Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Hi everyone! Time for a giant post to update you on what's been going on for the last month. For starters, I had to fight a battle to get internet working again at my current residence (the last tenant had not only avoided paying the bill, but had also taken the keys to the villa's post box with him). In addition, my old iPhone 4s decided to stop living and I lost all of my contacts, pictures, and notes (remember to back up your phones...).

Anyway, let's get started by talking about how work has been going. Overall, I'm very pleased with my decision to come and work with Dr. Fischhoff. It's been very enjoyable to consistently have a mentor who is interested in discussing evidence-based treatment of patients in an ethical way. Most patients have a substantial change in their symptoms after 2-3 sessions, which is something that really isn't seen in the student clinic. In addition, since I've been here I've already seen two cases of AS, a spinal tumor, an MS patient, and even a patient with a full lumbar fusion who had pain due to a migrating screw.

The more experience I have observing/attempting diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound, the more I wonder why it isn't mandatory for this imaging modality to be taught to every chiropractic student. The specificity of diagnosis and treatment of nerve entrapment, muscle tears, and tendinopathies I've witnessed and performed since I've been in Mauritius has led me to believe practicing extremity care without diagnostic ultrasound is quite insane. Here's a shot of everyone at the office in Grand-Baie:

(Left to right- Taybah, Dr. Fischhoff, Your Humble Narrator, David, and Shahana)

While the clinical part of my experience in Mauritius has been amazing, I do have to say that the administrative side of things has been nothing short of a nightmare. Though I've been in the country for six weeks now and my paperwork has been here on the island for at least a month longer than that, we are still awaiting the approval of the Ministry of Health for my official work permit. Even with all of my qualifications from school, national board scores, and proof of my chiropractic license in Ohio there is an extreme holdup in getting things done here on the island. Sadly, this type of thing seems to be the norm here in Mauritius as I have a friend who was an orthopedic surgeon in Europe that is still awaiting her permit (2+ years). Unfortunately we remain at the mercy of the laziness of one or two administrators.



Now that the obligatory work things have been explained, I'll go ahead and move onto the fun section of the post. This is where I post a bunch of beautiful pictures of the island and make you guys jealous. First I'll splatter some beautiful pictures of the beach thanks to my handy-dandy waterproof camera.





Finally, I'll add some pictures that were taken by whoever it was that found my camera out at a friend's birthday party last weekend. I managed to get a nice shot of the wood hearth that we were cooking pizzas on all day before the photo spree happened. Enjoy the following pictures courtesy of a mysterious person at the event.




I think that wraps it up for now! In the near future look forward to my post regarding (hopefully) receiving my work permit and also my current hunt for more permanent housing. Talk to you all again soon!