I was happy to be back in clinic for the end of next week after my trip to the mainland. We were pretty busy, as Dr. Jackie was not in her clinic, but Drs. Jennifer and Sarah were both comfortable with most things, so it went relatively quickly. We did have a little trouble again with Dr. Charles coming in late, and had to figure out on our own how to deal with a child with a 104 degree fever and possible dengue, malaria, bad viral infection, or early stages of appendicitis. After talking with the staff at the lab, I learned that there is no lab for dengue at the public hospital. I have no idea how expensive or complicated it is to test for, but it seems like something they would probably test for often and I was surprised they did not have the equipment to test for it. We were able to get a malaria smear and CBC, though, but the patient never came back with the results. Hopefully the child will be okay.
Sarah left on Friday and Dr. Charles is taking the next couple of weeks as vacation, so it will be me, Jenn, and a social service doctor in the clinic for a while. I hope it all goes smoothly with the new social service doctor.
As Max mentioned, we helped out at the Concert for the Angels on Thursday afternoon. Peggy had brought a number of patients and their families to the event, so we got to hang out with them, which was fun. It was definitely a different side of the island than I'm used to working with and a little bit ridiculous, but it raised a lot of much needed money!
I helped Peggy and some other volunteers clean out the pharmacy shelves on Saturday, and we were able to send a bunch of meds to a doctor working on the mainland. It still amazes me how much Peggy shares with different people, knowing who will need what and getting it to them.
