Gracias Dios es Viernes! (TGIF)

6-12-09
Andy - This morning I went to the pediatric emergency room, which is attached to the OB/Gyn emergency room that Celia was working in. When I got there, I was immediately welcomed by the interns in the clinic and the doctors. Two of the interns, who had just finished Medical School, took it upon themselves to show me around. During the day we saw a number of minor injuries and illnesses. There were a lot of sick babies that were brought in, many that were only days old. One of the babies that I saw was dangerously malnourished. The doctor started to instruct the girl’s mother on what she needed to eat each day, telling her to give her milk each morning, and not feed her only soup. The woman, who I believe was Quechua, said then that she couldn’t afford the milk for her baby to drink each day. It was a really telling experience. A boy came in with a tumor on his neck that needed to be removed surgically, so we took him down for a surgical consult and I got to see the pediatric surgical ward. The intern (whose name I can’t remember, which is horrible, but about typical for me) took me around the ward, showing me all the patients he knew and telling me their conditions and what had been done for each. When we got back to the clinic, he asked me if I wanted to do a physical exam on the next patient, and I had to embarrassingly admit that since I wasn’t in Medical School yet, I didn’t know how to give one. He then showed me how to give one, and helped me give one to a 20 week old baby with Laryngitis. The pediatric emergency room was really an amazing experience and I can’t wait to get back on Wednesday. Tonight though we are catching a bus to Sucre, a town about 11 hours from here, to spend the weekend. We are taking an overnight bus, and we will arrive early in the morning in Sucre. We will spend all day Saturday and Sunday seeing the city, staying in a hostel for the night, and then catch a bus Sunday night back to Cochabamba, arriving at 7 in the morning, just in time to start at the hospital at 8:00.

Celia – After a minor struggle with what would seem like an attempted break-in at the burn clinic, we were finally relieved by a nurse. Andy and I made it to the PED and OB-ER before we split up. I was with Dr. Farrel again after recently seeing him during our night shift at Labor and Delivery. It was not very busy so he had a quick breakfast with some other gynecologists. I could only barely make out what they were saying in rapid Spanish but I picked up that one of the interns here is going to do her surgical residency in Maryland. Apparently the medical students here can take the USMLEs in Spanish here to apply to schools in the US. Must be a good school. After my second breakfast (blah) we went back and taught me to measure dilations of pregnant patients with my fingers. One patient had an STD which sounded a lot like Trichomonas but I wasn’t sure. Another patient hadn’t had her period for three months and felt contractions so he performed an ultrasound. The patient did not have an embryo in her uterus so we were unsure why she wasn’t menstruating. Soon after there was a definitely lull so I just assisted an intern while he was removing stitches. I excused myself at noon to meet with Dr. Montano where he entertained us with sayings about La Paz and anecdotes about the Bolivian food and we’re (I’m) throwing things together for our trip to Sucre.

Jen- Today was my second full morning at the burn clinic. The group got there at 8am, but in the clinic was fairly quiet until ten or so. I followed around the volunteers and nurses and helped serve breakfast and give baths to the kids. I think that the nurses were under the impression that I knew more Spanish than I actually did, since they would give me directions and talk to me all morning. I was only able to understand about 25-50% of what they were saying, but I nodded and smiled a lot. Mariana, little girl that I saw on Monday in the OR, was up and moving around today. Her face is completely covered with an antibiotic cream, so it was hard to see her facial expressions, but she seemed in good spirits. I tried to feed her lunch, but she pulled the spoon out of my hand and proceeded to feed herself. Even though she didn’t really say much, she is quickly becoming one of my favorite patients at the clinic. Around 10:30 or 11am the OR started to get busy. I saw debridements and bandage changes of two patients. I am hoping to see some more surgeries next week. When I was in the OR I thought that I overheard Dr. Romero and the nurses trying to schedule a skin flap placement for next week, so hopefully I will be able to see that. Tonight we are traveling on an overnight bus to Sucre and we will be gone all weekend. Wish us luck