Last words (maybe)

This will probably be my final entry before returning to England (and hopefully a bit longer than the last!) I am now one day away from completing my elective and, in a rather cliched way, can’t believe it’s gone so fast! This last two weeks I’ve been doing lots more clinical work, including delivering babies, suturing, assisting in theatre, doing procedures like lumbar punctures (with no local anaesthetic – eek!) and running clinics in outpatients! I’ve certainly learnt a lot, though how much of it will be relevant when I return to the UK remains to be seen – but it certainly makes me appreciate just what we have back there.

On Tuesday I went out with the Home Base Care team for the day – they are nurses who go out into the rural communities and provide nursing care, medications and food for people who are sick at home and unable to get to clinic. It was quite scary as I was suddenly expected to be the senior member of the team and decide management plans for patients on the basis of very little information, and prescribing from a very limited range of drugs. It was also very harrowing to see some very sick patients and not know how on earth they were going to get to hospital for the care they desperately needed. At least ARVs are free now; if they weren’t then I think the country would be fairly rapidly decimated. Even so, for some patients getting the few emalangeni required for the bus to Good Shepherd for their refills is a Herculean task.

Rachel and Lucy have now left, and we have two new students from Southampton called Laura and Catherine, so Tim is very happy he won’t be left on his own after this week! We’re still trying to plan our final weekend’s activities, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something fun – at the moment the “Cuddle Puddle” is high on the agenda (it’s a spa in the Ezulwini Valley). Tonight is our final braai and we will say goodbye to Joel and his wife Lynette who has been visiting this week, so things really are slowly winding down. I’ve got my car booked for 5:30 (eep!) Monday morning to take me to the airport, and then once I get to Jo’burg am planning to spend some of my 11 hour stopover going to the Apartheid Museum, which has been recommended to me. And then it’s just lots of flying and a fair amount of sitting around and I’ll be home! Assuming I can fit all my clothes and the large amount of dodgy souvenirs into my suitcase…