Monday: Monday morning Maggie and I decided to try our luck going back into the Labor and Delivery unit. Maggie is not very interested in blood and things of that nature, so she was going to help in the nursery and help me translate if I needed her.
The morning went by quickly although there wasn't much happening. All of the women in immediate need had already delivered when we got there, so I watched a couple of minor procedures while Maggie learned to take vitals on the newborns. There were two preemies in the nursery that hadn't been there before. They each weighed about 4 lbs. Even though it was sad to see them struggling to breath, they were so sweet and cute. I held my thumb next to one of their feet and they were the same size! This is one of the attractive pictures of Maggie and I in our approved uniforms. That evening we went to a restaurant called Casa del Campo for dinner. I ordered steak stuffed with ham and cheese and covered in gravy served with french fries. Probably not the healthiest meal I've ever eaten, but it was definitely hearty!Tuesday: Tuesday morning I met up with Dr. Montano, one of the head gynecologists in the hospital, to do rounds with him. We went to the post-delivery floor and saw many of the patients there. Some of the most common problems are HIV (the straying husbands contract it in the city and bring it home to their wives in the mountains), and issues associated with malnutrition, small stature, and too many children. It was interesting to see the different cases and to observe more of how the hospital works. For example, there are no computers in the hospital, all charting, etc. is done on typewriters! After our rounds, Dr. Montano was kind enough to allow me to interview him for my thesis. He was full of great information and stories. Our conversation, and his willingness to help me, really encouraged me that my thesis might actually be interesting. All of the staff and volunteers for Burn Care Intl. had lunch together at a restaurant called Tuesdays. It is a combination of Ruby Tuesdays and TGI Fridays, all the way down to the free refills! We did some more browsing in the market in the afternoon, and we got some coffee (not instant!) at a cafe downtown.
Wednesday: I spent the morning helping bathe children in the burn center. This was not a very fun job, although it is necessary to keep the children clean of course. It must hurt them to have water on their wounds because as soon as you tell them it's time for a bath they start screaming and kicking. As the tallest person there, it was my job to pick them up, carry them to the bathroom, and put them in the tub - literally kicking and screaming the entire way. I found it so disturbing that the tub is not disinfected or even rinsed out between children. For lunch, Norina (one of the med students) and I went to a small cafe that is run by a ministry to street children. I ordered the Silpancho, not exactly knowing what it entailed, but I had heard that it was the most traditional lunch in Bolivia. Well, as you can see from the picture below, it is a very intersting combination of steak, french fries, egg, rice, and tomatoes, which turned out to be delicious! Wednesday night I returned to the hospital to work with Dr. Ferrell, the doctor I worked with on my first day (you can see us together in the picture). I arrived at 8:30pm and within a few minutes I was in the operating room. I first saw a C-section on woman who was bleeding profusely due to placenta previa. Then another C-section on a woman who's baby weighed 11 lbs!
Lastly we went into what I though was another C-section, but I quickly noticed that the woman was not pregnant. I asked what was going on and was told, "The bag of fluids is too big." I of course did not know what this meant - bag of liquids? Well, I realized eventually that the woman had a large cyst that needed removed. Once it had been removed I held my hand next to it and it was bigger than my fist! I took a picture of it, but decided not to gross anyone out by putting it on here. However, if you do want to see I'll show it to you - it's crazy! During this time two other women had come in for incomplete abortions. Dr. Ferrell informed me that 4-5 women come in for this reason every 12 hours, it's terrible. Thursday: I decided not to go into the hospital on Thursday because I had stayed out so late working the night before. However, I did go into the burn center for awhile to interview one of the workers for my thesis. In the afternoon, we met up again with the children from last week to take them back to the park. The rest of the pictures are from the day there. We went to celebrate Eli's tenth birthday, she is in the one in the picture. They all rode the roller coaster and the merry-go-round then we found a table for our birthday party. We had cake, party hats, and presents. It was a great afternoon, that hopefully made Eli feel very special and loved.
Friday: Well, here we are, back to today. I decided this morning that since there are only two days left for me to be in the hospital I really needed to buckle down and work on my thesis. I knew I wouldn't be able to communicate with very many people on my own, so Maggie was great and came along to translate. We first went to Dr. Montano's office to drop off some Starbucks coffee (a gift from one of the med students, they definitely do not have Starbucks here!) and to ask if he could introduce us to anyone for interviews. I am so appreciative of the time and help he's given me this week; he immediately took us to one of the head doctoras in the hospital and she agreed to meet with us in a few hours. Then we met with two pediatricians who both gave us some time and great information. When we returned to the burn clinic, we interviewed two of the patient's there, so altogether I was able to talk with and photograph six people today! We've spent the afternoon here at the apartment, doing laundry (there is no dryer here, so everything is hung up to dry - I had no idea how time consuming this was!) and relaxing.
Well, there you go, hopefully that is sufficient information for what I've done this week. I can hardly believe that I only have 3 days left here (my flight leaves Cochabamba at 6:00am Tuesday morning). I partly feel like I just arrived, and partly like I've been here forever. Within the past few days I've finally begun to feel a little more comfortable and independent here. I relatively know my way around the city, I am able to get a taxi and direct him to my destination in Spanish, I have a handle on the currency, and I know the public transportation routes I can take as well as how to say "Let me off here!". It's been such a wonderful trip so far. Dr. Ferrell even asked me today when I was coming back to work in Hosptial Viedma for good, which I took as a compliment. Alright, I'm off to eat dinner, ciao!
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