Keeping Busy

Today was another early day, but there's something about doing five hours of work by noon that's really rewarding! We did our first two lesson together and I worked on my poster between them. This weekend, I discovered that Brianne vomits surprisingly quietly; today, I discovered another talent. She's an excellent heart-shape cutter-outer! I finished up my poster in the hour-long break before the second set of lessons and I'm actually pretty proud of it. As soon as I put it up at the clinic, four or five people started reading it right away - probably because they were bored, but still. They read it! The residents said it was good, too, and didn't seem to find any mistakes glaring enough to mention. The doctor wasn't there today because he had a meeting, but the residents said I could stay with them. One of them, who seems a bit older than the others, is really willing to explain things to me and lets me practice a lot. I wish I could remember his name! Today, he had me weighing and measuring, and taking vital signs. I got all three of the BPs I did. I know it's not a complicated task, but it was a huge relief to finally hear that thud in the stethoscope.

Speaking of the stethoscope, that thing is a conversation starter! The clinic is pretty slow in the afternoons (I'll go in the mornings after this week) so we were just chatting about medicine and Canada when one of the residents said to another, "Did you see her Littmann?" So thanks, Dad - the hospital and firefighters are really grateful for your donated stethoscopes, but they're extra pumped that they're Littmanns! I understand why, given that the equipment in the clinic and hospital is pretty limited. In Harold's office - which two residents were sharing today - there's a desk, a table, a sink, a file cabinet and four plastic patio chairs. He has a stapler, too, as well as a blood pressure cuff, a box of tongue depressors and a stethoscope. None of the doctors here have computers and none of us have seen one of those lights that's used to look in eyes, noses and throats. (Can someone please tell me what that's called?) In fact, when one girl came in today with tonsillitis, we had to ask her to stand in front of the window so that we could see better. All that being said, I have to say that I'm impressed with the way the doctors in the clinic interact with their patients. They don't seem hurried (Ah, Nica time...) and they take exceptional notes. Seriously, one day I'll take a photo of their paperwork for you. It's outstanding!

In other news, John asked me yesterday how I'd been passing the time over the last three weeks. He and Brianne have been in their clinic because they're thinking of leaving before the end of August and wanted to start getting hours in right away just in case. I got the feeling that he thought I'd been twiddling my thumbs, drinking jugo de piña and watching CSI... In case any of you had similar images of my afternoons, allow me to clarify. I've been going to the lab for a few hours here and there, and I spent some time in emerge but I've mostly been Jason's personal assistant! He's been working close to sixty hours a week training firefighters, teaching CPR, training emergency medical responders, teaching sports medicine, planning the Masaya rescue, making a one-year plan for the fire department, talking to various mayors and coordinating a department-wide mock earthquake drill. For CPR courses at the university and high school, I mostly helped take photos and acted as a victim. I'm not sure how it happened, but I also became his IT person for communications with headquarters in Florida, among other things. In the past ten days or so, I've been translating things like the EMR exam questions and the certificates I made up for the firefighter/EMR graduation, which was this evening. It was really cool to see the firefighting recruits get up to get the certificates I made and know that we really did play a part in their training. I've actually gotten to know some of them, too. So while I wasn't officially in a placement, I promise I haven't been on vacation!