Day 100 (how cool is that?!)

My first note is that Obama is also on Day 100 - time is going really quickly! I met a second Obama in the last two weeks - a baby born in November just after the original was elected!! Photos to follow:)

So Nauru - I have had a fabulous two weeks away with lots of brilliant medicine and really interesting conditions, and some fabulously gory wounds and theatre!!! I won't upload photos but I promise to show anyone who is interested when I get back!

Nauru is a tiny pacific island (circumfrence 12km) just south of the equator, about a 5 hour flight from Brisbane, via Honiara in the Solomon Islands. The island was mined extensively for phosphate in the past and was very rich, now however they have fallen into poverty and the island is in disrepair. The hotel, for example, would have been fabulous in the 50s - but hasn't been updated since!

In some ways Nauru is a beautiful pacific island, and we went on a boat trip around the island and enjoyed looking back at the beaches, the palm trees and some of the coral reef. However, whilst on the island the buildings are falling down and poverty is obvious, as well as the mining which has left pinnacles, mines and buildings across the island. It would take only a few minor changes to update the island and make it into an adventure tourist destination - not only are there good walks across the island and the pinnacles, but Nauru was occupied during WW2 by the Japanese and there is lots of history as well - gun mounts, pill boxes and command ridge.

The hospital itself is relatively large, with several wards and rooms - and has inpatients, a theatre, multiple consulting rooms for daily appointments (there are no GPs so everyone comes to the hospital), a maternity section, x-ray, a lab (very very limited facilities though) and a small eduction room with a selection of textbooks. Some date back to the 1940s though!!! In fact, most were older than me....

We saw lots of scabies, I genuinely believe that every child on the island is affected (sadly no cream available for treatment though) and since returning to Melbourne yesterday, I have treated myself in the reasonable knowledge that in a clinic where there is not always water I was likely to have been affected! Lots of asthma, pneumonia, and bronchiolitis as well and some interesting things - a cleft palate in an 11 year old (unrepaired), 3 hypospadius (apologies to those to whom that means nothing), a sphincterotomy and lots of interesting wounds!

So back in Melbourne for a couple of days and then off to Thailand on Saturday! Stage two begins:)

I'll keep you posted with my travels,

Miss you all,

Lots and lots of love

Keep smiling xxxxxxxxxx