I cannot believe that we only have 2 more days left in South America!!! The time has passed very quickly. I have very mixed emotions about leaving. When I am at the clinic and thinking about how many days I have left with the friends that I have made here, I am very sad at the thought that I will likely never see them again. However, when I am at the apartment and packing, I am extremely excited to go home and see my husband, dog, family and friends.
Monday at the clinic was actually a much more interesting day than what we have been having. I saw my first case of Cushing's. He had the moon face, buffalo hump, and a few other signature signs. There was also a teenage girl that had drank a little too much alcohol, which led to vomiting. Since it had blood in it, we had to give her a referral for an endoscopy to check for ulcers. The scariest case of the day was a mother that had been feeding her baby water mixed with plantain powder for the first 30 days of the baby's life because the mom said she couldn't produce milk; however, I watched the nurse work with her and show her how to help her baby get her breast milk. This is definitely something that I will never see in the USA. The nurse was basically pulling/massaging her breast and squeezing milk out much like a baby suckling would do. What was so strange about the situation was that it was out in public. I have gotten used to seeing patients just whip out a breast to feed their child in the middle of a conversation, street, grocery store, etc.; but this took it to a whole new level.
Yesterday was a little slower day with a little bit of flu and another pregnant lady. Listening to an unborn baby's heartbeat will never get old! In the afternoon we took the chance to go to Fe y Luz. This place is pretty incredible! Fe y Luz works with children that have handicaps of some sort and also works with the families of these children to help them learn how to take care of their children properly and deal with their situation. There are several different types of therapy they focus on: physical therapy, speech therapy, critical thinking type skills, etc. There are also talks that are given about disease states and other important information for the parents and families. There are approximately 90 children there every day and 7 staff members, only 4 of which are health care professionals.
I also forgot to mention a few weeks ago that we went to the Center for Nutritional Recuperation. This place is also incredible. Their primary goal is to get the children to the nutritional levels they should be at. Their secondary goal (however still just as important), is teaching the mothers the best way to provide their children with the necessary vitamins and nutrients. This center, Fe y Luz, and Centro Medico Hombro a Hombro are all affiliated with FASCA (an association that helps fund the clinics).
Today I was with Mercedes in the community. I was able to counsel a couple of patients on their medications and listen in on one other patient interview. We then had to take a gentlemen to the ER at a nearby hospital because his blood sugar was 580! Unfortunately we didn't get to stick around to see what happened. In the afternoon, Stella and I participated in the Hypertension and Diabetes group for women. We gave a brief talk over the two disease states and talked a little bit about the medications that each woman was taking. According to Maggie (the Peace Corps volunteer) the meeting went really well. The ladies were asking a lot of questions and seemed to be in tune with what we were saying for the majority of the time. It was a great experience for the both of us, especially since we love the personal, counseling aspect of pharmacy.
When we got home, we packed a little bit more!!! I know I already said this, but it is getting so close!! We will be leaving Santo Domingo around 3:30 on Friday afternoon and should be back in the state around 6am. I am looking forward to a fabulous last two days at the clinic!
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