December 14, 2008
Day 7 : 4th Clinic day I roomed with Brittany and Elissa the past couple nights. This morning, the hotel shuttle, this giant tractor, didn’t come to pick us (see photo). We called the front desk twice and each time they said it was coming. It never came so we walked. We arrived to an empty lobby, save Josh, one of our group leaders. The front desk told us the tractor was broken, and that they wouldn’t pay for a  taxi to bring us to clinic. While Josh, Elissa, and Brittany were talking to the front desk trying to negotiate/complain/make them pay for our taxi, I sat in the open lobby wishing I could stare at the hanging vines all day. I was glad for the short delay because going to clinic made me kinda sad. A lot of the patients my group saw, were in great pain from the labor they did. They had arthritis, varicose veins, back ache, headaches. All we could do is give them a 30 day supply of Ibuprofen to relieve the pain. Not that temporary relief is an unworthy thing to give, just a little sink in my stomach knowing that they’ll be in pain again once the medicine runs out. God’s looking out tho fosho, because in addition to going late to clinic, I got to play with the kids today for more time than prescribing medicine. We had a NicaTeam meeting that night. I was reminded that we are also here to serve others on this trip: University of Texas and Notre Dame kids, the little kids, the doctors, and NicaTeam, and THE PATIENTS, so I need to suck it up at clinic and have compassion. What are some ways to have compassion??? I needed to get more sleep so I could actively listen to what the patients were saying and not just listen to key words that would lead me to the right diagnosis. In school I am used to filtering out unescesary words professors say to take notes, I found myself doing the same especially during the afternoons of clinic days. Patient: “blah, blah, burning in my esophogus….yadda yada” And then I tune out because I’m already thinking: “Gastritis, Tums- take before each meal, don’t eat spicy, fatty foods” Also, maybe I’ll try to say a prayer for them after we give them their medicine. I also felt bad that the patients had to sit there for sometimes an hour or more while us noobs tried to figure out what was up. And they had to be there when the doctors explained to us why our diagnosis was wrong or right, but they couldn’t understand because it was in English.

Day 7 : 4th Clinic day

I roomed with Brittany and Elissa the past couple nights. This morning, the hotel shuttle, this giant tractor, didn’t come to pick us (see photo). We called the front desk twice and each time they said it was coming. It never came so we walked. We arrived to an empty lobby, save Josh, one of our group leaders. The front desk told us the tractor was broken, and that they wouldn’t pay for a  taxi to bring us to clinic.

While Josh, Elissa, and Brittany were talking to the front desk trying to negotiate/complain/make them pay for our taxi, I sat in the open lobby wishing I could stare at the hanging vines all day. I was glad for the short delay because going to clinic made me kinda sad.

A lot of the patients my group saw, were in great pain from the labor they did. They had arthritis, varicose veins, back ache, headaches. All we could do is give them a 30 day supply of Ibuprofen to relieve the pain. Not that temporary relief is an unworthy thing to give, just a little sink in my stomach knowing that they’ll be in pain again once the medicine runs out.

God’s looking out tho fosho, because in addition to going late to clinic, I got to play with the kids today for more time than prescribing medicine.

We had a NicaTeam meeting that night. I was reminded that we are also here to serve others on this trip: University of Texas and Notre Dame kids, the little kids, the doctors, and NicaTeam, and THE PATIENTS, so I need to suck it up at clinic and have compassion.

What are some ways to have compassion??? I needed to get more sleep so I could actively listen to what the patients were saying and not just listen to key words that would lead me to the right diagnosis. In school I am used to filtering out unescesary words professors say to take notes, I found myself doing the same especially during the afternoons of clinic days.

Patient: “blah, blah, burning in my esophogus….yadda yada”

And then I tune out because I’m already thinking: “Gastritis, Tums- take before each meal, don’t eat spicy, fatty foods”

Also, maybe I’ll try to say a prayer for them after we give them their medicine.

I also felt bad that the patients had to sit there for sometimes an hour or more while us noobs tried to figure out what was up. And they had to be there when the doctors explained to us why our diagnosis was wrong or right, but they couldn’t understand because it was in English.

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