Tuesday, March 07, 2006

LP Machine

I'm telling you, my team is a well-oiled L.P. Machine these days. Another day, two more L.P.'s. (again, for those non-medical types out there who may be perusing this blog...L.P. = lumbar puncture = spinal tap). I was trying to calculate how many L.P.'s I've either performed myself or supervised since being here and I would estimate that it's almost certainly over twenty. There are some senior residents back in Philly in my own residency program who have not yet been "signed off" on L.P.'s (which requires only 5).

One of the cool things about the Penn Program in Botswana is that it's always in flux...there is a revolving door of students, residents, and attendings which is constantly changing. As such, our Male Medical Ward-Pink Firm has undergone quite a transformation. It now consists of myself and Helen (who fortunately does not have a scaphoid bone fracture, as we had initially suspected, after our Zambezi rafting trip) as the residents, Rebecca & Laurie as the medical students, and Rose Kim (a recent graduate of Penn's Infectious Diseases fellowship) as the attending. It's been smooth sailing as of late.

One of our crypto meningitis boys is going home today! Once looking like he was at death's door, he's walking around with this big grin on his face all day long. Always nice to have a true "save" on the team after our share of lost causes. Also our Zambian patient with the cryptococcal meningitis--his mother managed to scrape together enough money to pay for his 2 weeks of iv amphotericin, so we're back in business.

In other news, my facial hair has grown to impressive lengths over the past several weeks.