April 2nd, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized
Hello again!
Well, to start from the beginning our trip started on Friday. We left from Chicago at 4 pm and flew to Milan, Italy. The flight was wonderful and we even had 3 seats to share between the two of us. While biding our time we watched a great movie “August Rush”.
The plane landed in Milan at 7 am or so and we had an 8 hour layover. This allowed us time to leave the airport and explore a little bit. We did take the Marapensa express train into Milan. We enjoyed a nice walk around the city and had lunch, in which we ate Panini’s and had espresso coffee. We made it safely back to the airport, and headed to security. Only one issue- I had knitting needles in my carry on bag. The made it through the US security check- but no way- don’t mess with the Italian security.
We made it to Accra at 10:30 pm that evening. We waited for our ride and were “Jimmy” picked us up and took us to the Ghana Baptist Guest House. We had a nice room and best of all were able to take a shower. We took a little walk around the grounds of the Guest House (it used to be a hostel- so it is quite large). We were excited to find a banana tree and plenty of lizards running around.
We headed out to the bus station first thing in the morning and made our journey up to Kumasi. It was an amazing ride and a great opportunity to see some of Ghana. People’s homes were placed in many random places- people walking- goats galloping- cars driving all over both sides of the roads in opposite directions. There were also a lot of stands selling a variety of different goods… giant yams, bread, oranges, coconuts, etc. Jungle-like forest accompanied most of the ride. Needless to say it was quite a drive.
We also met another medical student who was from Seattle who was also coming out to Kumasi for a rotation. It is kind of crazy and such a small world because Paul and I are moving out to Seattle in a couple of months for residency, so he was great to talk with.
Once in Kumasi – the family who is hosting us picked us up at the bus stop. We were greeted in Ankaase with a very nice place to stay- unpacked our things and got ready for our first day in Ankaase.
Monday- March 31st
I started the day rounding in the women’s, isolation, and pediatric wards. On Monday the entire team of doctors round together. A couple of interesting patients…..We saw a man who was s/p debridement of a terrible and progressing ulcer on his leg. The man is 82 years old and the whole thing started with a small painless boil on his lower leg. This soon developed into cellulitus and then began to develop into necrotic tissue. This all occurred in a matter of 8 days or so. When we saw him the size of the ulcer extended the entire anterior portion of his lower leg. We could see all the way down to his tendons- and the entire portion of the ulcer was covered in a yellow pustular material. This is an interesting case because the doctors were thinking this patient had Burulei ulcer. They did order a Zeihl Neilsen stain to aid in the detection of an acid fast bacilli. This case is interesting, because Paul is studying Burulei ulcer and they have not had any documented cases here before. What a coincidence?
I also saw a young girl with massive splenomegaly. It is not too often in the states you even get to palpate the spleen. The thought was she has developed this condition secondary to chronic malaria- however the malaria parasites on admission were not present. When considering the differential diagnosis we decided to refer her to another larger hospital for possible lymphoma.
My placement for the rest of the day was in “Casualty,” which at first I thought this was a place where deceased people were taken. In actuality it is the equivalent to the emergency department. Many of the people who were seen had malaria or typhoid. I pulled out my pharmacopeia to look up the treatments for these individuals and come to find out they do not use anything we would use in the U.S. To make it even more difficult the doctor who works in casualty is Ghanaian and speaks Twi. I could not understand anything- it will get better. I am learning a couple of words a day.
Meh- da- say – Thank you.
My name in Twi- everyone here has two first names- the first one being the day of the week you are born on. Mine is Adwoa- for Monday.
Tuesday- April 1st- Happy April Fool’s Day
Today- we walked to the hospital. Everyone waved and greeted us as we came into town. The day is started with a blessing and today Paul and I were greeted into the community. It was a special moment.
Today I rounded again in the pediatric ward and then worked in the outpatient clinic. I also stopped in and watched the end of a hysterectomy which was taking place in the “theater,” the surgery suite. I saw the tail end of a hysterectomy. It was for the most part very similar to the US- but the conditions were very different.
On our way home we saw a giant millipede- red and black striped- 8 inches long and ½ inch side. I will try to post the photo. The day ended with a giant spider in our bath tub.
Well I had more to write but I am limited on time and will write again soon. Today was market day in Encase, so stories of that to come.
Words from today- Ma ache- good morning, Ma aha- good afternoon, Acofe- cough
One Response to “”
By Marcie on Apr 2, 2008
Wow, sounds like a very interesting time. how is your housing? Is paul liking what he is doing?