day 8

past one week had seen quite a number of cases such as tuberculosis(pulmonary, renal, intestinal), anal fistula, goiter, scabies, perforated TM, osteomyelitis etc.

been to a few a mobile clinic also which caters to the need of the refugees. they are there on a weekly basis and the medical team work in a confined space. cant believe the clinic is right in the heart of the city. but its pretty new so i guess the authority has no clue bout it-yet

patient volume load is pretty high ranging between 70 to 120 patients. so sometimes the team can be there from 9am till 7pm. it is no suprising considering there are many refugees working around bukit bintang area. its not uncommon for 20 odd individual to be living together in 2 bedroom apartments. yesterday (4thoctober) there was a raid on that area by the Immigration and rela members. one of the burmese guy i met last monday who is a volunteer with MSF was arrested and thrown into a detention center awaiting deportation.


another good thing about this electives is that im given the chance to improve my clinical skills which is simply not possible back in college. there was this guy who was assulted last week and he came in to remove all his sutures and i was asked to do it. he had something like 20 odd sutures all around his body. hope i didnt hurt that much when i was removing the sutures.

when MJ, the french nurse in batu arang, found out that i had yet to withdraw blood from a real life patient, she so kindly offered her veinS to me. i got the sequence of steps wrong (did not release the tourniquet before removing the needle) so she offered me the other arm. on the second arm, i failed to push the needle deep enough so when i turned to take the vaccutainer, the needle came out and blood started oozing out. i went "oh Fuck!!"
but she was all chill bout it and said, "dont worry. we practice again next week." how sweet.

so im heading there now to pock her again.

*i've seen withdraw blood twice, so i guess i wont hurt her so bad this time.