August 18/2011

Last day in Nicaragua! Went to the hospital to watch surgeries this morning, saw a thyroid gland be removed. The rest of the morning was saying good byes along with a little bit of work in maternity and the ER. This afternoon I ran errands, picking up last minute stuff, and hanging out with Steph and Eve. I had my going away supper of empanadas with a plantain shell, and had a blast hanging out. Gotta run though because I haven't started packing!!!!

August 17/2011

This morning John and I headed to the clinic in Diriamba. There, at around nine in the morning, we went to a school and taught about Dengue to both elementary and secondary level kids. It was fun, and we even saw a few people there that we already knew. After that the two nurses (Chema and Laura) took John and I to Catarina by Apoyo lagoon. There they payed for everything from our transport to our lunch. Chema is probably the nicest most giving person I have yet to meet, he even offered me some land on his grandma's farm to build a house if I want. PS mom and dad, I told him he could stay in our house for a bit if he visits Canada... So nice. This evening we went to the hospital again and handed out more glow sticks, for which the kids were very excited.

August 16/2011

This morning Steph and I went to surgeries, and we each picked two different rooms to go observe in. I chose a room where the doctor who showed me stuff in surgeries yesterday was. This was a great choice, the doctor asked a nurse to bring me a wooden step so that I could watch right over his shoulder. He calls me Fria, but I don't care because he was trying so hard to involve me today. My head was right by his the whole time so I was about as close as I could get. The surgery itself involved an incision again below his ribs on the right side. They removed something about three inches long that had a hard mass in it. They also drained another organ that appeared to be filled with water. Very interesting to watch. After this I went to the hospital for the morning in the ER. It was so busy, they definitely had more patients than the hospital could handle. I was giving injections through the IV port, changing IV bags, and transporting patients from the little triage area to observation (where they had to resort to using plastic lawn chairs for the patients to sit in). I felt very useful. This afternoon I went back to the hospital, and I STARTED AN IV!!!! It was sweet! I went to maternnity after this where I helped taking blood pressures and chatted with the doctors, but there were no births while I was there. We made chocolate cake using only pop and cooking it in the microwave (the gas in the stove ran out) which turned out surprisingly well, for John's birthday. We even drizzled caramel sauce on top. Afterwards Steph and I went back to maternity where we did get to watch another birth. There seemed to be a few complications however, they had to bring in a couple more doctors, so we were not able to help out very much. We were really only able to bring them tools, and pour water when the doctor needed it. Always amazing though to watch for sure!

August 15/2011

This morning began with surgeries again. I went into one of the three surgery rooms, and watched a surgery where they removed something small and white on the man's right side under his ribs. I got to help the anesthaesiologist with hanging up the IV bags, tie down the guy's arms, flip a few switches etc. (I got to help her mostly because she was too short to reach where they hang them!). During the surgery, the doctor actually acknowledged my presence, usually they are so focused, halted the surgery and called me over to explain exactly what was going on. I didn't understand because it was in spanish, but he showed me some neat things! Oh, and did I mention the man was awake for most of it? Ya, while the doctor was fishing around under his ribs, I glanced at the guys face and he was looking around, and grimacing slightly. I actually felt pretty involved! I went straight to maternity where a woman literally popped out a baby as I walked in the door. I helped with clean up and hung around talking with the doctors and helping where needed until lunch. I went to the clinic in Diriamba this afternoon, where I gave a couple vaccines, took blood pressures of a couple people, and was given my own stamped prescription pad! Thats right, Doctora Brianne can now officially prescribe drugs to people in Nicaragua when ever she pleases:) I swung by the hospital on my way back, and the ER was hopping. Apparantly there had been a minibus accident and a few people actually died. There was another man brought in wearing handcuffs with the police covered in blood. He needed quite a few stitches and some head bandages. This evening I made delicious watermelon, pineapple, lime juice, and have been doing some research on some of the things I have seen. Overall, a great day!

August 13 and 14/2011

This weekend was so much fun. Saturday morning, Steph and I left for Chocoyero natural reserve where we were planning on camping. Despite danger warnings we were given about the path leading up to the reserve we decided to brave it in a mototaxi(little mini motarized cart). We made it there safe and sound, and set off on our first hike with a guide. We saw some kind of jungle squirrel, a tucan, many many butterflies and birds, and chocoyos(little green parakeets). We found the waterfall, and beside it was a cliff full of holes where the chocoyos nest. We ended up hiking back on our own at 4:30 which is the time where all the chocoyos return to their nests. There were four hundred birds approximately that were flying around at this time. It was absolutely unbelievable. When we got back to the tourist check in area, the people had set up our tent for us and matresses underneath the covered tourist area. We didn't get to camp in the camping area as the tent did not have a fly, and they said it had been raining a lot. And oh wow did it rain that night. It was pouring so hard the noise kept me awake for the majority of the night (that and the monkey howling sounds!). It was a little bit scary because we were in the middle of nowhere with no communication if anything were to happen, but it all worked out in the end. The area we were staying is also the largest supplier in Nicaragua for pineapples, which we would later buy. In the morning, we went for a morning hike bright and early, and had our breakfast by the waterfall and the chocoyos. We were then told that the mototaxis were unable to access the reserve because of all the rainfall, and that we were going to have to walk the road where muggings and rapings supposedly occur. We made one of the people at the reserve walk with us until we found an area that the mototaxis could reach. We made it home safe and sound. The rainforest was so amazing it felt like I had been on an adventure the entire weekend.

August 12/2011

This morning I went to go watch surgeries again. I saw a c-section(which I was really excited about), and some other surgery where they removed something that looked like a small balloon in size and shape from a woman's stomach. It was very neat. After that I went to the clinic, where "doctora Brianne" was in charge of an entire consult. I did the initial examination, had to do the whole write up on her file, and I even prescribed her meds! Ya, me, signing of on meds in Nicaragua...I also gave her birth control shot. This afternoon I went to the hospital for a short period of time, and was in the schock area of emergency. I helped out a bit there, but nothing really exciting happened. After this, Steph and I tried to travel to Masaya to look for art. Masaya is an hour away, and we left at 3:30...we would get there at 4:30, and the last bus leaves Masaya at 5:30 so we would have a little bit of time. We got back to the bus station at 5:15, only to be told that friday is an exception and the last bus had left at four. Well we had a bit of a panic attack, but ended up taking a taxi home, which cost us ten times as much:( This evening we met the three new volunteers here; Danielle, Brett, and Amos. There are 16-17 years old and here for the conservation project. We haven't had the chance to talk much but they seem like very nice people. We are just preparing for our camping trip that Steph and I are undertaking for the weekend in the rainforest...should be fun!

August 11/2011

This morning my stomach wasn't cooperating so I opted out of the seven am.  surgeries, slept an extra hour, and headed to the clinic in Diriamba. There we saw a few neat things (including the early stages of a flesh eating disease, needless to say I hand sanitized...a few times), and had a good talk with the nurse there. He offered to write us a letter of recommendation, it would be in spanish of course but not difficult to get translated, so that was a bonus. This afternoon I went to the hospital, and instead of going to maternity again (while I really wanted to), I thought trying the ER would be a neat idea. We did little tasks like setting up the IV bags, handing tape, taking patients to the bathroom etc. By the end of the afternoon however, we were learning how to start IVs ourselves, practicing on the tubing for the IV bags. Might try my hand at that before I leave! This evening was Jason's last night, and we had a going away dinner of empanadas, and salad. Afterwards, we went out for a couple drinks and called it a night!