Sick Call Duty

Well, Randy and Vanessa are still on their medcap,they still have another 4 days to go. I am sure they are working hard and seeing many patients. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I am rattling around the ship without them. Yesterday, I spent the day studying tropical diseases. It is unbelievable learning about all the weird things people can contract! I am doing my best to avoid contracting any of them! I have been taking my malaria prophylaxis religiously(methloquin) and we all got immunized for Japanese encephalitis(contracted from "day biting" mosquitoes).

Today I had sick call duty. I spent the day in the ship's clinic(set up for the crew). I had the privilege to work amongst some of the finest physicians, NP's and PA's and they were all more than happy to share their knowledge with me. It was a great learning experience for me! When we were not busy seeing patients, we sat around and chatted about all kinds of medical things. Just a great day for me! Tomorrow is a day off but I plan on spending the day "shadowing" a physician that has agreed to let me tag along. I also plan on reading more of the medical books in the clinic(with all the exotic tropical pathology).

On Thursday (today is Tuesday), I will get "liberty" and have already signed up for a tour of Ternate. I am really excited about going. Oh, I forgot to mention the most amazing thing about who my "liberty" buddy is. Last week on my overnight medcap, one of the people on my team was an old friend from the NICU where I work in Fort Lauderdale! We worked together over 25 years ago! Her name is Regina and she is a captain in the United States Public Health Service. She has really done a lot of amazing things since we last saw one another. We have been reminiscing about old times ever since. Talk about a small world! Anyway, we look forward to having an interesting and fun 'liberty day".

I also have a day medcap scheduled for this Saturday and really look forward to getting more hands-on experience. So life is good!!

All for now!