Friday

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but you can't expect me to post every day while I'm here :) Anyway, yesterday we spent the morning in the ward rounding with Dr Costa. We have seen ALOT of TB since being here. When rounding we wear special masks to keep from possibly inhaling air contaminated with TB. Unfortunately, those masks are very uncomfortable and make us feel about 3 times warmer than we were already. The masks are also pretty itchy, and too big for my small face so it either gets in the way of me seeing or nearly chokes me, but if it keeps me from getting TB I guess its worth it! As I mentioned before its the peak of Summer here so it is hot and humid, and the wards don't have A/C (just windows to hopefully circulate air if there happens to be a breeze that day). Plus we are wearing scrubs and our white coats. So needless to say, we were burning up!

We saw alot of interesting illnesses, including some that are not commonly seen in the states. We saw a 15 year old boy who developed severe Steven Johnsons Syndrome from a reaction to his antiretroviral medication. For those of you not familiar with medical conditions, SJS is a horrible, life threatening reaction to certain medications that develops in the skin that in lamens terms causes the top layer (epidermis) to separate from the lower layer (dermis) and just peel off. (Not at all like the peeling you may have after a sun burn!). Individuals with this must be treated in a burn unit and the only treatment for it is supportive (fluids and pain management). This kid had this covering his ENTIRE body and had also developed secondary infection. I have never seen SJS before, and I'm not sure I'll ever see a case this bad again in my life. Other interesting things we saw were Karposi's sarcoma, severe cases of pulmonary TB, and a case where TB had caused degeneration of lumbar spine and arthritis.

Rachel's suitcase arrived! So over our lunch break Dr Costa drove us to the airport to pick it up. It was nice driving around again to get to see the area more. He decided to take us out to dinner later at a place he goes often. That evening he picked us up and Zakhle came along too. The place was called Mvubu Falls Hotel. (Mvubu means hippo, but there weren't any there, haha) Costa had never actually eaten there, he said its were he goes to drink! So of course, the drink menu at least doubled the food menu! But it was good and we had a great time just hanging out with them. Like I said in an earlier post, the people of this area love to laugh and have a good time.

As promised here are some pictures of where we are staying! Its nothing fancy, but it works very well for us.
Where we sleep:

Bathroom

Kitchen