Last call, for now

Today is my last day on call for the next week. They are assigning a family medicine doctor to the peds ward so that I can focus on study work in Bamenda for the next week. Then I‘ll be back inpatient for the following two weeks. Four of the American doctors left yesterday and Mollie leaves this Friday—needless to say, we are about to be very short-staffed. I will definitely miss having Mollie around, we definitely do a good job of keeping each other sane. Tomorrow after rounds we are going to a tea plantation—I’m not really sure what that means, but I will be happy to get off the hospital grounds for a day. I heard a rumor that there might be gorillas there; Jonas will be sorely disappointed if I come back from Africa without any exotic wildlife pictures.

The little girl who came in with lethargy and vomiting yesterday with a sluggishly reactive pupil was found to have schizoencephaly on head ultrasound. Thank goodness for Wikipedia in times like these. Apparently it means there are abnormal clefts/slits in one or both cerebral hemispheres. She also has dilated ventricles. Having an answer is all well and good, but here the question of what to do next always trumps a definitive diagnosis. I’m not a neurologist, radiologist, neurosurgeon, or intensivist, but apparently I play one on TV. The surgeons are asking me what I think they should do- if I think they need to put in a VP shunt. I asked them to find me the mythical ophthalmoscope that lives somewhere in the jungle. Maybe then hook me up with an MRI/CT scan and a neurosurgeon. For now, I have some thinking to do and hope she doesn’t herniate in the meantime.

A small blessing yesterday was that the mother of the baby with Epidermolysis Bullosa speaks English and I was able to sit and talk with her for a while about the diagnosis. It was so cathartic to finally be able to communicate with a parent directly. She asked to see the chaplain after I spoke with her, which confirms that she was actually hearing the words that I was saying.

Next week will be nice to get a little break from the wards. I also will need to focus on looking for jobs back home for when I finish residency in a couple months. Being away for these two months has made things a little tricky. I was offered a job a couple weeks ago, but I don’t think they are willing to wait for me to return before I accept the position. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

I’m learning a little pidgin English. It’s really hard to understand. I have no idea how things are spelled, but people say “Asha” for everything- hello, goodbye, I’m sorry, okay, etc. It has a really nice sound to it. They say chop for eating… “you done chop good today?” The syntax is always interesting. And my personal favorite, “you shiddy wahh wahh?” (something like that) for diarrhea…literally, are you shitting water? Makes me giggle every time.

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Thanks to everyone back home and abroad for all the well-wishes, concerns, kind words of support and understanding, middle of the day can-you-look-this-up-for-me text responses, overseas consults and advice, reassurance, worry, prayers, messages, and an overall presence from far away. I feel very lucky and blessed to share this story. This is an opportunity to learn and understand and widen our world lenses. It is taking a moment to evaluate our faith and mortality and an opportunity to recognize a common humanity. We are all brothers, sisters, children, mothers, fathers. Let it be empathy and not guilt that enables us to remember our global families.