Hey everyone!
I can hardly believe that this is my last week in Quito. On saturday, Katie, Ashleigh, Maureen, and I are heading to Puerto Lopez, a city on the coast of Ecuador. We are planning on spending the week at various cities along the coast to sunbathe and do some whale watching and snorkeling. Then Asheigh and I head to Peru! My time in Quito has been great, and I´m going to miss it here I´m sure, but I´m excited to move on too.
This week my clinical rotation is in Emergency Surgery, and I got to see a brain surgery today! It was so cool! I took about 20 pictures I think =) This guy had a huge subdural hematoma in his right temporal lobe so that it was compressing his lateral ventricle to the point that you couldn´t even see it on the MRI. So I got to watch the surgeon literally take a drill to the skull and then saw through parts of it. It was absolutely incredible! It was so unreal.
Last weekend a bunch of us went to Otavalo, which is the largest artisan market in South American I am told. It was really cool, but of course I spent way too much money on souvenirs =) Yesterday, Katie, Ashleigh, and I cooked dinner with our host mom. She always makes such wonderful food so we wanted to learn some of her dishes. Well she decided to show us how to deep fry everything! It was hysterical, because she always cooks us really tasty healthy meals, but the deep frying was really fun. We made this batter with all of these great spices and then rolled everything from Tilapia to graded carrots in it and stuck it in the oil. Then we made crepes! It was a fun afternoon. I think I´m going to miss my host mom here the most out of everything in Quito.
I need to be off soon, sorry this is short. Like I said before, it´s hard to capture Ecuador in words and I have TONS of pictures, so when I get back I can give you a better idea of what I´ve been up to.
Michael if you read this before your big day, I want to send you a huge CONGRATULATIONS! I wish you and Katy the best! I hope your honeymoon in Argentina is great, and I´m so sorry I´m missing your wedding, but I will be thinking of you both. =)
I miss you all!
Katie
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Clinics and more!
Hey everyone,
Yes, I´m still here- I have been terrible at keeping up this blog! Since our program officially started last week they have kept us really busy. My free time is few and far between during the week. But things are going really well. Last week I was doing my clinical rotation in a hospital called "La Maternidad". It is the major birthing hospital in Quito and surrounding areas. It was a great experience, but it was also very hard to watch. The resources are scarce, and as such, the expecting mothers are lined up in cots along the hallways waiting to enter the "Dilation" room. In this room there are about 8 woman lined up all having contractions and dilating. There is absoultely no privacy or respect for privacy. Most of the woman are lying there uncovered and forced to use a bed pan in front of everyone. Once a woman in 10 cm dilated and ready to give birth she is wheeled into another room to deliver. This room is NOT the comfortable birthing suites we see in the States. It is cold, cement, and bare. The door is kept wide upen during delivery and the woman that are waiting in the hallway can see inside. Family is not allowed within the entire floor and most of the girls giving birth are 16, 17,18 years old. It´s just a whole different world.
This week I am in the social security hospital in Quito on the Internal Medicine floor. I really like it here. Whereas at La Maternidad I felt almost like an intrudor and very in the way, here at this hospital I feel like the doctors want me here and they love teaching. They are very good about speaking more slowly for me and making sure I understand the diagnosis. I also get to walk around with the medical students there. It´s really interesting to see how schooling is done here. I have seen a lot of cases of HIV, Tuberculosis, sepsis, infected abcysts,etc.
Outside of my experiences in clinic, I´ve been taking a lot of spanish classes and spending a lot of time with Ashleigh, Katie, and my host mom here. We traveled to Mindo last weekend, a beautiful little town 2 hours outside of Quito.There we went on a long hike through the mountains and saw 7 waterfalls. We also went to a butterfly garden. It was just absolutely beautiful there! Exactly how I imagine south america looking like. And our hostel had HOT water! This first hot shower I´ve had since being here. It was heavenly! =) This next weekend we are planning a trip to Baños.
Well I should get going to my classes for the afternoon. Tonight we are taking Salsa dance lessons! We might try and go dancing tomorrow night. I´m pretty excited. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well! I miss you! This blog is difficult, because I feel like I´m seeing and experiencing so much and it just can´t be put into a quick blog post. But I will be more than happy to give every detail when I return to the states!
Chao!
Katie
Yes, I´m still here- I have been terrible at keeping up this blog! Since our program officially started last week they have kept us really busy. My free time is few and far between during the week. But things are going really well. Last week I was doing my clinical rotation in a hospital called "La Maternidad". It is the major birthing hospital in Quito and surrounding areas. It was a great experience, but it was also very hard to watch. The resources are scarce, and as such, the expecting mothers are lined up in cots along the hallways waiting to enter the "Dilation" room. In this room there are about 8 woman lined up all having contractions and dilating. There is absoultely no privacy or respect for privacy. Most of the woman are lying there uncovered and forced to use a bed pan in front of everyone. Once a woman in 10 cm dilated and ready to give birth she is wheeled into another room to deliver. This room is NOT the comfortable birthing suites we see in the States. It is cold, cement, and bare. The door is kept wide upen during delivery and the woman that are waiting in the hallway can see inside. Family is not allowed within the entire floor and most of the girls giving birth are 16, 17,18 years old. It´s just a whole different world.
This week I am in the social security hospital in Quito on the Internal Medicine floor. I really like it here. Whereas at La Maternidad I felt almost like an intrudor and very in the way, here at this hospital I feel like the doctors want me here and they love teaching. They are very good about speaking more slowly for me and making sure I understand the diagnosis. I also get to walk around with the medical students there. It´s really interesting to see how schooling is done here. I have seen a lot of cases of HIV, Tuberculosis, sepsis, infected abcysts,etc.
Outside of my experiences in clinic, I´ve been taking a lot of spanish classes and spending a lot of time with Ashleigh, Katie, and my host mom here. We traveled to Mindo last weekend, a beautiful little town 2 hours outside of Quito.There we went on a long hike through the mountains and saw 7 waterfalls. We also went to a butterfly garden. It was just absolutely beautiful there! Exactly how I imagine south america looking like. And our hostel had HOT water! This first hot shower I´ve had since being here. It was heavenly! =) This next weekend we are planning a trip to Baños.
Well I should get going to my classes for the afternoon. Tonight we are taking Salsa dance lessons! We might try and go dancing tomorrow night. I´m pretty excited. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well! I miss you! This blog is difficult, because I feel like I´m seeing and experiencing so much and it just can´t be put into a quick blog post. But I will be more than happy to give every detail when I return to the states!
Chao!
Katie
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