First week of work

On the first day of work my patients said to me: "dfljbdnf daflbndf ldnf ldfjbn" I'm afraid I didn't really have a clue what they were saying.
It was a struggle. Guess the diagnosis

On the second day of work My patients said to me: "Machete". I understood this word and linked it to the large ammount of blood and the cut and I think we reached the diagnosis.


On the third day of work My patients said to me: "Si, no" because I worked out that if I just aske lots of questions with yes/no answers I get a lot further.
(Any GP trainers reading this, I promise I haven't forgotten the importance of open questions, its just a phase I'm going through)

On the fourth day of work my patients said to me: "I can't afford inhalers". This 13 month old was wheezing away and had apparently has had frequent similar episodes. He had a deformity of his chest wall that would fit with lots of brething problems. I'm going to see him at the clinic run by SIFT (the charity I'm working for here) when they start in january. There we will have a lot more medicines available for free. Hopefully we can arrange some good follow up for him.

By the end of the week, the language was becoming a little less fo a mystery. The reasons poeple see a doctor here are getting alittle clearer and I am getting a little more confident.

I've now wandered down to the pacific coast to have a swim, or to ahve a couple of days fo swimming. Life should never be all work eh?