Day 42

Hello everyone - I hope you all had a fabulous weekend for any number of reasons - skiing, birthday parties and cocktail parties to name a few!

I'm definately on the mend and have eaten normally today, which has to signal a change for the better:) I made brownies for the staff at the clinic which seemed to go down very well, and everyone has suddenly become very appreciative of me - I think it has dawned on them that I'm going and they are hoping I'll stay. Mmm, beaches and the barrier reef or ears with pus and grubby children?? Not really a hard choice!

In the last two days I have seen 14 different people with perforated ear drums - most of whom with acute infection and lots and lots of pus pouring out. Seemingly it is normal here to have "runny ears" as a toddler, the way we consider a runny nose to be ok. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to syringe an ear on my own - so satisfying! Then I burst a boil on the same patient... generally a day full of pus!

Otherwise I saw a suspected appendicitis today which was interesting, and had lots of good signs. Oh, and a foot fell off in the waiting room. I kid you not - a man came in for "a dressing" and we asked him to take his socks off whilst he was waiting and 3 toes and a big chunk (about 3cm diameter) of the middle of his foot fell off! It transpires he is a diabetic who never takes his tablets or insulin and has a regular blood sugar of 25-28 and has had for 10 years. He is notoriously difficult to track down, and has no feeling in his feet - so was more suprised than us! The smell was nearly as attractive as the wound...

Not much else to report - only two days left before de-brief and then Queensland - I can't wait:)

Love you all,

Hugs and kisses xxxxxxxxx