Today was our last official ward round here in
Kikori Hospital, and it was uncharacteristically
short – 3 patients in recovery, 2 mothers (both
primipara so no long spiels about "How mas pikini
u wan?" and all that jazz) on obstetrics ward,
and 2 patients in general ward! However, as Ruth
observed, despite the apparent dearth of patients
we've seen several interesting ones, like the man
who hobbled in just after ward round. He'd been
seen here 5 times already with the same problem –
a polyarthritis of the big joints and back pain,
with a mixture of associated signs – including
shortness of breath at rest (sounded like
pleuritic pain?), penile sores (?STI), and
psoriatic plaques on his skin. All quite weird
and very painful for him. The trouble is that
they've only got methotrexate here and he's
gotten Steven-Johnson's syndrome on it before, so
the only medicines he can tolerate are NSAIDs and
high-dose prednisolone. We'll see how he goes.
We're leaving for Port Moresby on Monday, a day
earlier than expected, just so that we have the
option of taking the Tuesday plane in the event
of a cancelled flight on Monday. We're paranoid
about this because the airlines has a dubious
reputation of having cancelled flights
last-minute before, and furthermore it's been
raining a lot recently, so that could easily
throw off their flight schedule. What that means
is just that I'm another day nearer to having
access to the internet, and another day nearer to
finishing my elective. I suppose I'll post my
reflective piece when I have all the time and
internet connection I want at Port Moresby, but
suffice to say that I've learnt a lot here,
medical and otherwise – experiences and lessons to last a lifetime.
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