Ever seen a neurologist run?

I did today. There was a man who had a thrombolic stroke this morning- his CT scan was unequivocal proof- and the docs wanted to thrombolyse him. Unfortunately, whatever the drug is called, it begins with an A but it's the French name anyway, it was not in stock in the whole of the hospital because in cardiology and A&E it's a different thrombolytic drug on the protocol.It is held in the pharmacy at Magenta, about a 15minute drive away. The protocol says that this drug must be given within three hours of the CVA. This man is completely paralysed on the left side. The doctors don't feel they can give his family the option of the drug until they know it is in the building. The time since this man had the stroke is 2hours 40mins.

Time seemed to slow down for some reason. I was waiting outside A&E with the doc. It felt like every second was counted while we waited. Eventually we saw the technician who had had to drive from Magenta in his own car with the medicine. There were maybe 5minutes to talk to the family. It was pretty emotional to watch as they were told about the pros and cons of such treatment. They had to make the decision for their father as he wasn't capable of giving consent. It really was their only option, but the fact that it is a dangerous treatment cannot be overlooked and it was so difficult to watch.

They did decide to give him the drug, but we had to leave as we were in the middle of the ward round! So we did not find out til much later. When we went back the infusion was almost complete, but there had been no improvement yet. I will find out tomorrow what has happened.

I got to go on the whale watching catamaran; it was awesome! We were at sea for about 11 hours, it was so relaxing to be on the water with only a net between me and certain death. The whales were incredible. We weren't that lucky compared to the other boats, but even so, we got about 20m from them. You can't imagine the size, they are just huge. And they breathe air, yet live in the sea! It's so weird. Even managed not to get burned, so a good day all round.

There's a really weird grumpy old French man who lives in the rooms next to ours. He looks a bit like Mr Divers but meaner. While we were folding cloth (long silly story but it basically unraveled itself when it fell off the balcony) he came and quizzed Tate for ages about the population of Melanasia. While wearing no shorts. Shiver.

Had a super night out on Friday to celebrate les resultats- what a relief! Went dancing in Baie du Citrone, really want to go there during the day sometime soon. Probably not this week though, Tate and I are heading up north on Thursday to Hienghieng- in a Renault Twingo. Oh and Tate can't drive a manual car and I've never driven on the right!

ROADTRIP!

xx