I've been working in Clinica Esperanza this past week, while Max has been in the pediatric clinic (well, most of the time - see his email for the strike update). On Monday and Tuesday, Betty, the normal pharmacist, was out of town, so a nurse and I were in there all day trying to figure out where meds were kept, etc., but we ended up finding everything eventually and got all the meds out. I've also been helping to enter patients into the new database they're making, which includes looking through old charts and just filling out online records. They go back to 2005, so there's a lot of work to do!
On Wednesday, I went in to the public hospital with Max because the clinic is closed, but I woke up with a cold, headache, and nausea, so didn't last long. I did get to go on the morning rounds with Kristen, the current pediatrician, and see her visit two newborn babies and see the rest of the hospital for the first time, which was great. I'd never seen a newborn before, so that was interesting! However, after the rounds I was feeling really sick, and the hospital staff was on strike so there were very few patients, so I got a cab and went home, sleeping for pretty much the rest of the day.
On Thursday and Friday, I was back at the clinic, and helped again in the pharmacy, this time with Betty back. The doctors have been really great about calling me in to see interesting cases, or to help them out a little bit, which has been so rewarding. I listened to a lung crackle with Dr. Charles, and then saw the patient when he came back to get the fluid in his abdomen drained - it filled a bucket that probably held a gallon or more of liquid! I also helped a doctor clean and re-wrap a patient's fingers that he had sliced pretty badly, and saw a boy who had a thyroglosal cyst.
We've still been pretty bored in the afternoons, waiting for either the tutoring to start up, or someone to give us an idea for a project, since we're ready to get going. As I said earlier, Miss Peggy is back now and has given us lots of ideas, but we still need to really sit down with her and decide what would fit our interests, time constraints, and the island's needs the best. I definitely want to make sure whatever we do is sustainable and practical for our skills and time here. It sounds like the tutoring is starting up this week (or at least SAT tutoring is), there are schools at which we could teach English or basic health, among other things. We'll definitely let you know when we decide on something.
That's about it for the week. Everything has been going really well and I think that we're in for a wonderful few months. I'm really looking forward to everything we'll be doing!
