Second Day

So wow. Maybe I thought I wasn't cut out for OBGYN but there I was again. Today three other students and myself went to Hlengisizwe Clinic which is about 40 minutes outside of Durban and is a local clinic where people get their ARV treatment and also go there to see if they need to be transferred to a primary hospital.

I decided to jump right in and go help out the OBGYN portion of the clinic. Thank goodness I had done this the previous day AND I had my Palm on me!! They wanted me to do the exam, diagnosis, plan, patient education (they translated Zulu for this portion). Anyway they taught me how to do a pelvic exam on a pregnant woman and how to put in a catheter and evaluate women to see if they needed to be transferred. One of these women who was 37 weeks pregnant had some minor bleeding but then on exam presented with hypertension (high blood pressure), 1+ protein in her urine and 2+ edema (sorry for all of these medical terms!). So the midwife taught me how to do a urine catheter and we did a dipstick and found protein 2+ which meant that we needed to transfer the patient to a hospital via ambulance. In the meantime I did another intake of a patient and learned how to hook up a fetal monitor and listen for the fetal heart rate. I went to check on the first patient because I heard some heavy breathing coming from her area. She started seizing and fell off her exam table to the ground. Thank goodness the midwife was right there and the other nurses jumped in. Then my ride back to St.Mary's was there.

The woman at the Clinic were so happy to have us there. It is amazing the response we get from the people here. They look at us as such beacons of hope. One Sister/Nurse told us we have to come back to South Africa when we are done with our degrees. I really hope that we can.

This weekend we are going to a real Zulu wedding!!!! This is quite the honor to be invited by our family. So Regina and I will depart on Saturday. Now all we have to figure out is what to wear ;-)

Love to all.