The last week...

It’s my last week in Belgium. 

It’s my last week on Erasmus. 

It’s my last week as a student of KU Leuven. 

It’s my last week in Hepatology.

Hallways of the Hepatology ward at UZ Leuven, where I have spent the last 3 weeks.

It’s my last week. It’s unreal. 

It feels like just yesterday I arrived in Belgium and was getting lost in the labyrinth that is UZ Leuven.

As soon as I got to the ward this morning, the nurse called me and asked me to look in on one of our patients, who was not doing well. Last Friday, before leaving for the weekend, we were so impressed with how the patient had progressed during the week that we had informed them that after several weeks in the hospital, they would finally be able to go home next week. The patient’s face lit up. Unfortunately, the nurse said that since yesterday the patient had slowly been deteriorating again, and this morning was unresponsive. 

Before checking in on the patient, I asked to look at her vitals. I told the nurse what medication I thought the patient needed but also informed her I would get my doctor, and we would come to see the patient right away. I grabbed my doctor from the doctor’s office, and we went to check on the patient. The patient’s eyes were open, but there was no response when we spoke. We agreed the patient had hepatic encephalopathy. My doctor decided to give the patient the medication I had previously suggested to the nurse and said we would wait and see. 

While waiting to see any improvement, my doctor and I reviewed the other patient files. There were six new admissions! That's a lot, even for a Monday. When my doctor finished looking over the last one, we went to do the ward rounds. We started with the patient that was showing signs of hepatic encephalopathy. Despite two doses of the medication, the patient's condition worsened. The patient no longer had their eyes open and only responded to painful stimuli. We spoke to the Professor and arranged to transfer the patient to the Critical Care Unit (CCU).

We saw all the patients and then headed for a quick bite. After lunch, I did an ascites puncture. Then, it was time to work on notes for all the patients we saw.

These last four months have consisted of long, and at times, exhausting days, but I have learnt so much, and I don't know how I will say goodbye on Friday.