Surgery...ooohhh...aaaahhh

For day 3 at the hospital we got to stand-in on a surgery and I even got to "scrub-up"! I had to be taught the proper procedure of washing my hands which took about 5 minutes because I had to wash 5 times, and then I put on a sterile gown and got to stand next to the surgeon for a whole surgery. The surgeon was the same vascular doctor, Dr. Piers, that we met the first day, and he was extremely approachable and willing to answer any questions. He performed a Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Surgery due to renal failure so it wasn't too advanced, but still very exciting.  Basically, they made a vertical cut about 2-3in long to the right side of the belly button, cut through the abdominal muscles, (Dr. Piers, who jokingly teased us "dumb Americans" the first day, but actually criticized our healthcare system, said "this is where the six pack would be, have you Americans heard of that term, have you ever seen one?" Ha! You're hilarious...Although, he actually is.) and insert a catheter tube into the peritoneal space. The muscle is sewn back up around the catheter insertion area, but the catheter tube exits closer to the pelvis. A bag of dialysate (not sure what is in that) is drained over a period of 15 minutes into the peritoneal cavity to dilate bodily fluids normally filtered by the kidneys, and is then drained back out. The patient much perform this 30 min process twice a day for the rest of their lives.

So official

Dr. Piers made a curious point saying that this procedure isn't often done in America, but since they do not have enough dialysis machines, facilities, or patient transportation, they do this surgery instead. This surgery is also not ideal for the patient and Dr. Piers made Cherade address a scenario in which the patient might live.

The senario was:
A 3 month's supply of dialysate bags weighs ~240kg, which the man must transport from the hospital to his shack in his township. He lives with 5 other people in a two room shack and the bags will fill the majority of one of the two rooms, etc. Food for thought.

On another note, since we've stayed up until 1am the past two nights with a couple of the med students watching the World Cup, waking up at 6:30am to go to clinicals at 7 has been pretty rough, but if they can do it then so can we, right? Plus, we get to try awesome drinks and foods like their green cream soda that is about as common as Mountain Dew, caramel creme jello stuff, and Rooibos tea which is definitely a staple in every household.

This afternoon we went shopping and "had tea" with Megan, Devon, and Anna.

The green cream soda

My South African Farm Breakfast with Red Velvet Hot Chocolate (why not?) at Mugg & Bean. Literally the best scrambled eggs I have ever had.

SA has some distorted views on some of the things we eat. For instance, baked beans were included in the "All American Breakfast" at Mugg & Bean. Uhh...no thanks

If I was a local I would definitely buy these for every occasion.

The caramel cream stuff. Delicious!

PS...Sorry all my pictures are food. I'll work on that.