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June 22, 2007
Jornada Medica
Thursday Derrick and I and a few 4 other students joined Enrique (the ICA director) and Lester (ICA doctor) in a morning clinic. The clinic was held at a school near the tree nursery where Derrick spends most of his mornings.
We all met at ICA at 7 am, which felt a little early, and rode over in the back of the pickup to the primary school. There we set up a little classroom into a clinic. We had four stops, first to register, second blood pressure (or pulse for the children), third glucose checks and lastly a chat with the doctor. An older couple who are studying here took charge of the first stop, Derrick and I the second and a premed student and another guy from the US did the glucoses.
We were supposed to start at 8 and go until 11. Basically we started as soon as we got there and went until 1. We had seen 134 patients by the time we left. I had sore ears and a blister on my left middle finger from listening to blood pressures continuously for nearly 6 hours. It was well worth the blister.
Derrick and I gave stickers to the children, but one child looked at me once and decided he did not want me to touch him with my stethescope. After it was all said and done and we gave him a sticker he smiled a little bit. I got plenty of practice using the phrase ¨Podria relajar su brazo aqui¨(Could you relax your arm here).
I was greatful to have the job of blood pressures though, because the job of checking glucose was not as simple as I had practiced. Instead of the very short retractable needles, they had to use injection needles to prick people´s fingers. I was pretty impressed at how gentle and quick they became by the end of the morning.
Near the end of the morning I realized that my mother has seen similar numbers of patients when she worked at the clinic from our home in Kenya. I can imagine how long a day can be when that many patients trickle in throughout the day.
Needless to say my class that afternoon was a little more laid back due to my tiredness. Derrick went to see how the traditional skirts are made in Salcaja that afternoon as well.
We´re looking forward to another interesting weekend as we wrap up our third and middle week in Guatemala.
*Rebekah
Posted by Derrick at June 22, 2007 09:41 PM