A Consult from Little Old Me?

Another great clinic day! Today we were actually in the church that runs the hostel we are staying in so we had a 2 minute commute (which was nice because tomorrow it’s over 2 hours!!!) I was set up in the nursery which was definitely more chaotic than yesterday’s empty dorm! But it was a good, private space.

The pastor kept warning us all day that there was going to be so so many people and we were really worried about seeing everyone, but the perfect number ended up coming — God’s good that way ;)

They were kind of trickling in too which was nice. And we had a different variety of medical cases so it wasn’t 1,000 ECGs back to back (which is good. That machine and I are gonna kill each other by the end of this trip — I hate technology!!!). I got to do some vitals and chatting with patients while they were waiting to be seen and like it has been the other days, it was a mix of joy and pain.

Lots of thank you’s for being there and they are so happy to see me and trying to marry me off to their son/grandson/nephew/milkman. But there were also lots of tears. I felt really bad — one lady had a blood pressure of like 250-something and so I told her it was very very high. And normally when it’s that high they’re like “yeah I didn’t take my medicine today” or “eh, it doesn’t feel high” so I’ve gotten accustomed to admonishing them a little bit so I was getting ready to do that and I looked up and there were tears streaming down her face.

My translator told me that she said she had taken her medicine today, and every other day, and it’s not working and she’s so scared and can’t do anything. Ugh I felt terrible that I was about to wag my finger at her!! I gave her lots of hugs and told her she is in the right place, that we will do everything we can to help her and that she is loved and we care about her. All of that stuff.

I think she just needed to cry for a bit though so we did that, and she said she started to feel a little bit better, just was worried about being able to get help and get something to finally help.

Other patient tears were related to the war. People were sharing where they fled from, how scared they were, how many people they have lost. Those were definitely group crying sessions — I really just can’t keep it together.

My favorite patient of the day was this itty bitty lady I was trying to do an ecg on her but she was talking nonstop in so many languages and then she started singing a song that sounded very, uh, Russian? And my translator just started cracking up and told me that it was in fact a French song but she had translated all lyrics to Russian 😆 we finally had to tell her to shut up so we could take a picture of her heart but she was a hoot — and to be singing in that position was even funnier to me.

We also had a man who laid down for his ecg and the bed broke!! Apparently a bolt had been missing and he sat on it just wrong. Anyway, I went to fix it, and he shoed me away and was crawling around to put it back together for me!! So sweet! Sadly, I ended up waxing his chest a little bit so I didn’t really repay him well for his kindness ;)

And probably the most surprising thing for me today: the doctor needed my medical opinion on something!! This whole trip, I’ve been asking them (obviously) for consults and they’ve been consulting each other, you know, as doctors do. But this afternoon, Mallory came into my room and said that Kirk needed me when I had a second and I felt like I was getting called into the principal’s office, sure that I messed one of the tests up or something!!

But no, I stepped inside and asked what was up and he said he needed my opinion on something. I was like what? He then told me all about this patient who had been getting itchy lips and throat and stuff for ten years but none of the doctors could figure it out. He said it sounds a lot like my food allergies to him and he wanted to know more about my condition and if I thought it was similar.

I offered up some more investigative questions, and we looked at a few things. I think we finally concluded it was more likely an allergy to fragrances (like that whale blubber stuff that they put in — I had a friend who had an allergy to that stuff and had a terrible time with detergents and perfumes and makeup) instead of PFAS. But it was so cool to solve a problem collaboratively with a real live doctor who valued my opinion and not just my BP skills :) makes me want to maybe study a higher level of medicine…

Talking with the other doctors, I heard so many stories of success and encouragement today. It really makes all of the exhaustion, stress, fighting with technology, and sticker washing worth it :)