Mary in Malawi

12 July

Monday! And I'm in OPD; Out patients Department. This is the ward where the patients are admitted and ”triaged” if I can put it that way. They line up, comes in and gets seen by a medical asistent (someone who has had two years of intense, pure training in medication). The MA looks at the patient, and decides whaat drugs she or he should have, writes it in the patients little book and send the patient to the pharmacy and then home. If the patient is very sick, he/she gets admitted and gets seen by a doctor on clinical officer (someone who has the right to do nursing aswell as surgical procedures and prescribe medication). As a nurse in OPD, you check the patients who are in line. If someone is very sick, you put her/him forward in line. You also assist in a room called CASUALITES; where I spent most of the day. In that room, patients come to get wounds dressed, get injections and to get minor surgical procedures done, like repairing a broken leg, drain an abscess etc.. Also emergency surgery is made her. Sometimes it is very busy, and sometimes very calm. Today we had some wound dressings and some abscesses. An abscess is an infection bound to one spot of the body, like a cyste. When the infection gets worse, the cyste grows into a big ball. It is very painful, and you have to get it drained. You drain it by cutting deep down, put your finger in and ”break” everything inside the cyste. A lot of pus and blood comes out, and then you leave the wound open for drainage. We had a little boy with a GIANT abscess on his back. We drained it for approximately 250 ml of pus (!!!) Thats a LOT. 2 and a half deciliter.... Nice....!

We also had a lot of wound dressings. A lot of burn wounds, animal bites, knife-accidents etc... Some patients comes in because they have been bitten by a relative or another person, in the nose or the ear... Someone have been in a fight. And no matter what wound it is, they clean everything with chlorine or pure spirits. At home we only clean with sodium chloride (saltvatten).

I went to the lab a few days ago, to get tested for malaria. And the girl who works there asked me for my blood group. It is O Rhd Neg, allso called ”emergency blood”. It is very rare, and also is the only blood group that can be given to everyone, no matter their bloodgroups. She was really happy, because they didn't have any donor with that bloodgroup. So Im the only one =). If there is an emergency, they will call me and I will donate. Cool ;)..

Also, today I've been baking cakes! =D Birthday tomorrw! Woho! =D