November 1st- Week 1
I’ve been here for 1 week! It already went by quickly. I arrived last Sunday and Dr. Mario picked me up from the airport. I had been so excited looking out the window of the airplane to the blue waters and the mountainous green island below. Excited and nervous. I was finally beginning this experience I’d been looking forward to and planning for months. Up until about a week before I left I wasn’t even sure if or would be able to go because of the current Honduran political mess. But good thing Global Healing decided it was okay, because after a week here I can see that what goes on in Tegucigalpa effects Roátan no more than causing a decline in tourism. Life here is peaceful. Locals I’ve asked say “that is over there in Honduras, but this is Roátan.”
There are currently 2 3rd year pediatric residents from Stanford hospital here, Rachel and Nicole as well as Rachel’s boyfriend Robby. I am living in West End at Julie’s apartments with them as was decided would be best for extra safety precautions in this unusual time. I am very glad to be staying near them as they brought me along out to meals and showed me around West End. Monday was a holiday, although no one could identify what holiday, so the hospital was closed. It was nice to have a few days to settle in to my (bright pink) apartment and get oriented. The weather has been fantastic so far; apparently I just missed a big storm. I have been enjoying the beautiful beach of Half Moon Bay right outside my building. We also made a trip to West Bay, the nicest beach on the island with sparkling turquoise waters and a clean white sand beach. I am impressed by the lack of high-rise mega resorts that have taken over so many beautiful beach destinations.
My first day in clinic was a little overwhelming. I was surprised at how small and run down the public hospital was. We—the obvious American medical crew—walked into the extremely crowded lobby and waded through the waiting people toward clinica 10. There are no appointments, they simply arrive around 6:30 am, get a number, and wait. Robby had been helping out doing the intern job since there wasn’t one for a few weeks. I learned how retrieve the charts from the nurses and dig through the scattered medical records to find the child’s name or birth date. Once the forms are ready, we called in the kids and mothers, yelling their names the best I could pronounce into the crowded hallway. I learned to weigh the child or baby, measure height, take temperature, and plot growth charts. My Spanish was quite wary the first day because I was nervous. Then at the end of the day we record each patient, diagnosis and treatment in a file for the month.
Over the rest of the week I got a hang of the duties and improved my own system of accomplishing them. I am amazed at the number of children who have parasites here. Supposedly 90%! The doctors prescribe medicines for parasites to nearly every child as a routine, because it can be assumed that they have one. We also see a lot of asthma, upper respiratory infections, bronchiolitis, skin infections, and even a boy with Dengue Fever. Many mothers bring their children in for a common cold and are very unsatisfied when the doctor says that prescribing an antibiotic will not help them. They want to walk away with some treatment for their child or they feel the trip was not worth it.
Overall my first week has gone great. I went on 2 beautiful dives, found a great yoga studio, and even celebrated Halloween last night!
