Today was perhaps one of the busiest days in clinic for my whole trip! Go figure, that my last bit would be so nuts!! We were short staffed even more today because someone was sick and there was a funeral that some staff attended (and 2 others left early) and it was the first of the month, which means many of our chronic illness patients come in to get their medication refills (usually around the first of the month, but today it seemed like everyone was gung-ho for the 1st). Anyway, we just had an absolute ton of patients and we were run off our feet.. good thing I learned so much about prioritizing this rotation! We saw so many patients and had a totally full day, so I hardly had time to realize this would be my last day at the clinic. Then just as we were getting out the door (later than usual, and a Friday at that..) 2 trucks pull up the driveway. A pregnant woman steps our of one truck, visibly in distress calling out 'Doctor, Doctor, I need help..' So several people helped her inside to get her vitals, while an older gentleman got out of the other truck and approached us. He is a fairly common patient who were were all familiar with and he looked quite distressed as well. He calls over to us ' Doctor, I need you to come to my house and help me, I think my wife is dead. I came home and finded her on the floor and I not waked her up! I couldn't lift her neither" [I know his wife and she is easily 250lbs] He had tried to call us but the Dr's cell was dead and we were outside chatting and didn't hear our clinic phone.. then he had driven to the hospital but they couldn't help him. So Dr Raymond agreed to go with him to his house and see what could be done for his wife and we took care of the other pregnant woman (who Dr Patrick ended up driving directly to the local gynecologist's office because of the complicated diagnosis he had for her.. ) So our day ended with quite a ruckus.. of course, I go out with a bang! It was too bad though because I didn't really get the goodbyes that I was hoping for because everyone rushed off so quickly. Hopefully I'll make it back to Clinica Esperanza again in the future and I'll be able to make my goodbyes better the next time. Either way, I think they know I'll be thinking and praying for them often!
Oh other exciting note I forgot to mention about yesterday.. Thursdays is gynecological day - we do all our gyn consults that day and all our pap smears are scheduled that day. So often this is performed by a OB/GYN resident (if we have one) or another female Dr/PA, however it can be performed by a nurse and they decided that Thursday was the day to teach me (they had been promising all along but we never found the time.. so yesterday since we weren't too busy and Peggy stopped by, she took over my nursing duties so I could go learn to do pap smears!! ) It was awesome.. its one thing to learn it in class or practice in lab on the manequins but totally different to be doing it to real patients!! It was so fun and I found a cervix on my first attempt!!
AND our Dedication went really well!! It was a great party and tons of people showed up to support us! God really blessed us and it was so evident by the number of supporters and past patients who have been blessed through the ministry here! It was fun to be part of the event too!! And we all made local tv! The crew was there filming the whole ceremony!!
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| Peggy giving her speech |
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| Dr Raymond thanking everyone and the community for their support |
Ok so back to my last day.. Tonight we all went out to Rotisserie Chicken (my pick) for my last meal in Roatan! We had a delicious meal and I even got dessert!! Then I picked up a few last things I wanted at a little shop in the West End and my closest friends came over to our apartment and we just hung out for the rest of the evening. I packed and we chatted! I'm really going to miss these girls!!! Especially Laura (my preceptor and nurse from clinic) and Danielle (my roommate for the past month) !! We had an ice cream party (not that any of us needed the ice-cream.. lol, but since my clothes are too small already, what difference does one more bowl of ice cream matter! So we had ice cream sundaes and enjoyed our last night!! I'll see them all in the morning one last time to say goodbye then I'm leaving! I leave here for the airport at 10:30am and fly at 1pm.. so hopefully all my flights and stuff goes smoothly!!
