Crazy, Hectic Day in Segbwema

Omg! Crazy day today.  I was left here by myself! Myself! My 3rd day?!  The only doctor there decided to drive to Kenema - a place 45 min away.  OMG...ahhhh!  Patient with malaria, diabetes, and possibly typhoid all of a sudden crashed and had altered mental status!  With distended belly... surgical? Not surgical? Perforated? Does he need surgery?  I don't know!  What to do?!  Ah!  Vitals - ok...got vitals. And then called the doctor, said to put in NG (nasogastric) tube...but what?!  Can't find NG tube! No NG tube! Then they found it..ok. And he's diabetic, so we wanted to check blood sugar, but guess what?...the doctor took the glucometers with him when he left!  Ugh....so not helpful.  So I was frantically trying to call the doctor and tell him to come back.  Didn't help his strong accent prevented me from understanding him.  I had the pharmacist come to help out - apparently he does everything when the doctor's gone.  But still...wasn't that helpful.  There's essentially nothing in the pharmacy.  I called the American doctor that left today, but it did not help that her phone RAN OUT OF BATTERY!  But thankfully, the patient came around, and became coherent.  I think he may have had an episode of diabetic ketoacidosis.  Ugh. What a day.

And then I also found that last night the kid who was febrile and had trouble breathing had passed away :'(  So sad!

And in the meantime, I'm also trying to see patients at the clinic. I think there weren't many patients at the clinic.  I had send a patient to get some labs, and I totally forgot about her. Oops. I guess she'll come back tomorrow.  

Oh no, and then I found out a patient died.  This was a guy I had seen in the morning, and the doctor didn't see him because he was on his way to Kenema... I think I might have contributed to his death.  :(  If I had the doctor see him earlier, maybe he would've gotten certain labs back earlier, and then maybe he would've survived.  I don't know.  It was so sad to see his family wailing outside.  His sister was literally rolling on the floor and flailing her arms, and crying, "It is finished!  My only brother is gone!"  It's so sad, he had just finished university and was going to be a teacher.  Apparently he passed away while the doctor was examining him later in the afternoon.  Ah....so sad.  And I really don't know why the doctor left me all by myself (with the nurses, pharmacist, and surgery tech...but still).