procedure after doing some reading and research, and so the operation is schedule for tomorrow. I am very interested to see what happens and also hoping beyond hope that everything goes okay both tomorrow and afterwards for this kid.

While I spent the first paragraph of this post discussing my newfound antsy-ness, I must confess that we have had a few diversions in the past couple of weeks. Last weekend was the celebration of Gabon’s Independence. As in the U.S., there was a parade for Independence Day. Unlike in the U.S., however, the parade is mainly for the amusement of the political big-wigs and other special people in town. The permanent bleachers set up on Main Street are repainted each year, and the mayor and his friends sit here as the parade goes by. As soon as the parade passes the bleachers, it disperses. As current employees of HAS (Hopital Albert Schweitzer), we were in this year’s parade. Everyone from the hospital got a t-shirt (either red, yellow or blue), and together we formed a human version of the Gabonese flag.

I also went on my first boat ride last week. Many tourists take a ride in the pirougues (~canoe) down the Ogooue River to see the region, visit small villages, and possibly even see hippopotamuses. So far, I’ve declined said trip as it’s fairly pricey, I’m deathly afraid of being in a river with hippos, and the rest of the 4 hour ride doesn’t really interest me. However…this past week’s PMI (i.e. the traveling women & children clinic) excursion was to two towns only accessible via boat. Fortunately, the hippos have moved on this time of year, so my worries were appeased. It was a lovely ride up the river, and it was a nice change from our normal routine. We also got back just in time for a game of soccer in front of our house with the neighborhood children. I scored once, and I must say it was a beautiful shot. I also must say though that we were playing with 5-9 year olds.

This past weekend marked the end of Fanny’s stay here. As a going away celebration for her as well as a welcoming celebration for the new pediatrician from Yale, Monsieur Thé (in English that would be Mr. T) and his wife held a small party at their house. Mr. Thé is from Cameroon and speaks both English & French. He is the head technician at the hospital, and as such, he fixes everything having to do with electricity, plumbing, locks, roads, etc. He is one of the kindest people I have ever met, and he has a fabulous laugh. The gathering was quite international with people from Cameroon, The Congo, Benin, France, Austria, and the United States all in attendance (oddly, no one from Gabon). It was sad to see Fanny leave as it has been very interesting getting to know her as well as the difference between the French & American systems of medical school. But while I may have lost my French tutor, I have gained an English-speaking 3rd year pediatric resident, which is a huge asset to my learning here. It is good to be reminded of how we would treat certain maladies/examine children in the States as I will be jumping right into a pediatric ICU rotation when I get home.

As usual, this was too long. Hopefully I will write more often thereby making the entries shorter. I will post pictures later this evening as the internet is currently too slow to support uploading them. I hope all is well.

Katie