I've got to say, after five weeks of (essentially) vacation, it was a little bit of a shock to the system to go back to work today. Most notably the part of the system that involves my feet. But at least the hospital I went back to work at was Tenwek, and at least I'm finally in Kenya. It was quite a saga - from which I intentionally spared most of my poor friends - as to how I finally made it back here. Suffice it to say that it involved more than one plane ticket purchase and a strong compulsion to check googlenews for the latest on Kenya five or six times a day.
At any rate, I finally got the go-ahead from both World Medical Mission and Tenwek, though, and took off on Sunday. I arrived in country on Monday evening after two incredibly-empty international flights during which I was able to claim an entire row of seats for myself and flew most of the rest of the way the next morning with another family, the Osteens, who had arrived in Nairobi on Sunday. A couple of notable things about the flight: a) I have definitely never flown in a plane that small before - it was some Cessna something-or-other that had room for six people including the pilot - so that was kind of fun, and b) it was really a gorgeous flight; we flew over the eastern edge of the Rift Valley, saw two volcanos, and viewed a lot of scenery that just seems more beautiful, somehow, from the air than a vehicle. Also I want to report that Olerai, which I had pictured as some little mini-airport in the middle of western Kenya, more closely approximates a strip of dirt with a fence at the end. Which probably explains why I couldn't find it on any maps. But I had just finished reading Acts of Faith (by Philip Caputo, a novel about the humanitarian aid community in NW Kenya/southern Sudan, definitely recommended, although be prepared to be disturbed), and so I was up for a little adventure.
Yesterday was thankfully a day to settle in and get to see a few friends I hadn't seen since last time, but this morning I was back on a full schedule. Six of the new M.O. (medical officer, like MDs in the States) interns arrived yesterday as well, and so today was a little chaotic all around. I've started on the medicine side of things, where I'll be for this week before swapping over to peds next week. Fortunately, I had two excellent third-year FP residents to help re-acclimate me to the medicine ward (where I haven't been at Tenwek since I was a med student in 2004). Probably the most dramatic thing that happened today was when one of the younger patients arrested as we were rounding on him. After three rounds of epi, we got him back - even in the States, I have mixed feelings in those situations - and then fought for him in the ICU for the next two hours until he finally died. I stumbled off to get something to eat at around 2:30 and then came back to finish rounding and to help orient the interns who had been assigned to the medical service. It was a little intimidating to be the one orienting when it was my first day, too, but the three of us made it through somehow. I feel badly - there was so much going on today that I didn't really have time to talk to patients or their families much, but it's only the first day, and hopefully we won't have patients arresting on rounds on a daily basis.
So I was pretty glad to have things wind down around 5:00 and to slip my poor throbbing soles out of my shoes. There's a rumor there's Bible study at the Whites' house tonight, which I need to confirm, but otherwise it should be a quiet evening.
Okay, I swear I finished writing this an hour and a half ago when suddenly the power went out for about two seconds. And then I couldn't get the internet to function when the computer turned on again. Thank goodness for autosave! And now it's time for Bible study - I managed to verify the rumor - so I really should just post and sign off.
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