Heeey Everyone!

So I've been here for officially almost one week! We started our week by having Spanish classes all day on Tuesday and then Wednesday we started clinics! I have been doing Spanish classes in the morning for four hours (8:30-12:30) and then we break for lunch and then I had clinic in the afternoon from 3-6 pm. Yesterday was my 1st day at clinic I was at the Clinica de la Y (pronounced yay). This is a family medical clinic for anyone. I was with a Medical Ecuador Resident for the afternoon. The medical director works here and speaks English therefore anyone who is from the US comes here for care to be seen by her. I was supposed to be working with her but she had me go with her resident yesterday. With him I got to see a woman patient who has HIV and we got to do a PAP smear and I got to help insert and collect specimen and put onto a slide and everything! It was quite exciting!! I also got to listen to the lungs, heart, abdomen, and intestines; look into the throat, feel the glands, and look into the eyes, ears, and sinuses. My Spanish is improving I was able to understand quite a bit about what she was explaining about her symptoms, and how she felt, and what she was experiencing. We also saw a 2 year-old girl who had a cyst on her eyebrow but wasn't cancerous or infected but was cool to feel and see! The next patient we saw was a young girl who fell off of a horse and was then kicked by the horse and had a large hematoma. She was given a pain killer, and told to come back in a week to check and watch for internal bleeding. The last patient we saw spoke English and was there because she had a cold. She is from the US but has lived in Ecuador for 3 years and teaches at a school nearby. She had a sinus infection. Then my day ended at 6:15 and I went home and did some homework for Spanish class, ate dinner, and then went to bed!

One thing that is very different here from that of the US is that they talk on their cell phones while seeing patients and text while see patients. They will interrupt a patient to answer their phone! How weird! LOL but this is their culture and considered normal here!

Today, I started my day off the same way! Woke up, had breakfast, had Spanish class for four hours, then had a break for lunch and then went to clinic…clinic today was much slower…I got there at 2:50 and the Medical Director didn't show up till 3:45….there was a Nurse Practitioner there who let me help her with the first patient of the afternoon. She told me that in Ecuador they do not recognize Nurse Practitioners nor Physician Assistants, and that the doctor has to sign off on everything so she can only volunteer to help and does one day a week. Since she cannot be recognize as a doctor she cannot be paid here in Ecuador. We went and saw our first patient she was a10 year old girl from the US her family is out here teaching in the US school and she had a stomach ache. Her mom thought she could have a parasite and wanted to have her checked. We asked her to give a stool and urine sample and then she left, they would not know the results until her tests came back. After, I went in and saw a patient with the Medical Director, an older woman who had pain below her hip and could hardly put any pressure on her left leg. We believe she had a fracture below her left hip on her femur, and called for a cab to have her go to the hospital for an X-ray and possibly a cast or if necessary surgery. And then that concluded our day. Only Two patients! Lol what a day! Tonight we had a cultural meeting at the school, and then went out to dinner with everyone for our welcome dinner! We went to a buffet. It wasn't too bad! J Now I am online writing this and then gonna head home do some homework and then go to bed.

Tomorrow is full of excitement! I have Spanish in the morning and no clinic in the afternoon! We are going to Banos tomorrow afternoon. A small town five hours outside of Quito. It is known for hiking, hot springs, bungee jumping, white water rafting, and much much more! Look forward to some pictures next week!