First Day in Namibia

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So we made it safely to Namibia. The 15 hour flight to South Africa ended up not being as bad as we expected since we were able to sleep for 6-7 hours and had a large selection of movies to choose from. Dr. Brown picked us up from the airport and he and his wife, Pam, have made as feel very welcome in their home. We actually slept pretty well last night, I think our irregular sleep schedule from being on call has actually benefitted us for once. This morning we went to Katatura Hospital for a half day of work. I am working with the babies 2 years and under and Katie is working with the older kids. There medical education and training is different here. After medical school they do an internship that is 2 years long and they rotate through all of the specialities instead of doing a residency in a specific area like we do. After the 2 years of internship they are medical officers (like attendings) and can practice in pretty much any field. The hospital is also very different compared to home. Labs from 2 days ago that we would have back in an hour or 2 at home still are not resulted and there are 2-3 patients per room. "Rounds" was more like a free for all with everyone dispersing and seeing a patient and then reporting back to the medical officer individually. They did have more resources than we expected though. A baby with TB meningitis is going for a VP shunt soon and one of the infants had a cardiac CT done, neither of which were things that I thought could be done here.

This is Katie typing now. I saw many interesting things with the children over 2. There was a room with various cardiac patients, some waiting for surgery. One had a very impressive VSD murmur. Another had aortic stenosis with aortic regurgitation and 'pistol pulses' in the femoral area. Another had tetrology of Fallot. He had impressive clubbing and cyanosis and initially presented because he was unable to keep up with the other children and would squat when he became tired (this is a typical presentation of patients with tetrology). The saddest patient that I saw, who ended up going the ICU, was a 2 year old with Guillain Barre Syndrome with total flaccid paralysis and a very weak cry. We were worried that she might develop respiratory failure.

Tomorrow we will go back to th hospital and then go to the clinic in the afternoon. Now it is about 5 pm here but our bodies think its 10 pm so we are struggling to stay awake and make it through dinner. Miss everyone lots, send us messages and let us know what's new at home. Wish us luck for our first full day of work tomorrow.

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Photos

plane sunset
view from the plane of the sun setting over senegal

SA planes
south african airways planes on the runway in johannesburg