Honduras Part 2

Brittney and I starting see our own patients, well we see them together and mostly without a translator. She is able to get most of the history and I can give directions for the physical exam.. it's a good system we have. Mostly we've seen Gripe, which is cold/flu symptoms, presion alta - high blood pressure, and diabetes - which is still diabetes. Brittney and I were both shocked on the number of patients we've seen who have high blood pressure. They don't even have the bad lifestyles and diet like we do in America... it's just proof that sometimes genetics out wins lifestyle. We did have a patient with chest pain today… which was very exciting to us, because one we understood dolor en el pecho, and it wasn’t Gripe. No worries.. he’s fine, and will do well with his anti-inflammatory medications for costochondritis.

Yesterday we visited the Health Department. Let’s just say that was an interesting experience. Each state or region has multiple Health Departments, similar to the county system we have. The medical care is essentially free, they pay 1 limpira which is about 5 cents. The clinic that we work, the people pay 30 limpira, which is about $1.50. So the poor of the poor go to the Health Department. We meet with the director and she gave us a tour, speaking very fast Spanish that neither Britney nor I understood. One of the doctors from our clinic translated little bits for us. We saw the dental area, the pharmacy, the counseling area. They have programs for vaccinations, family planning and nutrition. The vectors program was out and about in town vaccination all the wild dogs… sounds like a fun job to me. Some of the medical students from the Medical University were having class while we were there. All of their students are required to do a social service year, which is similar to residency but they work at clinics like ours or the health department. We are apparently going to go once a week now to work at the Health Department, again… I don’t think our Spanish is up to that, but we’ll try our best. The most notable difference from the Health Department in America to the one in Honduras was the two stray dogs running around. I am pretty sure that stray dogs are not allowed in the health department in America.

Dr. Parish is coming this week. She is one of the professors from our school. I am not sure exactly what the schedule will be like once she gets here, but it will be nice to have another English speaking person around.

Brittney and I went to the mall today to exchange money. I am pretty sure the mall in downtown Tegucigalpa might be one of the nicest malls I’ve even been too. It’s way better than the mall in Christiansburg, VA, but really that’s not really saying much. We’ve decided we need to go back and go shopping later. I still can’t get over the armed guards with BIG guns at every store, entrance, etc. They really like to have guns.

We have many small ninos that live near us that enjoy running around till all hours of the night, so we haven’t been getting much sleep. But things are going well and I will leave you with pictures of our lovely accommodations and some pictures of the clinic and Baxter institute.

Allison

Our house -- Kitchen, our room, and our clinic room.