Clinical Day 3

"Buenos Noches" from El Salvador!  We are definitely completely pooped today!  We saw over 160 patients.
Again we saw alot of "gripe" like symptoms.  The gripe is the flu in spanish.  After three days some of us have become pretty proficient with our Spanish.  It's amazing how much you can learn here; so much more when you are actually immersed in the culture. 
We are having a lot of problems keeping supplies.  We ran out of all our toys for the children, many medications, vitamins, and clothes.  Glasses are a hot commodity here.  There were numerous reading glasses donated.  These glasses were on display by the clothes and it was funny to see how everyone suddenly could not see.  Many pairs were pocketed before we able to control the situation. 

It was very sad to see how we were not able to help people as much as we would like.  We met a lady today with a blood pressure higher than 240/110.  All we could do is give her aspirin.  We found many lumps today, one in a breast and a grapefruit size mass on the bladder.

All the students are pretty amazed with our improvements in our assessments.  Our confidence has increased by leaps and bounds.  It makes a big difference caring for 160 patients in one day versus 1 or 2 patients per day in our normal clinical setting.  Everyone has a different comment on how they have improved identifying problems and abnormalities.  The graduate nurses have been very helpful (Sheila and Allison)!!  They seem to love to teach the nursing students and run the pharmacy.  They are more than willing to help if a consult is needed for a patient.
Alice and Tom are a non medical couple and are extremely helpful!!  Not only do they pass out toys and supplies to the patients but they take care of us as well.  They help prepare lunch for us when we get a break, ensure we are drinking water, and then they bought us an afternoon snack/drink at a beautiful restaurant north of the clinical site.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it had an amazing view of the beach and water.  It was so nice to sit and relax and reflect on the day. We also got to see a lot of surfers.  According to one of our interpretators (who are awesome!) El Salvador is one of the best places to surf in the world.
We are getting ready to rest up because we are supposed to see even more patients tomorrow than today, hasta luego!
Maria