ashish in line at KFC pre- superbowl at the ambassador's house. We're about to find out they are out of fries/chips.
on the walk up our hike
our new friend
finally, a picture of "pride rock", but our first destination
this is the party next to our house that Paul Farmer was at! IT's pretty much this view when we saw him from across the street! The big sign explains the new TB lab sponsored partly by PIH.
I'm on my lunch break. Today I was with a MD from Uganda who is much more Western in her method. I work the EMR (with a suprising amount of independence, like writing prescriptions and ... the whole EMR- electronic medical record) and she writes in the Bukana (a book every patient has with all their medical information. so from when you're born to forever, everytime you go to the doctor, the doctor will write a note about what happened that day, wha'ts wrong, your vital signs, new rx etc.. apparently everyone but the US uses these) And we sort of do exam as whoever is free. We have a translator today too since her Sesotho is not comprehensive. And we're seeing lots of adolescents, since that's her thing.
The big deal today is a patient came in with a full shopping bag of all the pills he hasn't taken. Pounds of very expensive 2nd line ARV therapy. And in Lesotho, they don't have any third line agents in the country, so if he proves resistant, he's going to die. Pretty scary. Lillian, my MD today, told a story of a similar patient who was 17 or so, didn't take his meds appropriately and died at 18, 19 bleeding everywhere and terrible. The health literacy woman literally walked in circles in the waiting room showing everyone this shopping bag of meds, teaching everyone about resistance, med adherence and how this patient will most likely die now.
Heavy stuff.
African adolescents are incredibly charming. My favorite is asking the 12 year old boys if they have girlfriend's.
Back to work!
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