Another call night come and gone

Well guys, nothing too cool out of call tonight. It is now almost 6:30 in the morning on Sat the 29th, and I don't think anything crazy will come walking into the ER between now and 8 when call officially ends. In the States, this is when all the work and school excuse people start walking in with their phantom low back pain and runny noses/sore throats. Here, people appreciate the value of their money (ER visits aren't free, even here).

There was one lady who came in just as I was getting done with a couple victims of a car accident (nothing serious) who had been stabbed a couple times. She already had an IV bag in, which meant she had been seen at an aid station and was sent on to us. She had a pretty superficial cut on her left forearm, a really shallow stab wound on her left side, and a nice bleeder on the right shoulder when I took off the bandage. I held pressure for a bit and then got a better look, and bit suprisingly, I could insert almost my entire pinky finger into the hole. Now, I didn't take a picture for two reasons: 1)my gloved hands were bloody and there wasn't really anyone around I'd trust with my camera and 2)the poor lady's breast was exposed, so I probably couldn't post the picture anyway. Good news for this lady, though, was that the wound went right along her rib cage under the sub Q tissue. There was not even much muscle damage.

One really good thing about taking call here is that it is making me feel much more prepared for my intern year. I'm getting woken up in the middle of the night and asked questions by nurses I can't really understand about patients I'm not really familiar with (call is for the whole hospital, not just my ward). I'm learning pretty quickly what the pertinent information is to ask and what quick steps can be taken to get things under control until morning. There is a missionary doctor on call with me, but I'm always the first to get a call from the hospital, and I only call them in if I don't feel comfortable. As a result, it is a good lesson in knowing your limits and making darn sure you've got your ducks in a row before you wake someone up. The docs here are actually really nice and helpful, I just hate bothering them if it's something simple I could do myself. All this is good training for next year.

Well, time to get ready for the day, round on my kids in the hospital, and enjoy a day off. Supposedly we're going to tour a coffee plantation today that is owned by a really nice retired orthopedic surgeon from the US. He comes to the hospital here periodically and helps out with whatever ortho surgeries are happening. Anyway, should be a good time, and I got just enough sleep to enjoy it.