Hola!
Yesterday I went to English Camp in the morning and a Hospital in the city called Clinica Boliviana Americana. It was really slow at the hospital because I guess in Bolivia people typically only come to see doctors in the morning, so I we sat around a lot waiting to see if anyone would come in. The emergency Doctor let us wait with him to see if anyone would come in and someone did. A woman came in complaining of chest pain and pain in her arm. The doctor told us he thought she was having a heart attack and sent her up to get an EKG. By the time we got back to the waiting area the gynecologist was in and I got to shadow her which was really cool. She didn't speak any english though, and at one point asked me to get something but I couldn't understand what. She then made a call and a few minutes later a nurse showed up and told me to sit down and put a blood pressure cuff on my arm. At his point I was completely confused and had NO IDEA what was going on... Then, using my great detective skills I realized that the doctor had called the nurse because her blood pressure cuff wasn't working and asked her to bring her a new one, so the nurse was trying to figure out why the other one wasn't working on me :) The gynecologist only had three patients though, so I was soon reunited with my fellow volunteers in the waiting room where we waited for about an 1 1/2 before someone else came we could shadow. Don't worry though, we got to watch Pinnocio in Spanish while waiting :) We ended up talking with the physical therapist after that for like an hour, who by the way had PERFECT English, so that was very interesting.
Today I went to the Hospital of Viedma where I played with little kids who were in the burn unit there. It was really hard to see how bad some of these kids were burned, and even harder to communicate with them because a lot of them spoke a mixture of spanish and Quechua (the native language here)! One of the little girls I was playing with, whose name was also emily :), had her entire face burned. Some kids just had parts of there bodies burned, like one arm or one leg, whereas others where constricted to their beds and pretty much all of their body was wrapped up. In the afternoon I went to English Camp again, which I am really enjoying. The girls are really sweet, and I think my spanish is improving as we help them learn english, which is a nice benefit!
Tonight we are going to play wally ball, which is some form of volleyball where you can use your feet and the surrounding walls... so that should be interesting with my volleyball skills.... :)
Chau for now!
Emily
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Today I discovered I will NOT be a surgeon :)
Hola!
Well it's my 4th day here and I'm still really liking it! Yesterday morning I, along with 8 other volunteers, went on rounds with the doctors. It was interesting but I couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying. On rounds, all the doctors go to each patient in the hospital (there aren't that many) and one of them informs the entire group of how they are doing. After rounds my friend Katie and I got to shadow the pediatrician which was really interesting. I was amazed by how much I understood of what she was saying to the parents! Most of the kids she saw had a fever, or bad cough, although three siblings had crupe (sorry that's not spelled right :) ). The doctor let us listen to one of the boy's with crupe lungs and they did NOT sound good. It was a very similar experience to the one I had when a shadowed a nurse practitioner in the U.S.
Later that afternoon I went to "English Camp", which is a camp for an orphanage of girls that a missionary puts on for one week every summer to try and help the girls learn English. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot of spanish too!! We had one-on-one conversations with the girls in English and played games and did arts and crafts with them. For one of the games we did relays in which each person had to run backwards... this proved to be very difficult for me and I wiped out HARD two times... I blame the altitude :).
Today I went to English camp in the morning, and had a really good time. It is really enjoyable to be with the girls and fun to try to communicate with them with my limited spanish and their limited English. In the afternoon I got to watch a surgery in which a women was getting both her gall bladder and appendix removed. This is when I discovered surgery may not be the best place for me... or at least the prep that is involved.
We came into the room as one of the surgeons was injecting some type of numbing medicine into the back/spine region of the patient. Then they lay her down on the table and duct taped her legs to the table... this is when I started to get a little shaky. Next, they rubbed a lot of orange-colored stuff on her stomach, and she started to shake because it was so cold. I realized at this point that she wasn't going to be put under, and that she would be awake during the entire procedure!! They started to cut into her belly button Before I knew it, the room was going blurry, I felt like I was about to fall over, and before I knew it one of my fellow volunteers guided me out of the room to a couch. I lay there for about 15 minutes and decided to try again. This time, I had no problems :)
The surgery itself was really cool to watch! They did it laparoscopically and we could see everything they were doing on the TV screen. The procedure only took about two hours, and I only felt like passing out for half of it! :)
The people I'm getting to know are amazing, and I'm really enjoying myself! Tonight I'm on dinner duty and it's mexican themed so we just finished making pico de gallo!
Well, I have to run and finish, hope all is well with everyone who is reading this!
Chao!!
Emily
Well it's my 4th day here and I'm still really liking it! Yesterday morning I, along with 8 other volunteers, went on rounds with the doctors. It was interesting but I couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying. On rounds, all the doctors go to each patient in the hospital (there aren't that many) and one of them informs the entire group of how they are doing. After rounds my friend Katie and I got to shadow the pediatrician which was really interesting. I was amazed by how much I understood of what she was saying to the parents! Most of the kids she saw had a fever, or bad cough, although three siblings had crupe (sorry that's not spelled right :) ). The doctor let us listen to one of the boy's with crupe lungs and they did NOT sound good. It was a very similar experience to the one I had when a shadowed a nurse practitioner in the U.S.
Later that afternoon I went to "English Camp", which is a camp for an orphanage of girls that a missionary puts on for one week every summer to try and help the girls learn English. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot of spanish too!! We had one-on-one conversations with the girls in English and played games and did arts and crafts with them. For one of the games we did relays in which each person had to run backwards... this proved to be very difficult for me and I wiped out HARD two times... I blame the altitude :).
Today I went to English camp in the morning, and had a really good time. It is really enjoyable to be with the girls and fun to try to communicate with them with my limited spanish and their limited English. In the afternoon I got to watch a surgery in which a women was getting both her gall bladder and appendix removed. This is when I discovered surgery may not be the best place for me... or at least the prep that is involved.
We came into the room as one of the surgeons was injecting some type of numbing medicine into the back/spine region of the patient. Then they lay her down on the table and duct taped her legs to the table... this is when I started to get a little shaky. Next, they rubbed a lot of orange-colored stuff on her stomach, and she started to shake because it was so cold. I realized at this point that she wasn't going to be put under, and that she would be awake during the entire procedure!! They started to cut into her belly button Before I knew it, the room was going blurry, I felt like I was about to fall over, and before I knew it one of my fellow volunteers guided me out of the room to a couch. I lay there for about 15 minutes and decided to try again. This time, I had no problems :)
The surgery itself was really cool to watch! They did it laparoscopically and we could see everything they were doing on the TV screen. The procedure only took about two hours, and I only felt like passing out for half of it! :)
The people I'm getting to know are amazing, and I'm really enjoying myself! Tonight I'm on dinner duty and it's mexican themed so we just finished making pico de gallo!
Well, I have to run and finish, hope all is well with everyone who is reading this!
Chao!!
Emily
Sunday, June 26, 2011
WE'RE IN BOLIVIA
Hello!! We are in Bolivia.... FINALLY :) Teddy's first connection got delayed so that threw off all of his other connections so we ended up having to stay in Miami for one day. Don't feel bad though, we got to stay in an embassy suites which is probably one of the NICEST hotels I have EVER stayed in :) There was a complimentary breakfast and we just got to chill in the lobby that looked like a jungle all day!! Once we got to Santa Cruz we had to wait about 10 hours for our flight to Cochabamba. That was a funny experience... Joy and I went to Subway to order a Sub, and that was an interesting experience. I ended up using the "point to what you want method" of telling the worker what I wanted on my sub, but then I realized I shouldn't eat any of the produce because the water isn't safe to drink, and ended up with a pickle and cheese sandwhich :) The flight to Cochabamba was really short and uneventful. We were greeted by a few hospital of hope volunteers and headed to the hospital in a vehicle very similar to our taxi called a Trufie.
The house we are staying in is very nice, and literally a 3 minute walk from the hospital. We went on a tour of the house, then the hospital, and then watched tangled with spanish subtitles before dinner. After dinner we played a game very similar to charades and then headed to bed... I was tired!
On Saturday went to a school and helped some of the doctors from the hospital give physicals to 15/16 yr old girls. The doctor let me perform a few which was really cool! I was amazed by how bad the girls teeth were... in one little girl's mouth one of her molars had such a bad cavity that you could see the gum beneath it! :/ In the afternooon we headed into the center square in Cochabamba to do a thing called child washing. Here, parents can bring their babies to be washed and their children to have their hair washed. I noticed the kid to parent ratio didn't seem right, and when I asked one of volunteers they said that they get a lot of kids who live on the street :/. It was a really cool experience, and it was amazing how happy you could make a little girl by washing her hair, brushing it, and putting in a colorful ponytail.
Today, we went to a spanish speaking church and they gave us a very warm welcome. They provided us with a radio that had a women translating the service into english which was very helpful. :) In the afternoon we went into la Concha, which is a open-air market, to buy groceries for the upcoming week.
So far, my experience has been really good, and luckily I have not been bothered by the altitude!! My team is getting along great, and all the other volunteers (there are 25 others) are really nice. Sorry this is kind of short, some other people on my team need to use the computer!!
Hopefully I'll write again soon... tomorrow morning I'm going to the hospital for the first time to do rounds... wish me luck!
Con amor,
Emily
The house we are staying in is very nice, and literally a 3 minute walk from the hospital. We went on a tour of the house, then the hospital, and then watched tangled with spanish subtitles before dinner. After dinner we played a game very similar to charades and then headed to bed... I was tired!
On Saturday went to a school and helped some of the doctors from the hospital give physicals to 15/16 yr old girls. The doctor let me perform a few which was really cool! I was amazed by how bad the girls teeth were... in one little girl's mouth one of her molars had such a bad cavity that you could see the gum beneath it! :/ In the afternooon we headed into the center square in Cochabamba to do a thing called child washing. Here, parents can bring their babies to be washed and their children to have their hair washed. I noticed the kid to parent ratio didn't seem right, and when I asked one of volunteers they said that they get a lot of kids who live on the street :/. It was a really cool experience, and it was amazing how happy you could make a little girl by washing her hair, brushing it, and putting in a colorful ponytail.
Today, we went to a spanish speaking church and they gave us a very warm welcome. They provided us with a radio that had a women translating the service into english which was very helpful. :) In the afternoon we went into la Concha, which is a open-air market, to buy groceries for the upcoming week.
So far, my experience has been really good, and luckily I have not been bothered by the altitude!! My team is getting along great, and all the other volunteers (there are 25 others) are really nice. Sorry this is kind of short, some other people on my team need to use the computer!!
Hopefully I'll write again soon... tomorrow morning I'm going to the hospital for the first time to do rounds... wish me luck!
Con amor,
Emily
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Getting Ready
Just finishing up packing... it's taking much longer than I thought it would. I'm really excited but also nervous... I still can't believe that at around this time tomorrow I will be on a plane headed to Bolivia!!!!
Hopefully I will be good at updating this... pray for safe travel!
Hopefully I will be good at updating this... pray for safe travel!
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