Wow! 1st of October already!! Can't believe it! Well, things have been extremely busy this week. A new student has arrived, Alex, from Imperial Med School who is lovely and we've been taking the hospital by storm this week! With him seems to have come a week of emergencies, trauma and pregnancy! We had a girl in with a query pelvic infection and we 'ummed and ahhhed' for a bit but decided to do an ultrasound rather than just discharge her with antibiotics - but thank god we did as she turned out to have a ruptured ectopic pregnancy! Eek! The doctors were very grateful... We then saw a man with a perforated GI ulcer vomiting blood everywhere and an acute gallbladder obstruction. Had to dig very deep in my brain to think of the management, but with the ever faithful Oxford Handbook at hand, we pulled it out the bag! It's amazing how you cope actually when faced with these kind of emergencies. Poor Alex was freaking out at the lack of investigations that can be done here - 'what about endoscopy?; what about barium swallows?; what about laparoscopic cholecystectomy?' - i'm like 'nope, no chance!' It's all clinical diagnosis and conservative management. Think the dr's trust in me has grown, they seem to be spending less and less time in the hospital this week, so up until Alex's arrival i've been running things in A&E/OPD on my own - pretty scary but i've managed to cope....with slight dehydration and a raised blood pressure! Had to diagnose someone with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma this week and explain the diagnosis in Pidgin. It was a very moving experience, and quite upsetting. My Pidgin isn't perfect, but I think he understood, but it was really hard to explain the concept of what was going on and to reassure to a level in a slightly different language. But think I did OK. Have to remember that the concepts of illness are very different here. A diagnosis of cancer carries a very different meaning to back home - where it envokes terror and upset. People take things in their stride here (it is Solomon Time!) and expectations are different - for heathcare and for their quality of life. It's so interesting observing the culture and beliefs and this is the one reason why Gizo has been so great. You're so integrated into the hospital and people really get to know and trust you. I'm now getting recognised in the town and the staff and the hospital are really lovely towards me. I think they get quite a high turnover of students and people come out to dive and don't spend that long working. As i've got really involved and have put in the effort it's certainly paying off. Oh, and if you treat the local bar tender's chest infection successfully you get free Gin & Tonics on a Friday night - what could be better?! I just wish I could stay here a bit longer...one more week isn't enough...boo hoo. So, recreationally have been getting involved with diving this week. The weather hasn't been great so have been getting the theory out of the way, but have spent the entire weekend diving which has been fantastic! We've just got back from the Grand Central Station spot, a little sunburnt, and feel like i'm still on the boat - everything's rocking! Hope to complete the course by Tuesday so I can do some more advanced dives before the weekend when I leave. Had a bit of a boozy night on Friday at PT's and the Gizo Hotel. It was Yaz and Caroline's last night, so any excuse! MUST stop mixing Gin and Sol Brew...not good when diving the next day...(!) Have made friends with 'the only gay in the village' - a guy called Jafar! He's a Solomon Islander who thinks i'm great and is always screaming at me in the street from the Gizo Hotel (where he works). He taught me how to dance Fijian style the other day in the Hotel Pool! He's coming up to Phoebe's tomorrow night to cook us all dinner - he loves the Westerners! I'm not complaining though...I tried to cook a Kingfish last night and we ended up with half of it cooked and the other half was...well...sushi! Anyway, best be off... going to enjoy my last week in paradise before leaving and heading off to...well another paradise. How is the weather back home? Sorry...i'm so mean!!! It's actually been quite rubbish this week! Take care everyone...and tanggio tumas (thanks) for all the emails x Lise xxx P.S. CONGRATULATIONS GINNY AND BEN!!!!!!!!