A New Week With New Adventures!

Today was a new week and the start of a new ward. We divided into groups in which Sami, Sarah, and I were split among the groups, and I with Dani and Adelle. This week’s rounds will take place at the older hospital across town called Pelonomi. My group was placed in general adult surgery, though we spent about an hour and a half looking/waiting for our doctor. According to Dani, 3^rd year’s saying is “a year of being lost and confused mixed with hurry hurry wait.” After finding our doctors we split up again so that Dani and I had our own doctor. Once again, the doctor asked questions that Dani had possibly learned before, but chances are she wouldn’t be able to answer. We saw many patients with gastro problems where one man came in saying that he was trying to show off to the young people in the gym and somehow developed an umbilical hernia from it.

Tuesday we started in the ward and assisted a 4^th year take a patients history and complaints to present the patient to the doctor. The female patient mainly spoke Sotho so getting proper answers from her was pretty difficult. The 3^rd years were joking around the other day about their attempts at communicating with those who speak neither English nor Afrikaans saying they answer yes to everything. Do you have pain? Yes. For how long? Yes. Do you understand? Yes. The majority of sisters working in the hospitals speak Sotho so usually a translator is nearby, but not always. The patient had vascular problems (shocking, I know) and had developed venous ulcers on her lower right leg that were extremely painful. After the 4^th year had presented the patient, the doctor gave me another “We have to do a bypass on this patient, but the United States is rich and wasteful with money so they don’t have to resort to bypasses” speech. There is definitely resentment towards the US regarding such matters.

Following the presentation of the patient, we were assigned to draw blood from several patients. Since I am not allowed to do this, watching the 3^rd years practice drawing blood time after time has gotten pretty old. We finished our time at the hospital in the clinics, but were released early so we went to the Vryfees! This is basically a freedom festival (although the literal translation is “make-out festival”) that takes place on the campus of UFS every July. There are many food stands and stalls that sell an array of different products; so many stalls that it took me about 3 hours to visit each one. Very cool!

A 4th-year letting Adelle practice drawing blood

Snow tubing in 50F weather!

A table that had swings for chairs

Some inappropriate barbed wire mampoer (homemade alcohol)

Cheers to the pizza cone

They like to sell American flag merchandise along with Starbucks and Jack Daniels tanks.

There was an American flag pattern on pretty much everything. Purses, bags, scarfs, sweatshirts, pants, shorts, bathing suits, etc. 

Cheetahs, a Home-Cooked Meal, and The World Cup

After a week's worth of waiting, we finally made it to The Cheetah Experience. We took a cab, as usual, only this time the charge was R150. I asked the cab driver why the price for a 12 minute drive was more than twice the price of the 25 minute drive to Naval Hill, and apparently it's because The Cheetah Experience is outside the city limits. Online, by word from last year's students, and in the instructional video prior to our tour, we were under the impression that we would be able to interact with the cheetahs. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Although the lack of interaction was a letdown, we still saw many animals and had a wonderful time.

Apparently they keep a fawn, a chicken, and two bunnies in the same cage

How can you not love Meerkats? He's even using his explorer hands! (inside joke)  

We were actually inside the fence with this cheetah, but it didn't come extremely close.

A wolf named Nikita (as is our friend Nikki) that looks eerily similar to a certain Husky I know

Lions!

We have heard constant rumors about how great of a cook Megan's mom is and since Megan went home this weekend, she returned on Sunday with a load of her mother's cooking. The girls of our group, about 10 of us, met at Megan's flat for our first home-cooked meal since arriving. I would've taken a picture, but I had already scarfed down my entire plate before I even considered. Oops. Our meal consisted of fresh-squeezed lemonade, chicken pie, fried pumpkin bites in a brown sugar glaze, something I might compare to green bean casserole, but the two main ingredients were potatoes and green beans in corn kernel-sized pieces, and milk tart for dessert.

After dinner, we met some classmates at The Brazen Head (a pub) to watch The World Cup game.

I ordered a Heineken (the small glass) and a Castle Lite, which I thought would also be a small glass (oops), and only paid R49 or about $4.50. What a steal!

Our group picture at The Brazen Head

And another because Alden pitched a fit when he realized he wasn't in the first

Attack of the Wildebeests!

It's no surprise that we woke up around noon after our late Friday night. With no plans for the day, we consulted tripadvisor.com and found a place called Naval Hill that overlooks the city of Bloemfontein. (Since I haven't previously stated, Bloemfontein is pronounced "bloom-fon-tane") As our taxi drove us to the top of Naval Hill, we passed zebras, wildebeests, springboks, and ostriches. Without a car, our trip wasn't as ideal as we'd hoped, but it was definitely an adventure. On our return trip to our planned rendezvous spot with the taxi driver, we saw some wildebeest close-by and attempted to get a better picture. We came upon a pond that we had to walk around and although they began snorting at us, we chose to walk on the side closest to them. Definitely a mistake. The two biggest of the five started running at us so we calmly but quickly walked in the opposite direction. The wildebeests continued in our direction for several more yards, but finally backed away. While it may seem uneventful, I was definitely scared for my life for a good 30 seconds during our encounter. I will explain the rest through pictures below.

That night, Cherade took us to eat at a local chicken place and then we went to Nikki and Dani's to watch "Resident Evil" followed by the Brazil vs Netherlands game.

Zebras!

Overlook of Bloemfontein

Our mediocre attempt at a selfie with the city

Giant statue of Nelson Mandela

A LOT of walking...and me trying to be artistic 

The wildebeests

Not pictured: Springboks and Ostriches because they were too far away for my camera

  

A Night on the Town

Friday 7/11/14

After watching the 3rd-years learn to draw blood a few times and set up a drip, our gastroenterology doctors were scheduled for surgery. Unfortunately, both theaters had the max number of people observing from the room so we were directed to the observation room above the surgical table. The surgery involved the removal of lymph glands in a males armpit. Since there was no communication from the theater to the observation room, I'm not quite sure why this surgery was performed.

View from the observatory room

Our class following lunch was about the law process and the progressive attempts of the government to create a better and more efficient healthcare system for the citizens of South Africa. While completely irrelevant to us, I found it pretty interesting with courtesy to the professor. He was the type of teach found in high schools that gives each student a nickname based off something they said, wore, or did. So, of course, it didn't take long for me to earn the nickname "Dr. USA."

Friday night was meant to be a pizza and wine night, but Sami, Cherade, Nishana (Cherade's sister), and I went to a restaurant called Kalahari instead in search of a "Cheetah Burger." Obviously (or it should be obvious), this burger is not made of cheetah meat, but it's just a giant burger. We discovered that sharing a Cheetah Burger is not allowed so the waiter suggested some other type of giant burger we could all share, and giant it was.

An awesome looking drink Nishana ordered for us

Using my hand as a size reference

It has 7 burgers inside and was only R100 ($10) split between four of us. Why don't they have these in America...

During our pizza and wine night, the South Africans decided it was time for us to experience their nightlife dance club scene. It was pretty similar to the bars back home, except girls and guys didn't really dance with each other, and any upbeat song ever recorded was bound to be played. For example, they played: YMCA, The Cha Cha Slide, Afrikaans songs, Tsunami by DVBBS & Borgeous (very techno...and very awesome), Dark Horse by Katy Perry, etc. After this we went next door to another club/bar that had a neon/glow-in-the-dark theme that was definitely only for college aged people, and extremely similar to the US.

We were warned by the App State students who went on this trip last year that the bars have a dress code and may turn you away if you're too casual, but that didn't seem to be an issue in the least bit.

I Think My Bone Marrow is Frozen

Similar to our very first day at the hospital, we followed the doctors, interns, and 5th-years around as the 5th-years gave a summary of each patient and the doctor asked them questions pertaining. While in English, I did not understand most of what was said because this subject requires a lot more background knowledge than vascular, and the doctor was a little intimidating and less willing to break everything down for us. In fact, we have noticed that this particular doctor, who's name we do not know, is very arrogant (or maybe he just comes off that way). During the rounds, while with a patient and 16 other people waiting to hear him talk, he answered his cell phone and spoke in Afrikaans for about a minute. I can't assume it wasn't extremely important, but based on his body language, it was a fairly regular conversation. This whole situation caught me pretty off-guard, but maybe it's a common happening.

We attended a 1 hour lecture about the questioning process that takes place in a clinical setting, such as, where is the pain? Is it constant or irregular? Do certain foods or activities worsen the pain? etc, which I found surprisingly interesting. We had an hour lunch break followed by a 3 hour lecture taught by Dr. Piers, which would have been pretty enjoyable had it not been roughly 35 degrees F in our classroom. As I have stated previously, buildings in Bloemfontein are rarely heated, so you can imagine a classroom in the middle of the hospital during a week of 24-40 degree weather. I won't sugarcoat it, I was miserable.

After returning to our dorm to warm up, we were chauffeured to the Waterfront Mall for dinner at Spur Steakhouse. The restaurant has a deal on Wednesdays for a burger, chips (fries), onion rings, a cool drink (soda), and a movie ticket for R79. It was unbeatable. Following our meal, five of us went to see "The Fault in our Stars," and the other five (including Sami and Sarah) returned home to use their ticket another time. As most of you may know, "The Fault in our Stars" is known to make people cry uncontrollably, but I didn't cry once! (as long as the first seven times don't count).

Gastroenterology is Not For Me

Week 2 marks the end of our time in the vascular department with Dr. Piers, and the beginning of our week in the gastroenterology department. We were asked to arrive at 8:30 instead of the usual 7:30, and still spent about an hour and a half waiting for the doctor to arrive. In this time before lunch, we were able to see two patients get a long scope, with a diameter slightly less than that of a penny, shoved down their throat and into their duodenum, intestines, stomach, etc. This was very unsettling to watch as the patient was gagging, coughing, and vomiting the entire time. When the doctor found little polyps on the second patient's stomach lining, she inserted a tool, comparable to tiny wire cutters, down the tube to cut off a few of the polyps for testing. It seemed like pure torture and I wanted nothing more than to yank the tube out of their throat and rip it in half, but I was trying not to be so quick to judge the subject.

Tuesday's trip to the ward did not leave as much of an impression on me. We followed our usual 5th-years around as they interviewed their assigned patients as to why they were there, their initial reason for coming to the hospital, if they have had surgery, their overall well-being, etc. The reason for this was to prepare to present the patient's story to the specialized doctor, and their thoughts regarding it. This seems like a very effective method of learning for the 5th-years about a range of different patient problems and complaints, their diagnosis, their treatment, and whether or not they were improving.

Sunday means Laundry Day

I was waiting for this day with great anticipation because our plan was to go to a tourist-like attraction called "The Cheetah Experience." I'll let you assume what that might entail. Unfortunately, Megan got sick and Devon had a personal issue so we postponed until possibly this coming weekend. With a full unplanned day ahead of us, Sarah, Sami, and I decided to take a cab to the National Museum. Not as exciting as cheetahs, but I always love a good museum. When we returned from the museum we were greeted by hoards of people with large suitcases filing into our dorm; a seemingly awesome sight, until we walked closer to discover they were half our size. Ages ranging from about 8-16ish? We were informed that they will be staying in our dorm for the week because they are competing in a table tennis tournament in Bloemfontein. Stay tuned.

On another note, at this point in my trip I was completely out of clean pants, in fact, I was completely out of clean pants on Friday (judge me), so it was time to do some laundry. Have you ever taken your dryer for granted on a cold winter day with temperatures just above freezing? I certainly have. Although, it's moments like having to hang my clothes on a clothesline in 40 degree weather while wearing running shorts that I appreciate most, because these moments force me to realize how blessed and thankful I am for the life and opportunities that my parents have provided me, and the friends that I have met along the way. So as a friendly reminder: I love all you guys! You too, Dr. Jones.