I hope you appreciated the alliteration in the title. We finished up clinic early, so I’m writing from the clinic as I wait for any stragglers to come in before we close at 6 pm. I’m settling into tropical sleepy mode I think. Perhaps the initial wave of newness (+ adrenaline) has worn off and now the humidity is making me lethargic. I’m not entirely accustomed to sweating all day, everyday. Anyway, slept in until almost 7:30 and popped over to the clinic to make sure Bertha got her citologia log book (the upstairs was locked up before I left yesterday so I couldn’t put it back where I found it). She and Carla laughed at me that I would come all the way over so early just to make sure she got the book. But it’s not funny. I was worried about it.
I popped in on Dra. Estrella to show her the new pap smear spreadsheet. She approved and we made a couple adjustments. I went over the spreadsheet and protocol with Bertha and she thought they could start using it today (Tues and Thurs are pap smear days). I’ll check in with them tomorrow morning. Having a little bit of time left (before I was going to meet Leigh at the clinic), I hiked up behind the clinic. I say hike because walking up this driveway was like walking up a ski slope. Steep and slippery (it rained in the night). Radio towers occupy the top of the hill. Not much of a view. The walk back down would have used the switchback technique, but with only two strips of concrete and plants everywhere else, that wasn’t a good option.
Scarfed down breakfast back at the hostel and then headed back over to the clinic with my computer. Leigh showed up an hour later unfazed by the time. It was only several hours later when she read my “where are you?” email that she realized she’d been late. She was quite befuddled by the mix up.
She and I worked all morning researching and brainstorming a plan of attack for an adolescent reproductive health curriculum. After lots of discussion, we came up with a four-session course outline and general themes for each course. I’d write down all our basic ideas and plan, but it might look silly after we continue looking into the research on successful adolescent education programs. Either way, we have our work cut out for us, but we’re both excited about the topic… so that counts for something.
At 12 pm, I quit to go home for lunch. I fixed a plate and headed back to eat it by the pool. Anastasia and Darren were canoodling and Lily the dog was hunting for geckos. Soon Mel and the boys came back home and immediately Orie came and jumped in the pool. I chitchatted with everyone for a while, took a dip (close enough to a shower), and then got ready to head back to the clinic.
Pretty slow afternoon. The man with the osteomyelitis returned for a dressing change and I helped Lena clean the foot up (it’s looking much better). I assisted another burn clean out and elbow scrape with Dr. Molina. We saw a man with diabetes, a woman with back pain, another with depression, a couple med checks, some high blood pressure, and I learned about sindrome flujo vaginal (indiscernible cause of yellow, odorous vaginal discharge). It would cost $250 to culture for candida, trichomonas, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and bacterial vaginosis (gardnerella), but it’s just $24 to treat the whole lot with 4 different pills – more cost effective and efficient. I also learned that if you have eye trauma or infection in one eye, the immune reaction will start attacking the other eye as well, so you have to take out the damaged eye, so that the body stops attacking the healthy eye. Fun facts!
After hanging around the clinic for a while to see what else I could help with, I left a little before six and stopped at the corner cafe for some baleadas (basically a soft shell taco). No way was I attempting to cook again tonight. I ordered two and the lady gave me a bonus corn taco filled with carnitas while I waited. She was a lovely lady and the whole thing was 40 lemps which is $2. Quite delicious to boot.
I changed at the hostel and then walked back over to the clinic to meet Manu who was going to drive to West End to watch game seven of the NBA finals. We went to Sundowners which is a tiki bar on the beach and a favorite for gringos. I ordered a couple Salva Vidas for Leigh and I (the local brew) and we mingled with the 7 new med students that arrived today. They’re from Oregon med school and also just finished their first year. I made it through the first half of the game and then caught a cab home. Roy drove me (it’s only $1.50) and sang to me his favorite American songs. He was a delight.
The three Irish siblings and Darren and Anastasia were out on the porch and I listened to them talk for quite some time before retiring upstairs. And now I sleep.