Last Day of Clinic ...

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!!

Peggy giving her speech

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!!

Nearing the End Yet, So Many Blessings!!

So here I am, on Wednesday night reflecting on what an AWESOME trip this has been!! But its not over yet.. but I only have 2.5 days left and they are already jam-packed!! I'm trying to soak up every last moment and make memories of this crazy adventure!! I have been so blessed.. and continue to be so blessed!!

I had my final evaluation for nursing today and PASSED!! Such a relief to have it over and done with.. now just a poster/presentation once I get back to Canada and I'm officially done!! How nuts is that!?! And I went to say goodbye to my tutoring kid, Mycol today because I wont have a chance to tutor him anymore before I go. I was really sad to leave him, and he wasn't really fond of me leaving either. He kept begging me to stay or to come tutor every day until Saturday when I leave.. but I explained that I just wouldn't have time. He gave me a quick hug (which is a lot for a 'too cool' preteen boy) and headed off to baseball practice. I'm really going to miss him, but hopefully one of the new volunteers will take him on so at least he will continue to have a tutor. 

I also spent the last 2 evenings trying to get all my souvenir shopping done. Its funny that I have obviously had weeks to do it, but when its 'real life', you don't buy touristy stuff.. but I had a lot of fun buying a few things (but to all who don't get anything.. you're not missing out, most stuff is really cheesy and overpriced so I was too broke/cheap to buy much - I still love you, just didn't bring you anything tacky you will never use! lol) I got most of my stuff from local people who I know or through missions that I support, so I know that the money is actually put to good use!

Mycol (my student), Vanessa, Emmy & I - at their school today

And tomorrow is a big day!! The clinic is having its big 'dedication service'. It was supposed to be the 'Grand Opening' of the birthing facility/pediatric inpatient.. but the government of Honduras has been dragging their tails getting the licensing sorted out, so they technically are not 'opening' but as soon as the paperwork is finalized they will be.. so tomorrow we will be cutting the ribbon and everything, but won't actually be able to have patients quite yet. This is a BIG deal! It will be a huge open house, everyone who is anyone on the island will be there.. and it has been such a long time in the making (like 4 years since the building was built but even longer if you count all the years of visioning for it) and its finally ready!! I'm so excited to be able to be here during the dedication and to have had a hand in getting things ready!! I was blessed to be able to provide a lot of donations for that part of the facility and also help to sort and set up the physical space. Along with the dedication of our facility the clinic is going to make an substantial official donation to the public hospital of a crash cart full of emergency supplies. God has been so good to our clinic that we frequently have donations that are not suited for our facilities (ie/ we do not do surgery or until now, any form of inpatient care) so we always pass on these donations to the hospital (ie/ catheter supplies, IV supplies, OR equipment etc). In general the clinic is able to bless many of the local health care facilities with supplies that we have in excess from time to time. This donation of a crash cart (fully stocked) will be the first real cart that the hospital has and obviously mean they will be able to save many lives and provide so much more care! This is such a blessing!! God is just doing AMAZING things here in Roatan and I'm so blessed to be a part of it!!

So keep our dedication service tomorrow in your prayers and praise Him for all his abundant provision and blessings!

Outreach and Other Fun Cultural Experiences

I've realized that I'm getting very slack at blogging! I haven't posted for a week! I just have so much to say that I can hardly cut it down to one post, so I just put it off and then I forget to do it. Its so strange here because I have so much to share with everyone, yet at the same time its all become 'just regular life' so it seems odd to blog about, if you know what I mean. 

Exactly a week from today I'll be landing in Houston.. how crazy is that! I can't believe how the time has flown! And sadly I think I spent part of last week caught up in the 'going home fever' (because this is another turn around weekend and all the other students are going home this weekend) and wished my week away. I still had a great week.. but I'm sad that I spent it wishing the time away, when now I only have a week left! God really challenged me to look for his guidance in each day and not to spend the day simply 'getting through' but look for the unique opportunities He gives me. He began changing my heart halfway through the week, so I think I experienced even more the last few days than earlier in the week.. but hopefully I can make the most of my last week and soak up as much of life here as possible!

view fr the clinic doc as someone came by

our supplies bins

Clinic was great this week.. this blog could go on forever if I share too many stories so I'm going to focus on the outreach clinic I helped with on Wed to Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge is on the eastern ( more rural and secluded) end of the island. There is a physical clinic building there but no staff so we make an effort to get out there once every week or so to see patients. It is absolutely beautiful! Well, the entire island here is beautiful! But Oak Ridge had a flair all its own. Like many of the little towns or communities here, it is build on the coast, near a little inlet (or bight); which means many of the houses are right on the water, and rather than walk they take boats. The same is true for 

Elizabeth with a little patient

the clinic and several of our patients arrived at the clinic by boat, stepped onto our little dock and into clinic. The clinic went well but it was pretty slow getting started because we hadn't told them in advance we were coming.. but we went back on Friday too and it was much better attended that day. It is so interesting to see the mix of local/traditional medicine with North American medicine. One woman had headaches so she was told to shave her head, and she honestly believes that keeping her head shaved, wards off her headaches 0- and who am I to tell her it doesn't? Outreach clinics definitely stretch us to be resourceful and make you thankful for the supplies you do have! Its amazing what kinds of things you can do with a bin of assorted medications, stethoscope and BP cuff! 

To avoid this blog becoming ridiculously long (like many of my others) I'm going to skip right to the other fun cultural experience I had this weekend. Last night, Peggy got us all invited to a thankyou/farewell party for a group of spring break college students that helped by rebuilding the hospitals ER. Their coordinator was throwing a huge party and asked if we wanted to come too.. so of course, you never say no to free food and a chance to get out of Sandy Bay! We drove down to Brick Bay and boy, did we get way more than we bargained for! The party was HUGE! They were bussed in locals from several different communities who were helped by this mission group (not only did they help rebuild the ER, they also built a bathroom at a local school and did vocational sessions in another town!). Each group of people from the different communities wanted to show their appreciation for the group and all their help - so each community did a different performance for us! There were songs, dances & lots of drumming! The Garifuna people (who are indigenous to the island and live more on the eastern end) were there and they did a lot of their tribal dancing, drumming and storytelling! It was fabulous! And we eventually ended up leaving just before a group of firedancers were coming up. Plus there was a ton of local food and lots of people to hangout with and enjoy the evening with!!

2 weeks to go..

So I will officially be home 2 weeks from now! :)
I'm at the point where I really enjoy being here, but I'm getting excited to be coming home as well!!
My weekend was really great.. it rained on Saturday but we made the best of it anyway. We went for a kayak and snorkel at 7:30 am.. which turned into quite the adventure because we got caught in a rainstorm.. but once your wet, who cares! :) And by the time we got home we were soaked, cold and exhausted all by10 am, we spent a good part of the day just hanging out and warming up, then went to West End for the evening. Sunday was the typical beach day! I had a blast at Rchurch service in the morning, then laid out by the pool and snorkeled all afternoon! Top it off with a beautiful sunset and the company of great friends! :)

Clinic today was good.. busy as always! We had a new volunteer in today who will be with us for the week. I oriented him and spent the day working with him in triage. He was a quick learner and eager to be helpful! We love those ones!! And it was nice to mentor him and be able to share my knowledge and be supportive. Recently there has been a bit of a competitive air in the clinic where some students want to look better and will do so at the cost of humiliating or pointing out the flaws in others. I'm glad I got a chance to work with our newbie so I could save him from some potentially hurtful situations (he is a cautious new grad Certified Nursing Assistant.. so like an RCW at home). We had a good day in triage - worked a little slower than usual but we saw a ton of patients and some interesting cases. I'm getting to the point where I can practically diagnose typical things just in triage.. like the few cases of malaria I saw today, a case of chicken pox etc. Overall just another fun day at clinic.. and sadly most of the girls are headed home this weekend, so this is their 'last Monday'.. but not for me.. not yet anyway! And Laura & I ventured to French Harbour to get my package from my family! They held it up in customs for over a week because I didnt have a detailed invoice to give the specifics on what was inside and its estimated cost.. who knew that a few Canadian chocolate bars were worth holding in customs.. but whatever! They finally released them to me! :) So I'm eating well tonight! :)

Few Clinic Highlights of the Past Few Days..

Our birthday party surprise for my roommate last night went great! She ended up knowing that we were going to have a party but she didn't know the full extent of it.. which was still super fun! We had a real cake and ice cream, plus we got a card and flowers... all of which she had no clue about! And she was so surprised!! And very excited.. I overheard her skyping her parents later on that night before bed and she was so happy! We made her birthday here in Roatan so special! And it made my day, to help her celebrate and feel at home here! 

God blessed me with this awesome roommate! I'm thankful for Danielle every day! We get along so well, which is key when you live in such a tiny apartment! He really just made a way for us.. neither of us can imagine what we would have done without the other! :) I love how He always knows best, even when we have no clue!

Clinic has been interesting the last few days and I actually have a few fun stories! Clinic is always such a mis-mash of patients.. we get a ton of 'cold/flu', back pain, you know.. the typical clinic/ER client load. But we also get the more interesting tropical things.. like diarrhea, dehydration, parasites, worms (which are different!), malaria etc. Here are a few of my favorite stories of fun 'nursing' stuff I got to do these last few days:

- we had a very dehydrated older gentleman.. he was honestly 101lbs and taller than I am.. very emaciated (basically he was starving.. in the literal sense). His blood pressure was REALLY low, so they wanted him to get fluids..the PA student wanted to practice IV insertion, so Laura & I (the nurses) setup all the equipment and taught/guided her with inserting the IV. I was a bit disappointed at not getting to insert the IV myself, however as lame as it may sound, I really enjoyed the opportunity to ‘be with’ the patient. He was really nervous and I held his hand and talked him through the procedure. I was frustrated that she didn’t exactly do the insertion smoothly, thus ultimately caused him a bit more pain.. but she was learning, so what can you do. I provided comfort for the patient and felt I really improved the experience for him.

-Teenage girl who originally came in with very distressed with severe abdominal pain and shortness of breath, who rapidly became a priority case! We were running getting her on oxygen, taking her vitals and trying to calm her down. It turns out she just had a severe panic attack, which caused her worsening shortness of breath, but it was a bit dicey for a bit while we tried to get her calmed down and breathing more effectively on the oxygen. Again, not only did I enjoy the technical skills of administering the oxygen and monitoring her vitals etc, I really enjoyed spending time reassuring her frantic mother and providing her comfort while calming her down.

We also had some interesting cases of communicable diseases, such as a woman with active TB, and a case of adult varicella (chicken pox). It is difficult when these patients are living in poverty because the precautions or treatment that is necessary may just not be an option for them. I was trying to educate the patient with TB about  the medication we were providing her and about the follow up tests the Dr had ordered for her. But she looked at me and admitted that she wouldn’t be getting the necessary tests because they would be too expensive and she simply couldn’t afford them. Without the tests and definitive diagnosis of TB she wouldn’t be able to get appropriate treatment and if she simply returned home, she would expose many more people to TB. I provided as much education as possible to this woman, but she just didn’t understand.. its hard sometimes for the clients to take my advice when they look at me and know that I have never been in poverty like theirs; they think I couldn’t possible understand.. and maybe they’re right.. Thankfully this story ends well because I spoke with the Dr and he educated her further and found a way for her to get the necessary tests without paying.. but how many other cases don’t end this way.. how many other untreated cases of communicable diseases simply return home because they cannot afford the necessary health care, and just spread the disease further. It really helps put into perspective the care we provide at the clinic.. how vital our services are. Many people would be very sick and some may have died without the treatment and medications provided by our clinic. God has really blessed the people here with the clinic.. and often they will say that.. we just brush it off with a ‘thank you.. and yes, God is good to you’ but truly, He is! How blessed have I been to simply serve here.. but I can’t even imagine how blessed they must feel to know that God has provided such an important medical resource here in their community.. so that they can be taken care of! 

Scary nights and a birthday surprise!

Things have been pretty average here at the clinic this week. We saw an American couple today who needed some serious stitches in the face after a motorcycle accident. Word to the wise: if you travel in Central American, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT get on a motorbike! They are like a fast track to death! I have seen tons of scary motorbike accidents, although these are our first victims to arrive at clinic. Today was this couples first stop on a week long cruise.. guess they ruined that one quickly!
So clinic has been good.. I've been really tired recently because my night time gecko friend is getting more and more bold! Last night he either pooped forcefully on me or fell on me.. eitherway, the force of something falling from above was enough to wake me from a dead sleep (which is impressive, since I truly mean dead sleep). I just shook it off (literally) and went back to sleep, not even a half hour later, it happened again, and I woke up again. I was trying to calmly shake 'whatever it was' onto the floor, when it scurried and touched my skin... that was the end of being calm! I jumped up frightened and shrieked.. which needless to say, woke Danielle my roommate! Anyway, she graciously offered to let me sleep in her double bed with her.. and when I went to investigate my bed in the morning, whatever it was had gone. But I was quite frightened! And I dont know what I'll do tonight! Plus on top of crazy critters.. we have a pack of dogs who hang around our porch now. One of the other volunteers here has a real soft spot for animals so she took to feeding one of the really mangy sick dogs. But now they all crowd around our door (go figure, not hers!) and want to be fed!! Its VERY annoying.. and they are flea and tick infested... which means we find fleas and ticks in our house. I even found a tick in my bed! Which only adds to my nervousness about my bed. And no only do the dogs hang around, they FIGHT! So all night, every few hours there is a huge brawl outside our windows and each time, I'm sure that one dog has been eaten by the others!

Anyway, the nighttime annoyances aside.. I'm very excited today! My care package was supposed to arrive from home.. which is a HUGE deal! If you have never lived away from home, where Canadian (or even North American) goods are few and far between, you really appreciate a little taste of home! I have been ridiculously pumped for my parcel, it was supposed to come yesterday but didn't, so then it was going to come today but for some reason it did yet.. its just dragging out the excitement and anticipation of what my family has sent me! :) And on top of the parcel excitement, we are having a  big birthday party for my roommate today! Its VERY exciting!! And we even got someone to bring us a real American cake mix and icing.. and we are just beyond pumped about it! I'm off to help ice the cake  now while others take her out for a snorkel so we can set up! I love surprises, but this one is even better than most!!

Rainy Saturday adventures in Roatan

So I've had some crazy adventures over the last few days.. we have several resident geckos living in our house and I'm ok with them.. I don't love them, but whatever, they eat the bugs.. but last night we had a little run-in. Its been rainy and gross for the last 2 days, and my bed is wet because it leaks above my bed. So I was about to get into bed last night and I had changed the sheets to relatively dry ones and then got ready to crawl into bed and heard this nasty gecko sound, and something fell from the ceiling above me... and landed on my pillow. Thankfully it was not the whole gecko I guess.. but it was either his poop or his tale. He was just chillin out above me (minus his tale mind you..) and there was nasty gunk on my pillow. So I cleaned it up and changed the pillow case again, but I slept in fear that either the gecko would fall on me or poop on me again in my sleep!
 Which fast forward to just now.. I was chillin on  my bed hanging out with the girls and I flopped over so I was laying in my bed.. and when I sat up I realized the gecko had pooped on my bed again.. and I laid in it!! NASTY! I had gecko poop on my bed, my hand and in my hair! Yuck! I just wiped it off and got it out of my hair the best I could because I just showered and my hair hadn't even dried yet.. so I couldn't really justify showering again.

And so aside from my gecko adventures today, I have had some other adventures. Its been pouring rain (same torrential downpour as a few weeks ago) for 2 days now. It is the perfect excuse to stay inside and just chill, which is great! I poked away at some of my schoolwork this morning, but then when the rain let up a bit around lunch the girls wanted to walk down the beach to a restaurant we heard was good. So we set out on what was supposed to be a 10 min walk up the beach.. but turned into a hour long adventure to this restaurant. Since it had just rained, tons of little streams that carry sewage out of the Colonia and neighbouring areas were twice the size they normally are. Usually you can just hop over the nasty streams and continue on your walk down the beach but these were sometimes huge gushing streams that we had to wade through... yes, I know, wade thru a poopy stream.. GROSS. We got to several places along the way where we had to scale some big rocks and another spot where I came within 10 feet of several big nasty vultures! Vultures are totally as big, nasty and scary as you imagine!! When we finally got to the restaurant we were starving and thankfully the food was great. Then on the way home, we decided to grab a cab rather than take the beach back. But we jumped in a little 'collectivo bus' - which is a 15 passenger van that looked like it belonged in the scrap yard, full of sweaty Honduran workers and it took us up into the Colonia and all over (half way along its normal route and some unexpected side routes as well) and eventually we got out somewhat near our house and walked the rest of the way home. So in the end, our whole trip up the beach and back was quite the adventure! :)
Hopefully the power and internet will hold the evening and that it will clear up for tomorrow. We have planned a girls night of watching movies and eating popcorn.. because what else do you do when its pouring!
Here are a few shots of our house and the sunset that we took during a break in the rain..