Dermatology

Today we visited the Marianhill clinic in a township a little further away. But, the conditions of this clinic were ten times better than the other township clinics like Malakazi, and quite large and better supplied than most. It happened to be the day when dermatologists come to visit, so the waiting room was packed with awaiting patients. Before the doctors arrived, we decided to talk to the social worker/counselor in the clinic. His jobs were to counsel patients about HIV/AIDS, TB etc, and make home visits when necessary. He was such a nice man, and I actually recognized him; Anella, a student from UW who went on this same internship last year, met with me before I left and showed me all of her pictures. She had pictures of him with the group during their home visits. This man is amazing. He is paraplegic and uses a walker, but still travels (by foot) into the uneven dirt roads of the townships to make home visits to his ‘patients’. We weren’t able to go on home visits with him this time. When the dermatologists arrived, Miles and I got split up, but both doctors were great. I was with a man named Dr. Abrahim. He was really intelligent and showed and taught me quite a bit. There were so many patients that came in with eczema—extremely bad cases. I was actually surprised at how many cases there were. I saw two patients with vaginal warts, which was gross. I was going to see them being ‘treated’ but luckily didn’t. There were also quite a few patients with fungal infections that were affecting the skin and head, acne, itchy and dry body rashes, and so forth. The two dermatologists left at 11, which was when Roy was picking us up for the day; work was very short! Later in the evening, I went to go see Zola in the hospital with her sister, mom, and son Mzamo. She had apparently gone to the hospital early in the day because of an intense migraine, dizziness, sweating, and some other symptoms. Because all teachers get insurance in South Africa, they can go to nicer private hospitals rather than public. The hospital she was at was really nice—it looked pretty much like a hospital in the United States, which I have NOT gotten to work in here. This is good; the experience will benefit me greatly. She was doing okay, just waiting for some test results before she could be discharged. I hope that she will be out before I leave! It’s cutting things a little close, and I would like to say goodbye.