Radiology Rules!

As I mentioned in the last entry, I will be spending this week in Radiology. Today was great! I find it amazing that an Egyptian Radiologist working in Ghana has so much in common with most Radiologists that I know back at home. Dr. Sahid clearly loves his work, loves the variety in his work, is more than happy to have students around so he can share his wealth of knowledge, and he seems to like nothing more than to sit around and “shoot the breeze.”

The Radiology department obviously isn’t much like the ones at home. They have one ultrasound machine, a few X-ray machines, and a room for fluoroscopy. I spent the day in the ultrasound room with Dr. Sahid. With a few exceptions, the people who come into Radiology here are really sick. Most people can’t afford health care (they’ve just recently introduced health insurance but require people to pay for a year’s insurance in one lump sum so few can actually afford it) so they let the disease progress way too far. Today we saw a lot of tumors and malignancies that are way too far gone to do anything about. One woman came in with a mass on the side of her neck/face that was the size of a small soccer ball.

Dr. Sahid is great and takes the time to explain each case and draw diagrams of the anatomy. The bits and pieces of vocabulary that I’ve remembered from anatomy and physiology are proving to be very useful. Maira gave me a pile of anatomy flash cards (450 of them…wait till you see these Katie! We can use them if either of us become anatomy LAs next year) that I have been reviewing and that have been helpful.

I had a good weekend with some of the volunteers. We went to Kakum National Park and did the canopy walk on Saturday. The canopy walk consists of a bunch of walkways suspended in the trees about 30 m above ground. It was quite cool and I got some good photos. On Sunday we went to Anamabo Beach and lazed around reading books.

Well, I think that’s it for an update for now. I hope everyone at home is well. I miss you guys!