Today was the first day that we traveled to two towns to
provide medical care.
We loaded up on a boat at 7:30 AM and made our way across
Lake Atitlan to a popular town visited by many tourists, San Pedro. As we loaded off the boat and began walking into town to meet the van, we saw lots of locals
selling fruits, juices, and hand made goods on the street. Everyone watched and
turned their heads as they witnessed 25 people all dressed in green scrubs and
sweatshirts carrying duffle bags up a hill. You could tell they looked
at us with equal amounts of admiration and confusion; they were aware we were
medical persons coming to provide care, but it must have been comical to see
everyone looking exactly the same. Regardless, everyone greeted us with a warm “buenos
dias” and children waved and followed us up to our van.
 |
| Beautiful quits for sale |
 |
| Look at all the fresh fruits on the right for sale |
The first town we drove to, Santa Clara, was approximately
10 minutes outside of the main city center of San Pedro. This was the first
village where we had translators, which I was extremely thankful for because
I was placed on registration! Myself and two other students, along with a
translator, helped to register 100 patients for the morning session. We were
responsible for getting the basics: name, age, address, social history, surgical
history, family history, and the reason that brought them to the clinic. While
this sounds simple, I found the process to be very difficult. I stumbled on
words necessary to take a history leaving a lot of silence and me floundering
for the right Spanish word. When I finally asked the right question, the patient would often go into a lengthy description of their concerns and I had no idea what was
being said. I could pick out key words, such as “cough,” “headache,” or “pain”
but anything beyond that was lost in translation. I was very dependent on the
translator during the first couple of registrations, but eventually I developed
a better script that allowed me to get through the process in about 4 minutes
rather than 10 (especially since if the interview were in English the process
would take about two minutes).
 |
| We were in a school building in the center of town. All day we heard children go out for gym class |
When I first started to take the histories, I was surprised
how embarrassed all the patients were when I asked if they smoked cigarettes or
drank alcohol. While in Belize, whenever we asked this to patients the majority
of them were very honest and would openly admit to drinking a lot of beer or
smoking marijuana for pleasure. Each patient in Guatemala, regardless of their
age, giggled a little, hid their head, and shook it very quickly to say “no.” Eventually,
I found out from the translator that the community we were in was very
religious and drinking/smoking cigarettes is frowned upon. These people were
raised to never even imagine partaking in those activities, so they found it
very humorous when the Americans decided to ask them about their social habits.
 |
| A beautiful church right next to the building we were in |
Compared to other villages we visited during the week, I was
surprised by the vast differences in the patients we saw that day. Since this village
is more centrally located and not in the mountains, there were more patients,
especially female patients, who had jobs. I had quite a few female traffic officers
and other women in professional dress come in with a cold or to get a wellness
check and acquire vitamins. In no other village did the women seem to have job
other than maintaining the children and taking care of the home (and “taking
care of the home” means something completely different than what you’re
thinking & I'll explain later). Even the way that the women dressed, shirts
with glitter and sparkles on them and skirts in bright fresh colors, contrasted
from the villages in the mountains where women wore duller colors with no extra
frills. I did not notice it in the moment, but upon reflection after visiting all of
the villages I realized this was the most affluent village we had the opportunity
to volunteer at.
 |
| It was also rare to see men at any of the clinics, especially those who wore a uniform |
I was placed on physical exam with five other students. Thankfully
after having registration in the morning I was more in tune with my inner
Spanish phrases and it was a little bit easier to understand and communicate
with the patient to discuss their problem.
One of the first patients I had was an older lady who came
in for a headache. She said she has had this headache for many years now and
some days it causes her a lot of pain and discomfort. I did the physical exam
and everything was normal, which is to be expected. I told her that I would be
giving her some ibuprofen to take when the pain is very bad, as well as some
vitamins. As soon as I mentioned we would be able to give her medications she
looked down, began praying, and continued to tell me “gracias, gracias, gracias”
over and over. We I went to walk her over to the pharmacy, she grabbed my arm and we walked hand in hand all the way through receiving her medication until she left, which
is when she gave me a big hug and a final thank you. I was so touched by this
moment. All I did for this lady was give her a few doses of Ibuprofen and a
month’s worth of vitamins, but she made me feel like I cured her cancer. We take things like NSAIDs, which we pop like candy here in America, for granted and forget that they are
too much money for the average Guatemalan to afford. I was incredibly rewarding
to know that this lady was so thankful for our visit and would be feeling some
relief for her headache soon.
 |
| So happy someone took this photo of this moment. |
Another patient that I had the opportunity to help was a 7
month pregnant female who came in complaining of blurry vision. I did a physical
exam, checked her vision, and concluded that the patient probably needed
glasses to solve her problem. Out of
habit from pervious patients I saw who were pregnant, I asked her how the baby
was doing and if he was moving. She suddenly had a look of worry wash over her
face and started to describe to me and the translator that three days ago she
felt a sharp pain in her side and she has not felt the baby move since then. A
look of worry probably fell across my face as well and I started to think the
worse. I excused myself for a moment and went to ask if we had a fetal Doppler so
that I could try to find the fetal heart rate. Unfortunately, we did not have
one so instead I tried to find the heart beat with my stethoscope but I could
not hear anything. I educated the patient that if anything were to change or
she still didn’t feel the baby move, she needs to seek help at the hospital.
I found it difficult to be in a situation that I had absolutely
no control over. There was nothing I wanted more than to reassure the patient that
the baby was okay and the pain was probably a result of the weight from her
belly pulling on her back; I couldn’t let those words out of my mouth because I
honestly did not know. We can come prepared with as many medications and
equipment as possible, but there will always be something we don’t have. I
still think about that patient and I hope that as soon as she left the clinic
she felt the baby’s foot sweep across her belly and she is doing fine.
It was very busy day filled with over 200 patients across 2 villages. I am so proud of myself and my classmates for being able to keep up the energy and positivity all day long. Everyday has made me more and more excited for the villages to come.
 |
| Leaving San Pedro after an incredible day |
No comments:
Post a Comment