It is now the evening of MAY 5th, and we've been here in PNG a full 3 days. It is funny how quickly I've settled into a routine. Stephanie and the boys, I think, are still working on theirs, but coming along. I started back in the hospital the first morning after we arrived, which was my first time seeing patients in the new hospital. It opened this past fall, and let me tell you, it is a few steps up from the old place. For starters, it's bigger with more windows and lights. Also, there's no parts of the wall falling in, no leaking ceiling in the sterile utensils room, and the doctors' bathroom is no longer a scene from an old horror movie. The best part, though, is the folks there are still as friendly and helpful as ever. I got to see my friend Nickson, who is a native guy and a nurse in the ER, and he gave me a huge hug and proceeded to hold my hand -- a little weird to guys in the US, but a pretty typical and even manly expression of affection here in PNG. Brought me back real quick to cultural differences. Anyway, Nickson is great, and we've actually emailed several times since our last trip here. It will be nice working with him again. I was actually suprised how many nurses remembered me, and also how many I remembered. You gotta love familiar faces.
Speaking of familiar, or rather, unfamiliar, I had to get back in the swing of things pretty quickly treating parasites, TB, typhoid, and malnutrition. Still haven't seen a new HIV, but I've got a while! I have also seen a good amount of orthopedic stuff, which I definitely need to improve upon. Fortunately, it's pretty dummy proof here. If something looks/feels broken, take an xray:
Look it up and find the picture that matches it the best in a super-old ortho book by a guy named DePalma
And cast it up the way it tells you. By the way, that's casting with the old school turn-your-hands-white-and-make-a-huge-mess plaster. Last time I worked with that stuff was.... you guessed it, about two years ago in PNG! This fracture is evidently called a Bennett's fracture, involving the proximal first metacarpal (connects thumb to wrist). Never seen this particular fracture before, so I learned something new. Dr Jim (our general surgeon) helped me out on this one since DePalma actually recommended a little more aggressive treatment with pinning and traction. We're trying just casting first and will see how it goes. I have since completed this process solo with an ulnar fracture. I can only hope Dr Lau (cast clinic attending back home) will be proud!
I promised myself I'd keep these blogs shorter and just blog more often, but I can't help myself from sharing another story. There's this adorable little girl in the peds ward (where I'm currently spending my mornings) named Koli. She came in about a week ago with pneumonia, but also a strange neuropathy that caused weakness in her legs and hands, along with pretty severe pain in her legs. I had seen her for two days, and she was essentially stable or worse. We were/are wondering about perhaps polio versus some other viral/post-viral syndrome, but the good news was that it wasn't really progressing. Then today, I sit down on her bed and pick up her chart, and she smiles big at me and says "Jisas helpim mi!" (that's kind of my phonetic spelling of Pidgin - sorry to any real Tok Pisin speakers/spellers out there) which, of course, means "Jesus helped me!" There she was, playing with some yarn and moving her legs! She is still weak, but definitely improved. Pretty cool. Folks around here call the Lord "Papa God" which I really like. It's nice to have a Great Physician around to help folks out when I don't know what to do or can't do much. Please pray with me that He will help me to be His hands to the sick here.
Okay, it's now 10:30PM and long since time for me to get to bed. Hopefully I'll have more stories or pictures soon!
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