Village doctor
I've got a couple of weeks off for Easter, so I came home on Monday. The week leading up to my departure from Newcastle was unbearably long. The days went really slowly. My folks gave me a little fright on Wednesday, when they told me my visa hadn't been sorted and I'd probably have to delay my departure which meant I'd get fewer days at home. I was already in two minds about going home just for two weeks, so this made me think of calling off my trip altogether. A few hours later though, Papa e-mailed me to say my visa had been sorted.. and things went ahead as planned.
The flight departed nearly 90 minutes after it was supposed to, which left me grinding my teeth. When we were approaching Dubai, the pilot wanked us around for another 40 minutes or so, just flying around in circles before landing because the air traffic controllers wouldn't give him the signal to land. Stupid, stupid!
It was the first time I'd been in the spanking new Terminal 3 of Dubai's airport. Pretty swish. An astronomical distance to walk to passport control and baggage reclaim, though. And the queue at passport control took forever because they didn't have enough people working there even though the entire world and their dog had landed in Dubai within the space of an hour.
Ammi, Papa and Abeer had come to pick me up. When I finally got out, I ran to meet them. Hadn't seen my parents in over six months.. gave Ammi the tightest hug ever.
Back at home, a few things have changed (e.g. my brother's sharing a room with me again; one of my uncles has moved into a house on our street; we now have a pet cat etc.). I spent my first day eating, sleeping and catching up with my aunty.
The pet cat is of a Persian breed, is more apathetic and unresponsive than a tree and grows fur by the ton. She first appeared at our front door six months ago and since my folks couldn't find her original owner, she became our pet. In a temporary fit of Egyptology, my sister named her Cleo(patra). When I tried to cuddle her last night, I got scratched on the foot and promptly cleaned it with dettol, having been appropriately warned about horrible cat-borne diseases in my Infectious Diseases rotation.
Then we had a little surprise this morning. Now, Cleo usually leaves the house at night to sleep in the backyard and we let her back in mid-morning. She hadn't come in today so I went out to look for her. She was nowhere to be seen, but there was some awkward mewing coming from the western wall of the yard. Walking towards the mewing, I saw Cleo sat under a plant nursing a litter of four kittens and another one that was crying with all its little strength. Five kittens! Poor thing had been pregnant all along and we didn't even have a clue (wait, that's a lie... apparently my sister had had a feeling that she was pregnant and my nine-year-old cousin had suggested getting them aborted... but nothing much was done after that).
So I've been practising basic obs and gyne on the cat. Haven't done a pelvic exam just yet for fear of getting mauled again. Tried to get the blood cleaned off her. I wonder if she's pushed the afterbirth out.. The kittens have been squealing bloody murder since I saw them except for the brief period that they were asleep. Can't wait for them to open their eyes!
Apart from that, I've been asked to look at lumps and bumps on my family members' persons. I'm expected to be a feline obstetrician/pediatrican, a dermatologist and a general surgeon. Oh wait, I'm only a third year medic who actually DOESN'T know that much medicine, let alone veterinary science. Yalla, graduation!
The flight departed nearly 90 minutes after it was supposed to, which left me grinding my teeth. When we were approaching Dubai, the pilot wanked us around for another 40 minutes or so, just flying around in circles before landing because the air traffic controllers wouldn't give him the signal to land. Stupid, stupid!
It was the first time I'd been in the spanking new Terminal 3 of Dubai's airport. Pretty swish. An astronomical distance to walk to passport control and baggage reclaim, though. And the queue at passport control took forever because they didn't have enough people working there even though the entire world and their dog had landed in Dubai within the space of an hour.
Ammi, Papa and Abeer had come to pick me up. When I finally got out, I ran to meet them. Hadn't seen my parents in over six months.. gave Ammi the tightest hug ever.
Back at home, a few things have changed (e.g. my brother's sharing a room with me again; one of my uncles has moved into a house on our street; we now have a pet cat etc.). I spent my first day eating, sleeping and catching up with my aunty.
The pet cat is of a Persian breed, is more apathetic and unresponsive than a tree and grows fur by the ton. She first appeared at our front door six months ago and since my folks couldn't find her original owner, she became our pet. In a temporary fit of Egyptology, my sister named her Cleo(patra). When I tried to cuddle her last night, I got scratched on the foot and promptly cleaned it with dettol, having been appropriately warned about horrible cat-borne diseases in my Infectious Diseases rotation.
Then we had a little surprise this morning. Now, Cleo usually leaves the house at night to sleep in the backyard and we let her back in mid-morning. She hadn't come in today so I went out to look for her. She was nowhere to be seen, but there was some awkward mewing coming from the western wall of the yard. Walking towards the mewing, I saw Cleo sat under a plant nursing a litter of four kittens and another one that was crying with all its little strength. Five kittens! Poor thing had been pregnant all along and we didn't even have a clue (wait, that's a lie... apparently my sister had had a feeling that she was pregnant and my nine-year-old cousin had suggested getting them aborted... but nothing much was done after that).
So I've been practising basic obs and gyne on the cat. Haven't done a pelvic exam just yet for fear of getting mauled again. Tried to get the blood cleaned off her. I wonder if she's pushed the afterbirth out.. The kittens have been squealing bloody murder since I saw them except for the brief period that they were asleep. Can't wait for them to open their eyes!
Apart from that, I've been asked to look at lumps and bumps on my family members' persons. I'm expected to be a feline obstetrician/pediatrican, a dermatologist and a general surgeon. Oh wait, I'm only a third year medic who actually DOESN'T know that much medicine, let alone veterinary science. Yalla, graduation!