Day Thirty

Hello again:) Hope everything is good with you all in the UK, and the weather is beginning to warm up. I'm sending lots of sunny thoughts!

Yesterday was another busy day in the clinic, with lots of patients and a seemingly mad rush of pregnant women! My obstetrics is getting better each time! I have seen everything from twins, to a third trimester "I think I might be preganant", to a presentation at about 2 weeks....

I saw a four year old who was effectively being starved as well, which wasn't as much fun. It was one of those terrible situations where the last thing I wanted to do was send her back home, but there are no other options. I rang the paediatric department at the hospital but they didn't have any beds and as her height was still increasing she wasn't seen as an emergency. Heart-wrenching though, because she pounced on the box of sultanas we gave her, and it was the first time we saw her smile.

Today was somewhat more chaotic, with an emgency evacuation to hospital at about lunchtime. The silver lining was that I got a lift in as the "patient escort" and was therefore in town much earlier than expected! Plenty of time for a little shop and a real coffee from a real coffee-shop... crazy! The patient was someone I have mentioned before (we have evacuated her 3 times since I arrived) and she is mistreated by her family, and today we found her lying on a mattress having been doubley incontinent and left on her own in a room for 24 hours without food or water. Sadly she was also without oxygen, which means she had desaturated to about 55% (I wasn't aware that was still compatible with life) and was acutely confused. Another really sad story.

It would be really unfair to say the whole community is like that though - often the parents are really caring, and the kinship system means that there is a lot of love and support from so many people in and around the family. It only backfires when the system goes wrong!

Had an awesome night at the rec hall last night with the kids - they were playing cricket, basketball, football and trampolining all at once in the same space! Chaotic but they are always really excited if a "whitefella" joins in! And before anyone says anything... yes, they were all better than me!!

Am off to Uluru and the Canyon in the morning (leaving at 5.50am - urgh!) which should be a fantastic weekend and I'm looking forward to the break. Not literally I hope - anyone who knows what happened last time I went to King's Canyon should cross their fingers and think supportive thoughts about my ankles!

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