Day 4/5

Well I have kind of lost count of how many surgeries that have been done...we are probably somewhere between 50-60 at this point. And let me tell you, I never want to have a hysterectomy after what I've seen these ladies go through. Yikes. The crazy thing is that we have been sending them home sometimes less than 24hr after surgery on TYLENOL. Well, I guess the post-op pain is better when compared to the prolapsed uterus they had before. Ok, enough with the gross stuff!

The little old men we have been taking care of are so funny. Most of them have had inguinal hernia repairs, and they have turned our men's ward into a fraternity hall as they compare dressings, IV's, who has been whimpiest with pain meds, and just hang out around each other's beds. We have had 3 more little boys with hernia repairs too. We had a 20 month old that got a hernia repair and circumcision all at once...talk about a bad day. For the kids, all we have for pain control is tylenol or ibuprofen, but we had to crush up part of a lortab and try to flavor it because he was beside himself. I think we had him a little loopy for a bit. But, he is doing much better today. 

It's been fun to start to know enough spanish to be able to joke around with the patients and with the other workers here at the clinic. Yesterday, my roommate wanted to take a walk around the clinic so we walked and then found this huge tree stump to sit on. While we were relaxing there, another Guatemalan nurse came over to sit with us. When she was leaving, my roommate, Ruth, said in spanish to watch out for her sunglasses on the floor. However, the other nurse, Martha, only heard "watch out" and saw something black.....and I have never seen someone so little jump so high. She is the quietest girl but she screamed at the top of her lungs because she thought she was about to step on a snake. Oh man did we laugh.....my side was hurting! 

Ok, story isn't so funny in writing, but its really neat to see the real friendships that are developing despite the language and cultural differences.

Yesterday I got to go a local little Cocoa farm to see how cocoa beans are harvested, roasted, and ground. It was really cool. I brought them some of my stash of Dove Dark Chocolate as kind of an exchange, and they gave me some of their fresh "chocolate." The ingredients were 1lb of cocoa to 2lb of sugar with a dash of cinnamon and cannola to bind it. It was a different flavor than regular chocolate, but really good, almost fudge taste. We got to take a little hike to see the cocoa trees, and we also saw a pineapple farm, a big canyon type thing with a river, and a 200yr old tree that is their national tree. It was huge! We took a pic at the base of the tree's roots....and we looked tiny! I felt like I was in Fern Gully or something. Then, back at the farm owner's house, the patriarch of the family, an 80yr old nearly deaf man was so excited to try out his english with me. He had taken a 20yr correspondence course and was really good. Francisco, a 20yr old worker at the clinic who speaks english, was dying laughing watching the man ask me what about 20 words were in english as I practically yelled the spellings into his ear. So that was really nice to get to go out to do something "fun" especially since I'm really restricted on how much I am allowed to leave the clinic and family's house now. (Rob...the hike did me some good!)

Still working the 5p-1a shift....and I think we have gotten things in better order now. I think it helps that I'm kind of bridging between the two shifts because it helps communicate different needs from one shift to the other. I've given up using my OCD charts. But, the 2 GYN surgeons from NY are funny and appreciate my tendencies and tried to talk me into coming to work with them in the OR in NY because she is just as OCD as I am. Mom, got to use my new steristrip and dermabond skills that I learned from your PT's for a woman's fresh TAH incision that opened up about 3/4", fairly superficially. It was probably 23:00 when it happened, and before I went to wake the doctors to tell them I put the steristrips on so she wouldn't be hanging open. I told them what happened and what I did, and they were like "Ok cool, thats all we would have done. As long as she isn't bleeding, we're good." She went home the next morning! Totally different atmosphere here at times.

Ok, well gonna rest some and head down to the clinic to help through lunch in a bit. Hope you are all doing well. Jessie, censor mom's comments from now on :). j/k mom, I laughed.

I'm coming home soon.