With less than a week left, we are busier than ever. A group of doctors, nurses, and assistants just got here today to do hernia surgeries and some other stuff; we plan on working with them for much of the week (when we aren't giving presentations and doing final evals...). That means much less if any of our usual ventures to hospice, homes, and Pro-Life. Despite being way burned out on hospice, I realized I am actually going to miss seeing those patients. Luckily for me, we ended up having a mini fiesta at the hospice last night... to be honest my initial thought was that I would never be able to eat anything there (cake is at all fiestas) because of the various aromas and duties I have experienced there. The patients that were able (4 of them) came out for cake and music. Felix (he was pictured in a previous post) was absolutely loving it!
I would like to introduce you to Manuel:
He frequently yells, it drives some of the other patients loco. Really adds to the mood of the place.
Week 1: Manuel hits us every time we try to take his blood pressure or temp.
Week 2: We realize if we threaten to tell Padre Joe he sort of listens.
Week 3: Manuel is entirely inappropriate & sassy. But he is blind and can't walk so not threatening.
Yesterday: While I was at hospice in the morning we sang songs (he likes Call Me Maybe & La Cucaracha) At the fiesta he danced with me! (note how tall I look)
After our wild Friday night out, we had a relaxing morning at the spa... sort of. For reasons that will be forever unknown, we visited a "spa" at 9 in the AM. First the lady just talked really fast Spanish for like 20 minutes. Then we all stood up and did what was supposed to be Tai Chi and yoga. I usually like that kind of thing, but this was just weird and confusing. Once we were finally done with that we thought "oh well at least that's over with"... so wrong. We got put into separate areas and had "massages." Some of it was good, but the bad was just too overwhelming. We were put into weird positions and rocked/shoved back and forth. Some girls suction cups stuck to their bodies, others had to hold TENS units in their hands (these deliver a small electrical shock, often used for pain reduction) for "relaxation." It's all about experience I guess.
This afternoon we had off just to work on papers, a lot of progress has been made!
Here's some pictures from the last few days...
Anybody looking for a baby? She is looking for a family.
Braiding on a home visit. This patient had a positive Trousseau's sign (flexion of the hand/wrist when I inflated the BP cuff), which could mean she is very low on calcium.
More home visits
A couple nights ago they surprised us with a little "thank you" party. The dining room was decorated with blue and gold. They sang us a song and gave out cards to each of us. It was very sweet, some people cried. It's going to be hard to leave on Friday!
Papers & presentations are Tuesday night at 8 PM, so I will probably not post until after. We are all hitting the point of being a little homesick, but I think we're also going to be sad when Friday morning comes. I am already dreaming of how I'm going to sit in the Starbucks in the Lima airport for 13 hours...
¡Hasta luego!
-Hope
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