Day 335, The on call this week was my last call. Given that I will be returning to a job in general practice it was actually my last call ever. Sure, I may choose to work out of hours shifts, but as far as being an on call doctor it ended on a cold night in Kwazulu Natal. After the many exciting emergencies and soul destroying outcomes my last hurrah was not a bang but a whimper. I was allowed to sleep through most of the call with only mundane interruptions from the nursing staff.
In contrast to the call, my last full day on the wards at Mseleni was a reminder of why I may not miss this place much. We were short staffed and stretched pretty thin covering the OPD for large portions of the day. On the paediatric ward they decided to work me one final time; a 3 month old, desperately ill from pneumonia arresting at the same time as a 7 month old on the opposite side beginning to seize uncontrollably. One didn’t make it, the other survived, for now at least.
After the shocker of a day I returned to what I’ve recently known best, packing up. Sounds like it should be easy but it is remarkable what I’ve managed to accumulate in my time here. Sifting through the collection of odds and ends, I realised how my preconceptions about this place were so wrong; a pair of unopened shoelaces for shoes I ditched for being too impractical in the bush, a reel of thread to fasten mosquito netting I never required and a bike lock to secure my bags in case unscrupulous individuals lusted after them.
Like a snake shedding its skin I have been whittling away at my possessions to streamline my return home. My friends and colleagues are being lumbered with the oddest of gifts and they receive them in good humour, hopefully being able to put everything to use. Finding a suitable home for my belongings is no mean feat. The task is made more difficult mainly because whatever little time I have left is largely spent toasting my departure and I feel it would be a shame to spend it otherwise.
It is certainly more than just possessions that I will take with me and hopefully it will be more than just possessions that I leave behind. I don’t honestly know what I was expecting when I came here, but what I’ve encountered is far more than I could have bargained for.
8....
ReplyDeleteI suspect this is the last blog I will get to write crap on, so I'll leave with this wimpy comment - see you soon.