I can’t believe that I’m writing this journal update from the US! I returned home late last night (Saturday) and now I’m reflecting on my last week on the island.
Clinic this week was different than previous weeks because I started training the new intern, Quynh, on Tuesday. That meant that Monday was my last day to be by myself in clinica diez. It was a crazy day with nearly 15 patients. We had a very sick kid who also had difficulty breathing and needed nebulizer treatment. With the neb machine running and three doctors seeing patients, the clinic felt very crowded and noisy. The chaos made the time go by very quickly, and before I knew it, clinic was over for the day. I helped Dr. Kristen prepare for her first class for the nurses by showing her the fotocopias shop. Then we hopped on a bus that took us through La Colonia. I’m not sure what I was expecting of this poor neighborhood, but what struck me as most interesting was the location of all the houses on the hills. The houses did not look particularly stable, so I can imagine that when it rains and mudslides occur, the houses may be damaged. It was interesting to see the barrio that so many of our patients come from. After living for weeks in Sandy Bay and hanging out in West End, it is easy to forget that there are neighborhoods on the island that are as poor as La Colonia. Driving through the main street gave me a bit of perspective of why giving of time, energy, and effort to help people is so important. I hope I can return in the near future to personally impact this community.
It was nice to slowly hand over the triage and clinic duties to Quynh so that I could shadow the residents and Dr. Mario. Although being a clinic coordinator is a fun and interesting job, my true love of medicine stems from being able to witness the doctors interact with patients and turn the information given to them into a diagnosis and course of treatment. I’ve learned so much about common pediatric ailments and medications. It’s been very helpful to have constant internet access and a library of medical text books in the clinic for us to look up terminology that we are unfamiliar with. Working in the clinic has also shown me how collaborative medicine can be. Whenever there was a question or doubt of what a child had or how to treat the child, the doctors would confer together and give each other their professional opinions. I appreciate that although doctors operate alone in some situations, practicing medicine is a team effort.
On Friday, I accompanied Dr. Emily, Dr. Ahila, Dr. Kristen, and Dr. Mario to the Coxen Hole Day Care next to Yaba Ding Ding and HB Warren’s. Every couple of weeks, the Global Healing fellow and the current American physicians visit the day care to give the children physicals. The kids were super enthusiastic for our visit and couldn’t wait to be seen so they could claim stickers. I have never worked in a day care before, and I was surprised at the energy of all the children together. An hour with them truly exhausted me! The kids really took to the stethoscope; they borrowed Dr. Kristen’s stethoscope and walked around the room listening to each other’s hearts. They looked like future doctors!
In other news, I celebrated the Honduran futbol victory over Costa Rica with some of the doctors from the hospital at a local spot in Dixon Cove. After every goal, the team songs were played and everyone stood up to dance and high-five each other. It was really fun! On Friday, a bunch of Peggy’s volunteers and I went to Angelo’s in West Bay to make gelato with Juan Pablo. We made cookies and crème, ferrero rocher aka bon bon, and mango. Without a doubt, my favorite part was the taste testing!
I had such a great time in Roatan! It’s so strange to be back to reality after weeks in paradise. I’m grateful for the opportunity to experience the island and give of my time to the clinic. I plan on returning to Roatan at some point in the future. Until then, adios!
Nos vemos,
Erin
