This is a goiter.Today was another crazy day in clinic! It was only Dr. Faile, Dr. Hewitt, Christy Lee (another 4th year medical student, who is staying the entire time I'm here), and myself. Throughout my short stay, I've been impressed by cultural differences in medicine between the US and here, but today they stuck out more than usual.
One of my first patients today complained of "piles." Maybe some of you know what that is, but I did not. So I ask her to show me in the exam room, which is behind where I talk with patients. By the time I get back there, she is completely naked, prostrate on the floor (we do have an exam table, but she chose the floor) with her bum in the air, as she points to her hemorrhoids. It was slightly different than how that would work in the US. :-)
Then there are the COUNTLESS number of translational issues. I often sit for 5 to 10 minutes at a time with my interpreter and patient chatting vigorously, to then have my interpreter say ONE word about what is wrong with the patient!
No one has back pain in Ghana, but EVERYONE has WAIST pain.
I have taken quite a few good medical photos, but I think many are too graphic to show on this forum. If I get a chance on a weekend, I will try to upload them to snapfish, and people can go look at them there.
2 comments:
wow, did they opperate on the goiter? Remove it?
They don't have a surgeon who can do it here. If a visiting surgeon comes in, it could be operated on....but actually she wasn't even in the hospital for her goiter....that was just incidental. She had been living with it for years.
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