Riding the PEP-Train

I’m on PEP again. And I’m angry. And miserable. But mostly angry. Because I’m careful. I am so, SO careful all the time, but others are not. I always make my surgical needles safe. But many doctors I assist do not. I always discard my sharps. And many do not. I never point a sharp

A Tale of Three IODs

Exactly one year ago I had an injury on duty. It changed the course of my final year of med school and my general approach to medicine. It put me through four weeks of awful medicine and several terrifying blood tests. I won’t forget it, and I wish it hadn’t happened, but today I want

Injury on Duty: What it’s like to take PEP

This post follows on my previous post about Injuries on Duty. There is no shortage of war stories from healthcare workers who have taken Post-Exposure Prophylaxis ARVs (the medication you take to prevent HIV after being exposed to it).Days and days and days of nausea and diarrhoea are just the beginning of it. Before my

Mental Health and HIV, ft. “My Life After Now”

Earlier this year I wrote that we needed more YA about teens with HIV. I didn’t know, at the time, that a 2013 YA existed on the very topic: My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi. I also didn’t know that not soon after I would be injured on duty, have to take prophylaxis, and months later

Book Review: Seven Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them

Infectious Disease is interesting. In fact, I would wager that it forms at least part of the backbone leading to most medical students deciding to study medicine, regardless of whether or not they end up enjoying ID. Seven Modern Plagues by Mark Jerome Walters investigates seven diseases causing havoc today. He looks at the circumstances that

The Time I Got Injured On Duty

It was hot summer afternoon and I was on my rural Family Medicine rotation; the Friday leading up to my birthday weekend. I was looking forward to an off-weekend, and I’d be going home to spend my birthday with my family for the first time since 2008. I had dressed up in a new skirt,

Healthcare for LGBT Patients in South Africa

In our third year, a friend of mine had an upsetting first shift in Trauma Surgery: the first suturing she ever did was on a young woman who had just survived corrective rape. Rape is common in our country in general, and so is the “corrective” rape of gender non-conforming women. A year later, we

Question: On Contact Lenses and HIV Exposure

I have a very good relationship with my optometrists – so much so that I still have not found a Cape Town-based optometrist. At my recent vision test (my vision is significantly worse, again) I mentioned cutting back on my contact lens use and relying more on my glasses.

Book Review: Whisper Not

Readers of this blog might remember that I went to my first ever book fair last year. My first purchase that day was a book called Whisper Not: 15 Africans speak out on life and love beyond HIV (Mpongo et al), which some of the authors graciously signed for me. It took me a while to

Follow Friday: On The Other Side Of The Desk

I started blogging as a way of debriefing myself and in the process discovered a whole world of medical blogging. I have found mentors and colleagues all over the world, but I have also met people from the “other side”. I have gotten to know –  by means of what they choose to share with the