what i do every day...

i thought after looking back over the last few posts that anyone reading really doesn't have any idea what i do on the days i'm not flying over the jungle, spending time in Makuma (which has been a total of 3.5 days out of this month, notable though they are...) or buying ridiculously cheap, delicious fruit/vegetables at the market. And at one point i had posted a synopsis of my day/night on call (called a "turno") but it has disappeared into the netherworlds of cyberspace and is not on the blog now... if anyone has seen this missing piece of my musings, please return it to it's home here.

So here's a typical day.
7:30 Devotions and Rounds at the hospital - in spanish, a summary of the patients and presentation of any new "ingreso's" (admissions) from the night. such presentations are done by the Intern (of which i am one) on call the night before.
8ish dressing changes on patients already admitted, assisting in surgery for the morning, or taking a spot in the ER to await patients that come in for more urgent issues.
i've spent most of my days in the ER.
some of the things i've seen -

• a lot of pregnant women who are starting to go into labor
• kids with vomiting/diarrhea/fever/cough/pneumonia who have often been brought in by their parents after 8+ days because they live so far away and can't afford to come in for every little bug their kid gets. often, too, these families from "al dentro" (literally, the inside but used when people are from the jungle) speak an indian/tribal language so getting the real story can be tricky or impossible. the other night i admitted 3 infants under the age of 4 months all with pneumonia and one with dehydration, all from "al dentro". they're all doing much better now and their mothers probably saved their lives by bringing them in when they did. much more time with pneumonia and dehydration could have been fatal.
• what else? snake bites. amazing that these are becoming fairly routine for me to handle in the ER. but true. i've seen at least 5 snake bite patients. i have yet, however, to see the snake that did the biting - apparantly sometimes people bring it in too.
• various skin infections.
• stomach pain.
• oh, and the one that i was woken up for at 3 am the other night: "i've had pain in my back and my neck and my arms for 10 years..." how long? (thinking my spanish was a bit shaky at 3am and i hand't heard correctly)... "10 years". and why did you decide to come in ahora? (now) ... i never got a good answer. on exam, he had no pain to any of my palpation and was able to function pretty well, so we gave this dear old man some IV pain medicine and told him to come back in a few hours for a more in-depth evaluation. he and his wife (also very cute) thanked us and went back out into the night.
• fever for a month/weakness/weight loss/pain all over... turned out to be malaria.

so that's what i've been seeing.
midday try to steal away for a quick lunch at home
5pm home, unless on call and then i stay until there are no more patients in the ER.

that's pretty much it. i have another call day monday-tuesday and then that's it. ... off to do a little traveling with dear friend JULIE who is coming tonight!!! and then to Peru. for one more month.