Roatan - Day 38

Once again, J and I had complete autonomy seeing patients today.  J is fighting some type of upper respiratory virus and was grateful I gave her the opportunity to talk and cough it out (she saw the first 3 patients).  Today was our last day working at the clinic so we took pictures with everyone and said our goodbyes.  Hopefully in the future someday I can come back for a week or two to volunteer (and vacation).  J and I had a great experience at the clinic.  I feel like I fine-tuned my knowledge and management of diabetes and hypertension, not to mention really progressed in formulating my own plan for the patient.

And it’s a good thing I’m leaving Central America soon… I’m sure I would get diabetes myself if I stayed too much longer.  I just can’t seem to stay away from the tortillas, beans & rice, fried plantains, coconut puffs, and Coca-Cola.  SO GOOD.  But way too many carbs and sugar.

After work, we hit up Marco’s one last time for our last baleada.  We invited the new pediatricians to join us for lunch.  I think they appreciated the new $1 baleada discovery.  I’m sure Marco will be sad not to have us frequent their place at least 3 times each week.  I’m sure their income is about to hit a steep drop off…

M picked us up for a quick drive to Flowers Bay for our last purchase of coconut puffs.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought FIVE of them!  How on earth am I going to eat them before they lose their freshness and savor?  I’ll do my best.  Those small pieces of heaven cannot be wasted!

Today was also our last day tutoring.  I worked with E one last time.  E is a first grader who does extremely well in math, but dislikes reading very much.  Her pronunciation is still off so she struggles reading aloud.  Not until today did I come up with a good method to help her read.  We would read the paragraph together at least twice, I would guide her through at least twice, then she would read on her own twice.  This really helped improve her fluidity.  It was super cute… she took my pointer finger in her hand and moved it along with each word as she read.  It was a successful day and I hope she impresses her teacher tomorrow.  I like working with kids and teaching them.  So naturally, I’m grateful for the opportunity for the patient education that comes along with being a PA.

Made a few quick stops in West End this evening and regretfully decided to share a pepperoni pizza with J for dinner, after I had just eaten a third of my coconut bread.  Bad idea.  I’m STILL full.  But I just had to eat a coconut puff for desert later tonight.  If I’m not careful, I’m going to easily gain back the 9 pounds I lost over the last 6 weeks.  No way!