Roatan - Day 2

As I sit down to write this post tonight, I am furiously scratching my face.  The mosquitos have already keenly discovered my juicy blood.  I have 3 bites on my jaw, one on my chin, one on my neck, one between my eyes (seriously?!), and one on my eyelid.  And that is my head alone.  I may survive Ed’s unkempt apartment (barely), but I don’t know if I’ll survive 6 weeks of mosquitos.  Don’t worry, I’m taking antimalarial medication.

                                                                 

Oh, and by the way I got an email from my pops today entitled “Urgent, Kristina--read this.”  He had me really worried for a bit.  Yes, there is a travel advisory to Honduras posted by the government and as the article in the email my dad sent pointed out, San Pedro Sula is apparently the most dangerous city in the world right now, followed by Acapulco, Mexico then Caracas, Venezuela.  Good thing I’ve already been to Acapulco.  No, but really, there is no need to be alarmed.  For the following reasons: I fortunately am not on the mainland, Roatan is a cruise ship stop, and our school wouldn’t send us here if they didn’t feel it was safe.  Hey, I’m a 6 foot Spanish speaker.  No one dares mess with me.  Don’t worry, I’ll be extra careful and not go anywhere alone.  I promise.

Well, after sleeping in off and on until 10 this morning, we finally got up and got ready for our first shift at the clinic, beginning at 12:30 pm (yes, I got cold during the night and yes, I used my beach towel as a blanket).  We didn’t really get assigned to do anything in particular until we’d been there for an hour or so, but finally got put into triage (there are a ton of other medical students here right now).  Wow, I can now appreciate all the work that goes into taking vital signs and flagging patients appropriately for who is next in line for care.  I absolutely loved using my Spanish today and had a smile on my face all afternoon, but man, I forgot how much work it takes to get a history from a Latino, excuse me, Hondureño.  I constantly had to redirect a few patients coming in with very vague complaints.  A lot of these people just need reassurance, no meds necessary. 

My Spanish is extremely rusty and I thought it was mostly my speaking skills that was having difficulty, but after thinking a patient was saying “adicción” instead of “inyección” and J (who speaks no Spanish) figuring it out, I soon realized that wasn’t the case.  At least we had a good laugh out of it. 

We put in a good full day’s work today – 6 hours.  Booyah.  After getting home and preparing a delicious salad for dinner, turns out Ed only has one fork in the entire place.  J ate dinner first followed by me.  Hey, if this is how it has to be done, then so be it.  We work the morning shifts for the rest of the week so hopefully we’ll get some beach time and exploring in, even some snorkeling perhaps.  

Roatan - Day 1

So I didn’t think I’d blog while I was here because we don’t have internet in our apartment, but I found an easy way around it.  I’ll type whatever it is I want to say while at the end of each day and then post it to my blog the next day when I get to the clinic.  My only caveat is that I might be behind on the weekends since I only work M – F.  Also, these postings will be strictly words only.  If you want to see pictures you’ll have to check Instagram or Facebook.

What a day… where to start?  I guess at the beginning; that would be the most logical choice :)  So I’m here on the island of Roatán in the Caribbean, which is part of Honduras, given over from the British in the 1800s (for you history buffs out there).  You may know it as a popular cruise ship stop.  I’m here for my Community Medicine rotation and will be working at Clínica Esperanza, a local medical clinic.  We’ll be seeing everything from the underserved to tourists. 

My classmate (we’ll call her J) and I am came down together.  She’s a paraplegic from a recent snowboarding accident in the last few years.  She is seriously one of the strongest and most optimistic people I have met.  There’s perks to traveling with someone in a wheelchair – we got bumped up on both flights to Economy Plus, where I enjoyed a wide expanse of leg room.  So we took the midnight flight last night from Portland and landed in Houston, TX at 5:40 am, about a 4 hr. flight.  I asked J if she’d rather leave at midnight or at 6 am?  She said 6 am.  I still don’t know…. All I know is that I dislike red eyes, very much.  And not being able to catch even a wink in Houston for our 4.5 hr layover just made things worse.  Fortunately the flight to Roatán from there was only 2 more hours.

We were greeted by a blast of heat in our faces stepping off the plane, but with a pleasant cool wind to follow it up.  Dang, I should have taken my sweatshirt off BEFORE getting off the plane.  Brilliant.  With J in a wheelchair, I juggled 6 bags between the two of us.  We only had to wait a moment before Nurse Peggy showed up to take us to our new apartment with a brief stop at the supermarket along the way.  A few tire-screeching turns later (Peggy blames the road, NOT her driving) we arrived at the supermarket, not having a clue what to purchase.  So J and I stocked up on the essentials – the makings for PB & J, cheese crisps, chips & salsa, and salad.  Yep, that’s pretty much what I’ve lived off of the whole last year, aaaaaand turns out I don’t have to change my diet living in a third world country for the next 6 weeks.  That’s what I’m talking about.

With J’s situation, our housing options were limited.  She needed something with doors wide enough for her chair to fit through.  That automatically threw out the beach house next door to Miss Peggy’s (not to mention the full flight of stairs up the front door) and the usual apartments across the street from the clinic.  We had previously arranged a different beach house that was going to work out FABULOUSLY (come on, right on the beach?!  You know me and the beach…), but of course that fell through last minute as the current tenants were long term instead of short term (egg their house for April Fool’s tomorrow?  Ha, I kid).  So instead, we ended up at Ed’s Apartment.  As my mom intuitively asked, Ed doesn’t live there does he?  No, Mom, he does not.  But he owns the laundromat next door, which is quite convenient.  It looked innocent enough on the outside, but a nice stench greeted us in the kitchen upon opening the front door.  Nooooot the nicest, but hey, we’re in ghetto paradise so what can I say?  I’m happy to have A/C, a bed, and a door that locks.

This evening J and I went to Nurse Peggy’s for a potluck gathering of volunteers at the clinic.  I was expecting only a handful of people, but as the handfuls kept walking in, I just kept hoping I’d still have patients to see tomorrow.  There was probably 15-20 from all over the world there and I’m sorry if I sound British, but I spent a good chunk of time conversing with a British 19 year old medical student.  Loved her accent of course.  It was great to be in such pleasant company sitting on the balcony overlooking the ocean and enjoy the sunset.  Not my typical way of spending Easter, but it was fabulous.

I just admitted to J that earlier today I was already missing the U.S.  Maybe that had to do with me being awake for 30 plus hours, or maybe it was Ed’s stinkin’ apartment, or maybe I just miss my family.  Whatever it is, I know how shocked you are.  I didn’t even get home sick when I spend 9 months in Spain teaching English.  Don’t worry, once I get some sleep in me and start working at the clinic and exploring in my free time, I’ll be right back on track.  Very excited for what the next 6 weeks has in store!

And if I type THIS much EVERY day that I am here, the only reader I’ll have left at the end is myself…

Shortest Spring Break of My Life

I convinced my preceptor to let me finish one day early to go see my family in Utah, before heading out to Honduras on my next rotation.  My WHOLE family was in the same place at the same time!  That doesn't happen very often since we all live in 6 different states.  I was jealous because I didn't get in until early Thursday morning so I missed half a week with everyone, but was thankful to still have 4 days with everyone.  And boy did we have FUN.  Spent Thursday afternoon at the aquarium.  I could probably spend 1 hour there, tops.  But with 2 little kids running around it easily stretched into 3 hours and we still didn't see everything.  Had the best time with my nieces!  Sad that I'm not around as much to see them grow up!  I love being an aunt!



Friday we spent a good chunk of time at the BYU Bookstore (a family favorite - you HAVE to get chocolate at the candy counter!) with a visit to J'Dawgs.  I overwhelmed D I'm sure by introducing him to the whole family at once (over dinner at PF Changs), but he was a good sport about it.  I'm sad D and I didn't get any pictures together.  I surprised him Thursday night (since he thought I was coming Friday) by showing up on his doorstep with a Starbuck's delivery.  I love surprises!



Saturday was an absolute blast.  Spent the morning shopping away at City Creek Center in downtown SLC, then Sonya once again planned a rockin' party, a little pre-Easter celebration.  There was delicious eats and candy galore with minute-to-win-it games, followed up by egg dyeing.  Shoot, we didn't even really get to our extra stash of snacks and a movie.  The minute-to-win-it games were hilarious!  The first one consisted of having a Kleenex box filled with 6 ping pong balls taped to your bum and you had to shake them all out.  Yes, I'm even laughing now thinking back to i!.  The next one was a couples competition to see how many M&M's you could move from one plate to the other using only a straw.  It came down to Mom and D - and Mom won!  Wowzers.  For the last one, you put some panty hose on your head that had a baseball in it, which you then had to use to knock over ten or so bottles of vitamins/spices.  Ha, hilarious.  We love our minute-to-win-its!



Super glad I got the chance to see my family before heading out for 12 weeks on my next 2 rotations - Roatan, Honduras & Hawaii.  Can't believe I get to be on the beach for so long...!!

Rotation #7 Ashland, OR

I just finished my 6 week rotation doing General Surgery in Ashland, southern Oregon just 10-15 miles from the border to California.  Ashland is about 10-15 south of Medford, located in the Rogue Valley which you can see pictured above.  Ashland is set in a beautiful area and population is about 20,000.  I loved being in a small town again.  On one side of the freeway was rolling hills of farm country and on the other, mountains covered in pine trees.  There was a good mix of sun, snow, and rain to keep me enjoying the weather.  Ashland is known for its Shakespeare Festival and has a cute downtown area with shops and delicious restaurants lining main street.

I ended up living with the best friends of one of my friend's parents, if you follow that.  They are in their 60's and also members of the church.  They had a nice house on the edge of town with the basement all to myself.  They would cook dinner and I would do the dishes.  I was really a nice setup, not to mention we got along fabulously.

Apart from San Diego, Ashland has been my favorite place to be thus far.  I went on quite a few hikes while I was in the area too.

As for my rotation, I worked with a fabulous surgeon.  Surgeons in general have a bad rap as being jerks, but I learned wonderful things from my preceptor.  He had great relationships with his patients and really had no concept of time (he was pretty much late for everything).  We would spend as much time as need be with each patient and he would even stay after work for upwards of an hour to teach me something.  I learned a great deal from him and definitely feel I will be a better clinician because of him.

Going in to school, surgery was my second interest after emergency medicine.  I sound realized, however, that I don't think I'm cut out for it.  To begin with, I didn't realize how many clinic hours it was.  I only did 5 surgeries in the first 3 weeks I was there (I definitely made up for it in the next 3 weeks though).  I dislike being on my feet all day every day.  And can I say swollen ankles?  Who knew standing would make your feet swell so much?  Also, surgery days were brutal.  You have to squeeze in bathroom breaks and a snack here and there.  It's one surgery right after another.  5 in one day?  Forget food altogether!

Unfortunately I had to bow out on a few surgeries due to getting light-headed.  They say it happens to every one, but those lights get so darn hot!  I also blame my mask - hard to get used to breathing through that sucker for 2 hours straight.  Fortunately that only happened a few times, but too many for my liking!  Embarrassing to say the least, although the whole surgical team was really great about it and told me not to worry.  Funny because it wasn't the blood that got to me, like some people.  It was those dang lights!

I got to do and see a ton!  I first assisted in all the surgeries I did with my preceptor which includes things like making the initial incision, retracting the incision, holding structures out of the way, assisting his suturing, suctioning, and suturing/stapling the wound back up.  I loved it!  If it weren't for the brutal schedule, I could do surgery all day every day.  Some of the surgeries I was in on included hernia repair, gallbladder removal, colectomy, anal fistula, rectopexy, appendectomy, toxic megacolon, intussusception, c-section, skin graft, rotator cuff repair, knee scope, and a few others.  Good stuff!  We ended up working in 3 different locations: the clinic, surgery center, and local hospital.  I had a great time with surgery, but I can honestly say I'm glad it's over.  That schedule is too brutal for me.

Hiking is the new Mtn. Biking

I don't know why, but this winter has seemed so loooong.  It's nice to finally experience sunny warm(ish) spring weather.  Unfortunately I didn't think the weather would be nice enough yet, so I elected not to bring my mtn. bike with here to Ashland.  I've since regretted that decision, however I have gone a few hikes instead.  I forgot how much I enjoy hiking.  Ever since getting my mtn. bike back in the year 2009 +/- 1, hikes have ceased to exist in my world.  Although not as thrilling as going downhill at high speeds on a bike, while at the same time avoiding rocks at all costs, hiking still has its perks - a great workout and time to appreciate the scenery.  I've tried to get out as much as I can while its been sunny and warm to try to get my personality back.  Yes, the doom and gloom of Tacoma took it out of me.

Upper Table Rock Trail - basically you hike to the top of some cliffs, yielding excellent views.

Lithia Park - found out a classmate was close by so we hiked this one together, not as many views, but fun to be surrounded by trees.

Lower Table Rock Trail - just like Upper Table Rock, but with even more breathtaking views.

I'm going to have to figure out a balance between hiking and mtn. biking, but hard to do with only one day off each week.  Another hike tomorrow or study for my upcoming 300 question 5 hour test??