In my last year of medical school, I attended a nutrition
conference with a few of my friends.
This conference was put on by CMBM (community of mind, body and
medicine) . . . in case if you can’t tell by that short description, it was
very vonde friendly. On one of the
mornings, one of the lecturers had us all stand up, close our eyes, and dance .
. . making the point that dancing can always put you in a good mood . . . a
very true statement . . .
Last night was my first night consult. In order to better understand, I’ll
start with explaining the way the delivery process works here. The physicians delivery the baby, and
apparently will routinely cut episiotomies, and then leave the nurse to do the
repair. I had heard the lady
laboring downstairs . . . so when nurse Bernadine came knocking on my door
saying ‘dokte vonde, I need your help . . . come quick,’ I had an idea of what
she needed (luckily wasn’t a massive post partum hemorrhage . . . just the
laceration repair). A complete
evaluation of the patient revealed a partial third degree laceration. Finding the appropriate suture was
difficult enough . . . but then imagine sitting in a poorly ventilated room in
the head of Haiti, attempting to repair a laceration with a camping headlamp,
using only local anesthesia, with a patient who understands nothing you say,
and a nurse who maybe understands a third of what you are saying. A set up that would make Courtney
Barnes cringe.
By the time I was finished, I was dripping with sweat . . . and all I wanted to do was clean
up, send out a few emails, and go to bed.
Once I got upstairs, I came to find that the internet was once again not
functioning. The internet we have
here kind of functions like a cellular data plan. There is the option of having unlimited, or you pay ‘before’
you go. Everyone had been under
the impression that there was unlimited data, but for the past two evenings, a
message keeps on coming up on my computer stating (in Creole . . . so I don’t
know the exact words) that we need to buy more data. VERY VERY frustrating!
I know . . . I’m acting like a princess. If not having the internet is the only thing bad going on,
then things really aren’t that bad, but it is very nice to feel somewhat
connected to family and friends when you are so far away.
Then comes the morning . . . another busy day at the
office. One of my screening
positive patients came back for her LEEP . . . and I don’t’ think I could have
asked for things to go more smoothly. I saw seventeen patients from the morning through the
afternoon . . . thirteen of which had vague complaints of belly pain (if she
has a vagina, then it must be GYN in origin . . . right!). On the plus side, I have gotten really
good at evaluating abdominal pain . . . I diagnosed a case of H. Pylori today!
[the other theme seemed to be PID/cervicitis, which I’m fairly certain I
diagnosed and treated at least five or six cases.
By the end of clinic, I was famished . . . I didn’t break
for lunch as I have a problem leaving five or six patients waiting just because
I want to go eat. First thing I
find out when I go to my computer . . . the internet is not working again!!
So now . . . to the theme of the day. I’m going to admit something that could
bring forth some mocking or scrutiny, but what the hell. In my attempts to somewhat stay in
shape during my time here (it is my goal to run a 15 k with my dad in December
. . . and probably not the safest or smartest to run on the one road that is
covered with livestock and motor bikes, and the occasional truck), I brought
Zumba videos to work out to. For
those of you who don’t know, Zumba is the newish latin dance workout craze . .
. everyone is doing it. Most days,
I’m forced to be somewhat silent in my workouts as there are open ceilings, but
today, there was a big storm, which meant I could be as loud as I wanted. I zumba’d like no other, listening to
the sounds of Laura Marling, Mumford and Sons, Vanilla ice, The Allman
Brothers, etc . . . dancing truly does put you in a good mood. I highly recommend it as a therapeutic
remedy for all!
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