Saturday, June 30, 2012

Home Visits

SO here's whats been happening in Peru the last couple days-

Yesterday (6/29) Lauryn & I were on home visits. We went to the village of San Jacinto (on our typical back of the truck ride) to check up on some patients. The parish nurses make regular home visits to approximately 200 people in the Piura area! A young nurse named Jackie accompanied us on our visits, she is so sweet and helpful. A huge percent of the population have hypertension, so we did a lot of blood pressure screenings & checking on if patients are taking their meds. Arthritis is also very common here, sometimes the nurses give out pain medication on home visits. Everyone that we saw was so grateful for
Usual activities on home visits:
-Take vitals (blood pressure, heart rate, respirations)
-General assessment
-Wash hands & feet & do nail care (very dirty! huge infection risk as many go barefoot)
-Talk about medications they may be taking
-Assess environment/home
Two of our patients, married for many years :)

If I said we spent today doing something productive & beneficial to the community I would be lying... we went to a beach in Colan from 11 AM-sundown. It was a great day of relaxing, the weather was beautiful. For lunch, we tried some Peruvian food and drinks. We left browner/redder than we came. It was awesome to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.


We have officially been assigned/picked our projects. For my teaching project, I will be talking about violence against women (a huuuge problem in this area). I'll be doing my aggregate project on Casa Maria, a shelter for abused women. I'll share any interesting research or interviews that I come across in the process!
Sadly, our family here (MU nurses support a Peruvian family) was robbed today. They have three young kids and struggle financially. They could really use your prayers!
Tomorrow 50 missionaries from the U.S. are coming to stay at the parish. We were told they are mostly high schoolers, so I may have limited internet access for a little bit!

Besos y abrazos,
Esperanza

P.S. Today is my mom's birthday! Be sure to give her a bday hug from me :)

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Hospice

This morning we had our first official clinical day. Each group of students (we are partnered in twos) is assigned a different place every day. My partner and I were placed in the hospice run by Sacramento Santisimo. We spent much of the morning with an older man I'll call Max. He has a trach & NG tube. Max is mostly unresponsive and continues to aspirate and get pneumonia, so his doctors have said there is nothing more they can do for him. Things are waayyy different here than in the U.S. as far as sterile procedures. By that I mean there was nothing sterile about the procedures we did (suctioning and redressing trach). Throughout this time, the hospice kitten was sitting on my shoes. I am soooo very thankful that I had the experience of working with a patient with similar needs at St. Joe's last semester, because today the nurse overseeing us pointed at the suction and left us to it. We also gave him his breakfast- juice through his nasogastric tube. Also went a little different than my past experiences. We spent our remaining time doing morning vitals on the rest of the patients on our wing. They were all very kind and accepting of my not so great espanol. To add to the experience, there were music lessons for kids going on a couple doors down from some of the patients I was with. As much as I love the recorder, it was a little tricky to hear blood pressures and lung sounds!
All the patients are at the hospice for various reasons, some that I cared for today include...
-A young man with hydrocephalus and other physical disabilities who was found abandoned by his parents at the age of 10
-A very happy middle aged man who has CP, he loves to smile and listen to his radio
-An older gentleman who is blind and has no family at home to care for him
-Another elderly man who is fairly independent but cannot live alone, he loves sitting outside!

I have thought to myself from time to time in the U.S. that hospital supplies are low. This is a whole different situation here. Today, one patient ran out of incontinence pads- nothing could be done until his family could buy more for him. There were also no masks left for the nursing staff. I'm glad I was able to bring some gloves and alcohol swabs, I am hoping to leave some here when I go back home.
It wasn't really the time to take pictures of patients, but I did get one of this cute little guy (mentioned above)!

Not from today, but at one of the hospitals we toured. He was just born & muy adorable!


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Los ninos!

Well... I had just began to write my blog for the night when I saw a trumpet peek around the corner of the computer room, which was followed by a mariachi band! They played for us for about a half hour and we danced, just what we needed! They came in honor of the girls whose birthdays are this week.

This morning we visited a Jesuit boys school. The school has students kindergarten-high school. Here are some of the kindergartners singing to us-

Some of our tour guides were seniors who were learning English and practicing with us. They definitely knew more about the language than I knew about Spanish when I was in high school.

This afternoon, we went to a Bible school for young kids. They were so sweet and happy to see us! We did some coloring (of Noah y el arco), made necklaces (for those of you who ever did VBS- the ones where each bead represents something biblical) with them, and played outside. It really struck me how much of the burden of caregiving falls on older siblings of the infants and young children. Several 8-10 year olds were carrying around infants. We had a lot of fun playing together. I believe we are going back another day (I hope so). Hanging out with kids has been an easy way to get comfortable with talking in Spanish as well. Below are some pictures with the ninos at the Bible school.


Tonight at mass, Padre Joe (father of Sacramento Santisimo) was there and did part of it in English. One of the missionaries (from the U.S.) sang Blessed Be Your Name (also in English). It was great to understand more of the service and sing to a familiar worship song!

¡Buenas noches!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Hello again!
We have been enjoying some down time and siestas the past couple days. I may be renewing my obsession with making friendship bracelets. It sounds like we are not starting clinical yet tomorrow, but are going to visit a local high school. Here's a bit about our last couple days-
Sunday 6/24-
On Sundays we get to sleep in until breakfast at 9, which was great. We went to mass at San Jacinto (a village a short way from the parish), and then had lunch with some of the people there. There was a celebration going on for the farmers, so we joined in on that.
Sunday night we had a birthday fiesta for our "family's" mom Erica. The CON at Marquette sponsors a family (money that goes towards getting them healthy food). Erica and her husband have three children: Christian, Kiara, & Jessica (named after a student that was here a couple years ago). We played some games and ate some pizza and cake. La familia is pictured below in their new Marquette gear.

Today (6/25) we started the day with a tour of another hospital. This one was through a university, so the students there have access to free medical and dental care there. The hospital was brand new (and air conditioned!), but did not have all the necessary equipment to be fully up and running yet.
Left: cardio echo at the hospital
Right: dental area, they have a dentist & hygienist

Both groups of students with our tour guides

This afternoon we met with the women's group at the parish. We led a group about exercise and talked with the ladies. For exercise, we did la macarena y la baila de pollo (chicken dance). Very fun! I'm looking forward to spending more time with the women, they were very happy we were there and seem open to working with us.
We kind of feel like celebrities... people take our picture wherever we go (hospital staff when we're touring, at the supermercado, etc.). It's very strange. Literally we walk through the grocery store and people start snapping some. I am thrilled that they want to interact with us though!
I hope all is well in the U.S.!

-Esperanza
P.S. anyone who posts stuff about The Bachelorette/PLL on facebook may be defriended promptly ;) Once internet is freed up a little I will upload more fotos on FB.

Hello again!
So before I talk more about our activities I figure I should answer some questions that I've received in multiple emails...
1. Weather- During the day, I'm guessing it gets up to 85 on average. When the sun isn't out it is very comfortable. Morning/evening are cooler (maybe 70?). No A/C but it is comfortable most of the time.
2. BUGS- I have like two mosquito bites. I am pretty serious about bugspray usage! I am thinking that there aren't any bed bugs, at least in our rooms. No bites or sights of them. To be safe I do have a mattress cover.
3. Water- We are provided with bottled water! There is a big freezer here that we can grab a bottle from anytime. There is usually Sprite and Coke out at meal times also.
4. Church- We go to mass every day at 7, on Sunday we go to a noon mass in San Jacinto. They are completely in Spanish so far.
5. Illness- So far we have had one from our group have some digestive issues, but I have been doing well. The food is thoroughly cooked and safe to eat here at the parish.


I will post more later tonight with some pictures hopefully when I have more time. 
¡Besos y abrazos!


Hope

Saturday, June 23, 2012

We have arrived!

Hola from Peru!
First of all, it will probably be touch and go when I’m able to post, the internet has been unreliable here so far.

We arrived in Piura this morning around 0730, after 3 flights and a few hours of sleep at a hostel. The flights were pretty uneventful. Thankfully, all my medications successfully made it here. The spray I brought along for bed bugs, however, did not fare so well... On the positive side, my clothes will probably not get infested with bed bugs. Unfortunately they smell like Bed Bath & Beyond's finest cinnamon bug spray (the bottle exploded in my bag). 
We were greeted by some of the parish staff with a big Marquette banner! We got to Sacramento Santisimo (church compound we are staying at) just in time for breakfast. Pictured below is the parish's "guard dog", Beethoven. (Sorry mom, I know you said not to touch the animals but he is clean and cute!)


We have been pretty busy in this first day. We spent a good amount of time touring various sites that we will be working at. The hospital, which is located just around the corner, was first. We saw surgical, maternity, pediatrics, and some other units. Health care works very differently here than what I am used to. More details when I'm officially in clinical (Monday or Tuesday?).
 
Very packed part of the hospital, each tent is one of the categories listed on the right (GI, dental, OB/GYN, etc.)


We also toured the hospice we'll be spending some time at. Currently, they house 4 patients who are not terminal but are unable to care for themselves, and 2 patients who need end of life care. The hospice "Los Angeles" was beautiful, with the patient rooms surrounding an outdoor court with plants and a chapel.

Accommodations-
So far, the food has been great, lots of papas (potatoes), chicken, and rice. Fruit is always available but I'm a little hesitant to eat too much of it. Below is the room I'm staying in with 3 other girls.



Time for bed for us now, minimal sleep in the last couple days. Buenas noches!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Pre-trip Thoughts

Two weeks from today I will be on my way to Peru! I am so excited for this adventure to begin. For those of you who I have not talked to, I will be in Piura, Peru June 22-July 21 for a nursing clinical. I will be working in clinics, a hospital, and a hospice center, as well as seeing patients on home visits. While we will be helping provide medical care for the community of Piura, I hope to learn from these people how I can best serve them in compassion and apply this knowledge to my future in nursing. My past clinical experiences include time on Labor & Delivery/Postpartum, Mental Health, and a cardiopulmonary floor. In these clinicals, I have had access to all that technology has to offer to provide care for my patients. My experience in Peru may be quite different- this should provide great practice for technical nursing skills (yes, manual blood pressures!) and maybe a little creativity. Also, I am hoping to improve my Spanish (or lack thereof) in this month. While I took Spanish all through high school and could sort of keep up a conversation by senior year, I have had minimal experience in college. Thus far, my preparation has included watching a couple Harry Potter movies in Spanish and reading a Spanish/English Bible. Clearly, I am far from fluent.


Part of what drew me to this program was a previous trip to Peru. In the summer of 2009 I ventured to the city of Huancayo with a mission group from my home church. On this trip, our team spent some time helping at small buildings where women and children came for free meals. We also held some small Bible teachings/fun programs directed towards the children.
Things I learned about Peru on my last trip:
The people we met were very welcoming and loved to dance!

The children were happy and so grateful for what they had, even though they lacked many "needs" that we take for granted in the U.S.

Guinea pigs= food. I ate one of these guys- a bit chewy but similar to chicken

Peru is BEAUTIFUL and mountainous! This was a sight-seeing day. Also, note the gray sweater: made from Peruvian alpaca fleece!