Community

Unlike most hospitals in the US, our haematology patients are often stuck in the hospital (with an occasional weekend pass) for as much as a month or two. This is due to many reasons, but especially because many of the patients are from too far away to come back and forth so regulary to receive their chemotherapy. They also need blood tests several times a week. At home, there are many outpatient centers that allow you to receive your chemotherapy as outpatient as long as it is not too strong.

These patients stay in rooms of 1 or 2 people (unlike the rest of the hospital, which is more like a giant room of 70 people) next to each other. Because they are in the hospital so long, as well as not having as much privacy as we are used to in the US, the patients all get to know each other. They move from room to room, keeping each other company and watching tv together (because the only rooms with tv are the ones where the patient brought their own).

The women in the upstairs unit watch their soap opera, "Sunset Beach," everyday when we come in the room to see how they are doing and take the bloods. The men were at lunch together at the cafeteria together when we tried to go by and round on them today. They all know about the other's conditions, therapies, and complaints. Often we will go into one patient's room and they will talk about how another patient is not feeling well.

Yes, they have much less privacy here than they do at home, but they also have support of people who have often been stuck in the hospital as much as themselves and who are suffering similar illnesses. They provide amazing support for each other, which many times they could not get at home because no one else understands as well as those who are going through it.

Cheers.

This weekend agenda: awesome, fancy African restaurant, the mall (seems to be a main weekend thing around here), and Palanesburg Game Reserve. Should be fun!