March 27, 2009
We went to rounds before breakfast to make sure we saw all the pending consults including a nasty case of infected tendon sheaths in a 20 yr old’s right side thumb and index, which ended up being our last case of the day. After cinnamon rolls and pineapple, we did an excisional biopsy of a strange thigh mass (in the muscle) that looked like TB and an ankle fusion. The thumb/finger case was an add-on and there was a ton of general surgery cases booked today, so no room in the OR. We decided to do it in the treatment (clinic) area under a local wrist block. The block didn’t work at all and I ended up basically slicing open this poor kids thumb and index fingers cold. We gave a bunch of morphine when it was clear the block was ineffective but the pus had to come out, as they say. We had dinner at our neighbours’, The Palmers. He started the internal medicine residency here and she works at the MTCT+ (Mother-To-Child-Transmission, HIV) clinic. Yummy stew and cornbread. We were then invited to Christine’s, the visiting Canadian anesthetist, for dessert and tea. Yummier papaya cake! Then off to bed. T-minus 4 to South Africa.

March 26, 2009
We got up and packed our bags as it was our last night at the Sparks’ house. After breakfast we went to theater where there was a big case that got started a bit late and went into lunch. It was 5 day old accident victim who had dislocated his hip and also fractured both the femur and tibia. By the time Nick got done he was soaking wet, head to toe. After lunch we went back for just a few clinic patients as Dr. Nana had already started on removing a plate from an infected tibia. When we were finished, we walked around to take some pictures of more of the hospital grounds and then came back to the hostel. I ventured back to aerobics class and Nick read until dinner. When we were done with dinner, we read a bit, uploaded our blog and then watched more of “Heroes.” The countdown has begun. Only 5 more nights!!