Colpo, Babies, IPU & RAIN!!!

(Wednesday) I spent the morning in the Colposcopy (Colpo) unit. This was really fascinating, but not for the faint hearted! Skip ahead if you’re squeamish!! Haha. The unit takes referrals from abnormal PAP smears, even from different clinics as the hospital waiting list is long and they perform the procedure under general anesthetic making it a much riskier procedure. Basically the procedure is to remove any abnormalities from the cervix. It’s amazing to see it done, and it is usually highly successful at reducing these ladies chances of developing cervical cancer (also a massive problem in HIV+ patients!). Only those with high grade lesions are seen, and the procedure is done with local anesthetic. I won't gross you out with the details, but I did find it really interesting!


I then had an amazing opportunity to watch a lady have an ultrasound at 20 weeks ..... with twins! It was really fascinating, just amazing to see!! Now I know how pretty and cute Little Bird once looked, shame it changed so much with age :P hehe! The Dr was trying to see what sex the babies were, and thought they might both be girls and at that one of them had a wee proving her theory correct! They were really active stretching their arms and legs and moving their mouths. It really was a great thing to see!


In the afternoon, I went to the Inpatients Unit (IPU) or Hospice as it used to be known. It is a few kms down the road, and is set up to care for the patients at the unit to save them from going into the main hospital. It has a male and a female bay, very different to the mixed sex approach now in the UK. It has a small isolation room for 1 patient, perhaps who has TB which may be drug resistance. They do not necessarily barrier nurse but it keeps them separate from the others. There were only 4 patients so it was very quiet. There are currently students at the IPU, and they had a teaching session whilst I was there on TB. They were also told about holistic care - something they didn't have a clue about so I told them! It’s something we learn in the UK from day one, further emphasizing many of the differences I have already found! However, they do seem very knowledgeable and their training is just different to ours.


& then it rained .....lovely reminder of home! Haha