That time
of the semester is now upon me. Finals week. Except since this is a 6 week
program, it’s more like “Final Day-Or-Two”. Sigh. The volunteering I do is
technically a “class”, so our “final” consisted of a PowerPoint presentation
about our experience (which I haven’t started yet…) and a day of observation. I
was honestly really nervous for our teacher to observe us, because the clinics
can be very luck-of-the-draw. Some days they turn out to be super exciting.
Others we literally sit on our butts and listen to the doctor talk, and *maybe*
something interesting will pop up. So we warned our teacher in advanced.
Luckily, it
turned out to be an incredibly interesting day. The nurses caught quickly to
the fact that we were being observed, and they did everything they could to
help us out. We started out the day by shadowing a nurse, which Jane and I have
never done before. She was really sweet, and excited to hear about our
endeavors to learn Spanish and to go into medicine. She actually let me take
the blood pressure of a patient. I was really nervous that I’d gotten the wrong
numbers, but it turned out that the patient was coming in to get help for her
high blood pressure.
Then the
nurse had Jane take the weight of a patient on the scale out in the weighting
room. After the patients saw that we
were weighing people, every single person in the room lined up to have us take
their weight. There were moms, dads, teenagers, kids, and the elderly all
excited to have us weigh them. It was interesting, because their views on
weight are very different than ours in the US. Americans tend to be so
hush-hush about our weight. We find it rude to ask how much someone weighs, and
rude to comment on their physic. This didn’t occur to me until I was actually
weighing an overweight patient. I set the balance on the scale, and when I had
it just right, I pointed and half-whispered “two hundred fifty four”. She kept asking me to speak up, and speak up,
until I was practically shouting her weight. I thought that maybe she was hard
of hearing, but then she turned around to her family and the random strangers
near her, and was like “Did you guys hear that? I weigh 254!” And then all of
the people began commenting on how “fat” she was.
I also
weighed one of the families that I had seen last Thursday when I was out in the
community! Usually, I know absolutely nothing about the home life of the
patients I see (this is especially true back at home in the US). But when I saw
the family from the community, I had a bigger picture of what their life was
like. It was much more holistic that way, and I felt like I knew that family a
little more personally than the average family that happens to walk in.
After that,
the nurses had us give an impromptu speech about breastfeeding and nutrition
using these prompt-card, and then sent us in to go shadow the doctors like
usual. One patient came in with a cardiogram, (recording of the heart), and let
us look at it. She took the time to explain how it was taken, and where the
different monitors were placed on the body. We also saw a pregnant patient with
her first ultrasound, a teenager with syphilis, and talked to quite a few
people about blood pressure, blood sugar, fat consumption, and diabetes (All
the food here tends to be very sugary and very greasy, so these are some of the
most common diseases we see here).
After our
teacher left, things got even more interesting. There was another stray
wondering around, the consultation room, and we got to see a patient with a
rare spinal deformity. We also had given the doctor a flashlight that morning
(after the phone cell phone incident), and we got to watch our doctor use it
for the first time. When she performed this pap smear, she was amazed at how
well she was able to see, and was very grateful for the gift. She told the
resident to put it somewhere safe, and to not waste the battery. They’ve never
used a flashlight in the clinics before, so they treated it very carefully. It
made me realize how much we take our equipment in the US for granted. I can’t
tell you how many times I’ve heard people cuss out the alarm systems on the
monitoring machines. It’s crazy to think about how we find such state of the
art machines annoying, or an inconvenience at times, while the doctor here
holds the flashlight like she would a baby. Now I’m actually looking forward to
hearing all of those beeps and alarms on the machines when I get back to
volunteering in US hospitals. No matter how obnoxious they can be at times, we
are so lucky to have more than just the stethoscope, blood pressure cuff,
flashlight, and a few other little miscellaneous tools that they have here.
Our last
patient of the day was a Haitian woman that we’ve seen a few times before.
She’s anemic (she doesn’t have enough red blood cells), has O negative blood,
and is pregnant. This is a really dangerous pregnancy, because her husband has
positive blood. There’s a chance that the baby could end up inheriting the
dad’s positive blood. If this happens, and the mom and baby’s blood mix, the
mom’s body will think that the positive blood is “foreign”, and her body will
make antibodies to attack it. Since this isn’t her first child, the antibodies
have already formed, and it’s very likely that she’ll miscarry, unless she goes
to the next level up to get treatment. Unfortunately, she only knows Creole,
and doesn’t speak any Spanish. The entire consult was back and forth between
the mom, the Haitian resident (who speaks Creole, Spanish and English), and the
doctor. Just like any immigrant, navigating the health care system is scary
when you don’t speak the language. From what the resident has told me, she also
seems to be having trouble understanding why it’s so important that she gets
medical care. Hopefully, the resident will be able to get through to her, and
she’ll get the care she needs.
While
listening to this consult, Jane and I played with her 3-year-old son named
Benjie. This kid had these bright, happy eyes, a huge smile, and such a loving
personality. I got on the floor and sat with my legs crossed to say hi. He came
right up to me, put both hands on my face, and leaned in so that his forehead
was almost touching mine. I put my arms around him, and he gave me this radiant
smile. Then he started to stick out his tongue and make all of these silly
faces at me. When I repeated them back to him, he’d smile even bigger. Even
though we couldn’t speak the same language, Benjie’s love and warmth shone
through. I have never seen such a kind spirited in my entire life. Dominicans
discriminate so much against Haitians, so I’m sure that his family has faced
all sorts of adversity in the DR. But Benjie was still so vivacious and lively.
That small interaction with him was one of the highlights of my work in the
clinics.
So I’d say
that “final” went pretty well.
I’ve still
got an online quiz and an oral exam for my Spanish class that I need to study
for. I’m right on the verge of getting an A, and after all my hard work these
past six weeks, I want the A as proof of how much I’ve learned and how far I’ve
come. I’ve also been working like crazy on my medical terminology class. I’m
determined to get it done and out of the way before I start my other classes during
the second half of summer. I’ve been working my butt off studying these past
few days. Yay for finals. Not.
On the bright
side, I was able to relax a little bit this past weekend. On Friday, I went
with Catherine and our friends Luke and Mitch to one last trip to Sosua. I’m
really going to miss that beach. We talked and hung out in the water. At one
point, we swam out to a small reef, and saw these really bright blue colored
fishes. It wasn’t quite as cool as the snorkeling trip, since I couldn’t stick
my head into the water, or swim down to look (I have contacts, so I can’t open
my eyes under water). But it was definitely fun. It was a very relaxing day
with some great people. I really hope that we get to hang out again when we’re
all back in Gainesville.
I only have
one more week left here in the DR before I head back to the US! I’m really
excited to go to Illinois to see all of my family, but I’m also really sad to
be leaving. I’ve had such an amazing experience here, and I’ve improved my
Spanish so much. I feel like if I had 6 or so more weeks, I’d be close to
fluent. I really hope that I can find a way to keep speaking Spanish. I’d hate
to loose all that I’ve worked for. Anyways, I’ll write later this week and let
you know how my last few days in the DR go!
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| Taking Vital Signs! |
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| Consultations with the Doctor |
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| Benjie |
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