A bit of a rough night’s sleep thanks to my hostel mates. It was the Irish siblings last night and they were ready to hit the town. They finally left the hostel around 11 pm and then woke me up at 12:45 with quite the street commotion (in my sleep fog, I wasn’t entirely clear on what was taking place outside my window). Heavy rains roused me again a few hours later, and then the rest of the group rolled in around 4:45. That’s the good thing about going to be early though, you still get enough sleep even if it’s interrupted multiple times.
Woke up with a little yoga – with the interesting twist of tight balcony space and trying to not wake the hostel mates. Then went for a walk. I walked as far as I could on the beach, heading east. The dogs here take their guard duty seriously. I had to smack one away once – he was all bark though. I walked and walked until finally the brush ahead looked too thick to pick through. Plus, there were some mean barks coming from up ahead. So I turned around and walked back.
The crabs here are all scaredy cats. The skitter away sideways at the slightest movement. One of them actually skedattled into the grass and wrapped himself in a plant. Didn’t fool me. I could still see his bubbles. And while I’m on the animal subject, there are lots of lizards around. My personal favorites are the ones that run on their hind legs. Their waddle cracks me up. There are lots of little geckos (one was my roommate last night – he took the ceiling, I took the bed) and I saw a really cool bright blue and green one on the balcony. There were two iguanas on the wall by the pool also.
I stopped by Miss Peggy’s on the way back and borrowed a medical Spanish book. I will improve, I will improve, I will improve. Then I returned to the hostel and read the book in a hammock, which soon turned into a semi-conscious snooze. I went for a swim in the pool and went in to take a shower before clinic to realize this was one of the random days (if there is a pattern, no one has informed me) that the community water is shut off between 11 am – 3 pm. Yet another swim to suffice as a shower. People might start being repelled.
Whipped up another gourmet lunch (corn tortillas with peanut butter have become a staple) and walked over to the clinic (wearing my Easter bunny scrub top, which is my favorite). I researched adolescent health interventions for tips and strategies while I waited for Dr. Molina. I helped Lena clean out an foot wound on a 13-ish year old kid. This kid had osteomyelitis and was in and out of the hospital for almost a year. The doctors would shave of some of the calcaneus and treat with antibiotics, but the infection always returned. He started coming to Clinica Esperanza about 3 months ago. Dr. Molina had to order supplies from the mainland – he put him on Rifampin and minocycline, and the boy responded wonderfully. His latest x-ray showed no infection in the bone. Now he comes in several times a week to get the wound cleaned out (he lost almost all of the soft tissue inferior to the calcaneus, now it just looks like a small crater a cm or 2 deep).
Today, I was allowed to see my own patients! One in English, one in Spanish. The one in English was a long patient encounter thanks to the man’s ability to convey his entire life story to me. His main issue was an open sore on his medial calf that was opened when he was rubbing his leg – the skin just peeled off from his touch. He had venous insufficiency that caused a blackening of the ankles and blood stasis. He also had high blood pressure that was most likely the cause of his past week of dizziness. Dr. Molina tweaked the meds for me (pharm is still foreign to me) and I sent him to Lena to get the ankle cleaned up. The Spanish speaking encounter was an old man who had just come in the other day for med refills, and today was in complaining of tingling, burning, swollen feet. He was a sweet old man (though a little kooky). It took me several clarification statements to understand the specifics of his problem, but the interaction went alright (though I didn’t even really present to Dr. Molina because he just talked to the patient for a second and then told me to prescribe a multivitamin – as nothing was going to improve this man’s neuropathy).
We saw a couple diabetic patients, a woman’s health exam, and drained an abscess on a little boy’s head (he was so brave). After wrapping up with the patients, I went to use the computer. Our family google hangout for my mom’s birthday was postponed for another day, but I caught up on some emails. Dr. Molina came in and asked me all about my background. We had a good chat for a while. Then we closed up and Lena and I walked back together toward our homes. I walked a little further to see where she lived. She invited me to go to the mall with her and her boys tomorrow. I said I’d show up at her house at 11 if I was going, but if I didn’t show up, it’s because I got into something else. I like Lena a lot.
Went back to the hostel and changed. I hemmed and hawed and finally decided I should go out and be social, so I went to the road to grab a cab. After waiting for a while with no avail, I started walking to the beach thinking this was a sign that I should just stay in Sandy Bay, but then I turned around and a bus came by, so I got in having no idea how the bus system worked.
Got off at West End and made a minor fool of myself because I couldn’t hear what the driver was saying so I just looked like a silly gringo (I try hard not to be that, but alas, I am). I then wandered up and down all of West End, not looking for anything in particular, but thinking maybe I’d find someone I knew. I stopped by Por qué no? (a German restaurant – Eddie would be proud) and was the only patron in there, so felt compelled to stay. I did a quick scan of my stomach and realized I was really hungry, and ordered the curry style waurst with the mixed salad. I sat out on the balcony, people watched and wrote in my journal. The food was really good and the water hit the spot. A little kitty tried to play cute with me, but no way cat, not getting my food. The bar next door was gearing up for the hopping night life, so I ate to some hot beats by Rihanna, Avicii, Lana Del Ray, and all the club faves. Perhaps the owner couple felt bad for me that I was by myself, or maybe they just wanted to show some love to their only customer, but they gave me a free cinnamon bun to go. I roamed about a bit more watching the pre-night life prep – this area is quite a party later in the evening. But this little party animal, got in a cab and headed back to Sandy Bay at a whopping 9 pm. I then watched a bootleg copy of The Help (there’s a stack in the hostel; there are guys that cell them all over the beach). This one was a low-quality one filmed in the theater – I could hear the audience laughing, commenting, and even saw someone walk across the screen. And lucky me, I got to do a choppy, silent (on my end) video hangout with Jack.