Saturday, 9 February 2013

Leaving time

We are sat in our room at the hospital, now mostly packed, having donated away most of our household goods [not mugs and kettle but tea! so no hot drinks tonight]. Yesterday was my last day at work, tomorrow we leave for Malawi on our way home. We will have a week relaxing in Malawi with Nat and Will then head home the week after [as my wife has already told you but I've been too busy to read what she put].

The last few weeks have gone very quickly, with the last couple of days being spent winding down. Yesterday our visiting plastic surgeon was operating, so I had very little to do. In fact, the only operation I carried out was the drainage of a chest wall abscess (slightly complicated by bleeding from one of the major local vessels). It almost felt like a bit of an anticlimax, after everything I have done!

We have had a fantastic experience, faced some novel challenges, had times when we have really enjoyed it, and others when we just wanted to pack it in and head home. If we have achieved nothing else, I have operated on 550 patients and looked after a sizeably larger number on the wards. I'm sure once we have unwound we will have some final thoughts to put on here. I will then be looking in earnest for a job back home!

In the meantime, enjoy the photos! [Patience and electricity in plentiful supply mean you now get photos until the 19th of Feb when we return]

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