It is finally Friday, August 7th, and I am on call at Greys Hospital for Medicine with Siddhi. My plan is to finish the renal ward work, and all handovers from the day, leave by seven p.m., and drive to the airport to pick up Lana. She was joining
A gentleman in his mid-thirties has presented complaining of a headache, neck stiffness, that began about three days ago. On a quick examination, he has positive Kernig and Brudzinski signs, so clinically he was a textbook presentation of acute meningitis. He was also quite ill-tempered, which wasn’t
The date and time are irrelevant. Whilst the days are neither the shortest nor the coldest I have experienced, the winter month of June in Pietermaritzburg has been marred by so much death, depression and hopelessness. I am dictating this from my bed physically exhausted, but too unsettled to fall
I'm writing this from my car. It's half past six on a Wednesday evening, and I'm sitting in the hospital car park finally eating the sandwiches I made for lunch this morning: sourdough bread with butter, marmite, and brie, and another with strawberry jam
The time is 22h15 on Sunday 15 March. I am writing this from my room, finally having found a moment of stillness after being shocked by the sanguineous shitshow that is Harry Gwala Regional Hospital O&G. I need to get to bed early but, perhaps due to the
And taking alliteration too far. It has been more than a month since I last sat down to write for this blog. I am afraid the relentless schedule and the weighty responsibilities of being a junior doctor have rather stifled my creativity or at least my motivation to stare at
In the misty hue Of Pine Street Blue I drew you An imaginary face In an ordinary place Searching with much ado But finding nothing new From the pulpit to the pew You bid me adieu You left with grace A vacant space My world your zoo Endured a coup
The time is 22h41 on Friday 16 January 2026. I am writing this from my quaint little abode in Hilton KwaZulu-Natal, trying to wind down before the cycle begins again tomorrow morning. During a very complicated tutorial on how to set up the call rosters for the different rotations
The time is just past 22h00 on Monday, 15 December. I am writing this from my room in Durban, surrounded by boxes and the detritus of a six-year chapter that has finally closed. I have just completed the cross-country journey from Cape Town back to Durban, leaving medical
The time is just past midnight on Sunday 23 November 2025. I am trying to wind down, but the adrenaline of the week still hums in the background. On Wednesday, I completed my final examination of medical school; a viva voce for general surgery. For the students in the year
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. I realise it's Armistice Day just before 11 a.m. The words
On Call for Orthopaedics A 31-year-old Zimbabwean male presents with an open, transverse fracture of the patella, twenty-four hours after dropping an angle grinder on his knee. How should he be managed? That was the case that greeted us on call. We removed the dressings, which had