The great de-stash of 08

SO.....

I've decided I am not allowed to start new projects until I finish a few of the WIPs that are sitting around. Moving gave me a perfect opportunity to reorganize my yarn. I found stuff that I had forgotten I even had. Between half of it being in Florida for most of the year and living out of my car, I could only have a limited amount of yarn with me at any given point. I am attempting to catalog all the yarn, add it to the stash in Ravelry and figure out projects for them. But first I have a giant Tupperware container filled with unfinished projects that need to be worked on.

The greatest part of reorganizing everything... I have a handy dandy ball winder and swift thanks to the lovely ladies from Blacksburg. (I miss you all greatly)

I've been knitting the Union Square Poncho from Weekend knitting for over a year...it's not a hard pattern I should be DONE with this thing. I measured it this morning and I am over half way done. I actually might not knit it to the 54' because the yarn has a lot of give, and I am afraid it will stretch out. I've started putting it in my bad daily so when I have a few moments I can get a row or two in... I really would like to finish this thing sometime in the next century.

I found the scarf I am making out of Be Sweet... a plain knitted scarf. I think there's 15 stitches across... yeah half done. Why don't I just finish these things? Also a bag I was making out of noro...everything done except the shoulder strap and the seams. Easy enough to finish.. now I just need to find the time.

With organizing my yarn I've found 8 different sock yarns waiting to be made projects. I pretty much have enough yarn to not buy yarn for the rest of the year and just knit from stash. I could probably go two, but I have no self control. I am hoping with my lack of free time to actually go buy new yarn, that I will get projects done,

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to make with this yarn.....it hasn't spoken to me yet, other than saying "take me home."I won this from Ravelry....so I may learn how to spin. I don't think I have time to learn how to spin, nor do I really have the desire right now... but I am dying to know how this yarn is going to take form.

Moving etc.

Well... I am officially moved and mostly settled in Connecticut. I still need to buy a few things and organize my closet. My clothes have a way of taking over my room. I did order TV and Internet today, so I guess I should actually go buy a television soon. hehe.. I have no couch, TV, microwave, or coffee pot. These things need to be fixed. I also need silverware, I have 4 spoons, that's it. I didn't realize all the stuff I had or didn't have because most of it has been in storage since December and I didn't live at home for almost a year.

Graduation was graduation. My family is crazy and they drive me nuts, but I love them. They are the only family I have. My Uncle hooded me during the ceremony and I got to spend some time with my cousins, who I never see, so that was nice. We visited a few wineries, which always makes me happy. I took the $250,000 piece of paper by Mosaic. I also knitted during graduation. I am only moderately addicted to yarn. :)










I started a new sock the other day, because I completely don't need to start new projects. I bought some lovely Socks that Rock yarn from Knitters Knook. If you are ever out in the middle of no where (aka Boons Mill, VA) Becky was very lovely and she has a good selection of yarn, and you should visit her.




The sock is a little big.... I need to start decreasing for the toe earlier than I think I do. I have ridiculously small feet and I apparently forget that. The pattern is waterfall rib from Sensational Socks. I have a feeling it's going to be a wearing around the house sock due to the largeness... oh well. I guess I could frog it and make it smaller, but that will most likely not happen.

I am thinking about venturing out to the Knitting in Public event in Windsor CT... but first I need to buy a TV and microwave.

Oh hello..

So I might have died, but no worries I have returned from the abyss that was living out of my car for the year. Ok I still live out of my car, but only for a few more days, then I am really homeless, and then I am moving to Connecticut, so all is good.

I am back in Virginia, finishing up my last rotation... 4 days left to be exact. Oh what a lovely number that is... Friday might be the greatest day of life EVER!!! and really I am not exaggerating at all. First it's my birthday, which automatically makes it an awesome day, it's the last day of med school, and really life doesn't get much better than that. But on top of all of that, it's my best friend Sarah's Bachelorette party. So pretty much the most fun had in all of history all in one day... oh can't it be Friday yet?

Then Monday it's off to CT to find a place to live, play in NYC for a few days, see Spamalot for my Birthday, hit up Boston for some food and times with friends. And my sister is joining me for the CT-NYC-BOSTON trip.. so that should be FUN!!!!

After all of that... Sarah's wedding, then 4 day cruise to Mexico with my other bff's Michelle and Gerri. I'll get to spend a little bit of time in Florida, hanging with the family, etc. Then back to VA for another wedding and then GRADUATION!!!!! *** does happy dance***

So that's the recap of what's going on. I am not uber stressed out about the housing thing yet, but I might get there Monday as I drive to CT.

On the knitting front... I've finished a couple of pairs of socks. A 2x2 ribbed sock made from Noro... the yarn is kinda scratchy when you knit with it, but once on... I didn't notice anything and it's very warm. My toes will be toasty warm.


I finished Charade for my momma. I put them in the mail this afternoon. I am sure she will forget to be nice to them, but that's ok. They look nice right now.


I made Knitty's Coronet with some lovely hand spun yarn I got from a LYS in Gainesville (Hanks Yarn). Very lovely store... if you are ever down in Florida.. you should visit. They were by far one of my favorite yarn stores of the many I visited this year.


As always I have a million WIPs... the forefronts are Cozy V Neck Pullover from Fitted knits... in Vermilion Malabrigo. The yarn is a lovely shade of red, the name makes me giggle, and it's just the softest yarn. I want to knit sheets out of it and wrap myself in the yarn...
(the picture was taken before I got to the ribbing.. so I am further along now)


On Ravelry.. the Mosaic Maniacs are doing an online KAL of the Lace Ribbon Scarf from knitty. I am 2 repeats in. I am using Schaefer yarn Anne. I don't the exact colorway, but it's red/pink/orange. It should match my lovely red sweater.


I am sure I'll cast on another sock in a day or so.. I like to have a pair on needles at all times. They travel so well and fit in coat pockets. I really don't sit around and do nothing very well.

I also have Jeanie on the needles... but this is going to be a long process for her. It's not a terribly hard pattern, I just have to pay attention and it's time consuming. Eventually I will finish.


Well I think that's about it.. hope all is well.

Honduras Finale

I wrote this before I left, but didn't have time to send it until now....

Well I am sitting in the airport waiting for m flight back to America, which technically means my Honduran trip is over as long as my plane actually gets here and it doesn't crash into a mountain taking off. The crashing into a mountain is a real concern….google/you-tube Tegucigalpa landing, I've heard the videos are enough to never make you want to visit the country. Apparently, right now there's a dog on the runway and security is running around trying to catch it…I'll be sure to make sure everyone knows I made it back safely.

Brittney, Dupree and I took the Whites, Dra. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes, and Marco out to dinner on Thursday night. We went to La Cumbre which apparently has the most beautiful view of Tegucigalpa, but again it rained, so we only have pictures of fog and rain. I really think this "dry" season doesn't exist, it's just a myth to tell the gringos. The food was amazing, and the company wasn't bad either. If we could have made the rain go away, the evening would have been perfect.

Since Brittney and Dupree left on Friday, there was no clinic. Dra. Xiomara was also sick with laryngitis so you couldn't hear her anyway. Instead of Clinic we were able to attend the Baxter morning devotion. I haven't written much about the Baxter students, so I'll do that now.

The quick rundown of the program is…The students are in a 4-year ministry program. There are married couples and the single guys. We've been living in the married housing area, so we've gotten to know a few of the families. Douglas, who might be the cutest baby ever lives across the courtyard from us, and no I didn't try to pack him in my suitcase. J The married couples both go to class. The women go half a day, and then are able to spend the rest of the day taking care of their families. They don't get the bachelors degree but they get what's equivalent to an associates degree. The other dormitory houses the single guys. We eat lunch with them every day. They are so passionate about their schooling and of course about futbol. We had the chance to get to know a couple of them during our time at Baxter and they are just great guys all around.

They have a daily devotion after their first two classes every day. Seeing as we are in clinic at this time, we don't get to share that time with them, but Friday we were able to attend. They sang very beautiful songs about God and Jesus.. really that's all I could translate, but they sounded nice. They then have a short devotion by one of the third year students and then they have a prayer and concern time. It was very nice that they prayed for our safe travels back to America. After the devotion, all the students and faculty gave us hugs and thanked us for coming to help them. It was very sweet, they even prayed in Spanish and English for us.

Abraham was using the single guys as his test subjects for his PhD project. Something with a force plate and before and after effects of OMM. It sounds a lot like physics and math, which is just too much for my brain to handle. As part of the project to keep the boys involved he organized a futbol tournament for all the participants. Brittney and I were definitely cheering for the red team, even if they are kinda bad. Our favorite Baxter student is on that team, so we are all about the red team. We've promised to wear red on Tuesday in lieu of being able to see the championship games. We expect a full recap via email of the games.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Brittney and Dupree. The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. I did get lots of knitting done… although it doesn't do me much good now. During the inspection of my luggage, my knitting needles were confiscated. I can take them out of the country but not into the country. I really should stop traveling internationally with my knitting, a similar experience happened in Nairobi the second time I went to Africa. If anyone knows my obsession with yarn and yarn related things you can imagine I was almost in tears as I took the yarn of the needles and handed over 3 sets of addi tubors (2 of them being my new lace addi's). All my knitting friends may share in my sadness because they know those are good needles. I've been working on a really hard knitting project that I put it in my checked luggage in case this happened, so hopefully it will be safe there, or I really might cry. At least the only projects in my bag are socks, I can easily put them back on needles when I get home, now I just need to buy more needles… I've heard there is a very nice yarn store in Gainesville (my next rotation site) so I might need to take a trip there ASAP.

I really hope I am able to return to Honduras one day. The clinic here needs so much help. We are working on getting them the equipment for a lab. They have some of the supplies just the machines to run the lab tests. Steve (Dr. White- President of Baxter) was talking about setting up a minor surgery room. I told him I'll be all over that as soon as residency gives me time off. I doubt I'll have any extra free time next year seeing as most of my free time will be used for interviewing again, but maybe the following year on one of my weeks off I'll be able to return… I'll even be an official doctor by then. These little things will benefit the community so much, I hope one day that they become a reality.

If you have never had the opportunity to travel international on a mission trip I highly recommend it. While mission trips at home are also very important, there is definitely a different feeling from an international trip. I am thankful that I've had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and now Honduras. Thank you for supporting these trips and the people that attended them. I hope you enjoyed reading our updates as much was I enjoyed updating everyone at home.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Honduras Part 7

Well our Honduras trip is almost over… time sure has flown by…

Monday we had a day of clinic… nothing too exciting to write about there. Brittney has gotten pretty good with her Spanish.. me I am still working on it. It’s a long process, and I am slow at picking up languages. It’s a good thing smiling is universal.

Tuesday we all (Brittney, Dupree, Dra. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes and myself) got in the lovely VCOM truck and traveled 3 hours up and down and around the mountains to Catacamas. It’s a little town north and east of Tegucigalpa that has a clinic. The original reason for visiting this clinic was that their people came to see our clinic and we started talking about a program that they run for their chronic patients (diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension). They invited us to see their clinic and take the information they have gathered at their program so we can start a program of our own. Well anyone who knows me well knows that I do not fare well in cars, or boats, or plans, or basically anything that moves. So I had to be medicated and sleep through most of the trip. Brittney was glad she had Dupree to talk to while I slept. I am pretty much the most un-fun traveler in the world. I love to travel and see new places I just don’t enjoy the process to get there.

We met with the doctors that run the clinic and they told us all about their program; how it focuses on family education, especially in the diabetic patients. They have come to the realization that you can’t stop diabetes, you can only prevent the complications, so the best way to help the patients is to help the families learn about proper diet, exercise, you know all the really fun things in life. Apparently eating fried plantains all day is not a good meal plan… and yes, I would eat them at every meal if I could. The program sounds really amazing, and the doctors working on it are so smart. Someone really needs to do their PhD work on this, because it’s a really great opportunity. I hope Baxter is able to set up a similar program here because we see so many patients with chronic diseases.

After we learned about the program they gave us a tour of their facility…. I would go there as a patient or a doctor. Brittney and I were trying to figure out if we could start residency programs there or not. This place was beautiful. It’s in the valley of a bunch of mountains, and the clinic is clean and new and well taken care. They have everything from surgery, ultrasounds, EKG’s, x-rays, physical therapy. .. basically anything you need they have. We took a bunch of pictures there, so you can essentially recreate the entire clinic by photo. The clinic is Christian based and basically runs off donations. They have one main clinic and then several smaller medical clinics in the mountains…If you are interested in more information about the clinic visit their website .. http://www.predisan.org/ Hopefully the students after us will get the chance to work there for a few days, because it would be awesome, minus the 3-hour car ride.

After our lovely visit at the Predisan clinic we did a little site seeing. Catacamas has caves of glowing bones. There are caves in the mountains that were used as a second burial sites way back in the day. The locals would bury their dead, and then several years later take the bones and prepare them again and place them in the caves. The caves have many different minerals including pure calcium. Between the river running through the caves and all the minerals the bones are now covered in calcium which causes them to “glow” or sparkle. We didn’t get to see the actual bones, because they now have them blocked off, especially for those gringo touristas.. we are such trouble. But, we did get to hike through a cave and see some very beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. Brittney and I also saw a bat… and yes it was a bat and not a bird, even if the rest of the group doesn’t believe us. There are some lovely pictures of the caves (from Brittney – my camera battery hates me), and pictures of the national forest.

Wednesday Dupree got to spend some time over at Hospital San Felipe catching babies. Brittney and I ran the clinic. Dra. Xiomara took Dupree over to the hospital and left us with Dra. Julieta came to supervise Brittney and me. We saw and treated patients all on our own with minimal translations. We were like real doctors… it was pretty cool.

In the afternoon, we helped organize some of the many boxes of supplies that the clinic has. Why anyone would need 300 French Tip suction catheters is beyond me… but in case you need some the clinic has plenty to spare. We made boxes of supplies that the clinic can’t really utilize (surgery supplies, etc) and made boxes to donate to the hospitals we work at, basically bribing them to let us keep coming to visit.

Brittney and I cooked up a storm last night, it was very tasty, and we had fried plantains. I told you I really would make them for every meal. Dupree came over, recapped his OB day, and told us stories from the farm. We were all laughing so hard we cried a little bit, so all in all it was a good night. We took our extra food and made up plates for the guards, thanking them for keeping the scary gang people out of the Baxter institute.

Today we had our last Brigade out in the community. Of course, Brittney and I took a million pictures. The Brigades are very fun because we get to go into the community, see where they live and help them a little bit. Most of the time it’s just antibiotics and ibuprofen, but it’s the thought that counts right?

Tonight we are taking Dr. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes, and Marco (who’s driven us around the entire month).. out to La Cumbere which is a nice restaurant on top of the mountains that over look Tegucigalpa. The weather is pretty horrible right now.. it’s windy slightly rainy and only 70 degrees. We hope to get to the restaurant before it gets too dark so we can get a couple good pictures of the city.

I’ll be heading back to the states on Saturday morning. Brittney and Dupree are leaving tomorrow.. I am not sure what I am going to do with all my free time tomorrow without new best friend.

Well that’s all for now…hope all is well at home.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Hoduras Part 6

Well it's been a few days since I sent an email… I wasn't feeling very inspired. I've been fighting the gripe the last couple days. Snotty noses do not make me a happy person. I've come to the conclusion though if you are going to get sick in a developing country a cold is by far the best thing to get. At least I don't have dengue yet…

Wednesday (2-20) We again tried to see cardiothoracic surgery at Hospital Escuela. We actually got in the OR, and the we sat outside of it for an hour or so. Brittney and I were pretty sure that Dr. Ayes' brother forgot about us. Well it turns out they had the patient in the room ready to be prepped and then decided that the patient was too sick to have the operation. I guess it's a good thing to figure that out before you actually start the surgery. I was bummed. I really, really, really, want to see some cardiothoracic surgery one of these days. I got to touch a lung once, and it was awesome, so I can only imagine seeing surgery on the heart is cooler, especially in developing countries where they make do with whatever they have. Anyway.. enough about me being sad. We finally did get to see some surgery. YAY!!! Turns out there were surgeons from America doing a brigade last week and were operating in the OR next to where the cardiothoracic surgery was suppose to be. We got permission to watch their surgery. The surgeons are oral maxillary facial surgeons and they were working with one of the plastic surgeons from Honduras. They arrived on Friday night and spent all weekend screening patients and figuring out which patients they would operate on, etc. The surgery we got to see.. (not sure on the exact name of it, because I haven't seen much oral maxillary surgeries)… but the young man fell off his bycicle and landed on his face. He had a LaForte fracture II and they were pretty sure it involved the orbits of the eyes. He had a traumatic cleft palate. So they ended up wiring his mouth, fixing the cleft, and places a plate over his cheekbone. Then to see if they fracture involved the eyes, they first sewed the eyelids shut. Then they cut right under the orbit and dissected away the skin and fat to examine the bone. I was totally in awe of their surgical skills… it was amazing. I want to be that good when I grow up. I am working on getting pictures from the surgery... we were told not to bring our cameras, but there was a Honduran medical student there and she took pictures... so I might get them later. I'll keep you updated on the pictures. The doctors were very nice, and it was refreshing to be around a language we understood (and in the OR for me). They even had southern accents, so that made Brittney happy. It's pretty cool to fix someone's face from inside their mouth, so all in all it was a great day in the OR.

Hospital Escuela wasn't nearly as scary the second time as the first. We decided it was mainly the ER is scary in general. ER's in America are scary sometimes, so at the national hospital in a developing country, would you expect anything less than frightening. It was a Monday, and for some reason Monday mornings are always busy at hospitals…. I don't think people do work on Sundays anywhere. And lastly the OR's had just reopened from all the infections, so there were more people than usual. I still don't want to be a patient or a doctor there, but at least we weren't afraid for our lives.

Thursday (Feb-21) We went on a Brigade with the Health department. I would tell you what part of the city we were in if I knew it… so I can't. This brigade was held at a daycare/school. So, I have a million pictures of cute little kids that I kept trying to take home with me. I really just want one. We did pap smears again, but this time was not nearly as scary as the last time. We actually had a separate room, with an exam table. Shocker I know. The only light we had was a flashlight, but it's better than nothing. The ladies weren't really sure about having a male (Dupree) in the room, nor was he really excited about doing pap smears but there were not deaths during the day so I am pretty sure everyone was ok.

After the Brigade we ate Baleadas. Which are basically grilled tortillas with beans, cheese, and cream. There's a lady that makes them that works right across from the Baxter institute. Dupree wasn't so keen on the eating of street food idea… but Brittney and I are so convincing that we all enjoyed a lovely lunch of Baleads. We haven't died yet, so I am pretty sure we'll be ok. Steve vouches for the place, so I think we are safe.

Friday (Feb-22) We had clinic in the morning, but very few patients. I saw patients all on my own. It's a good thing when they bring me lab results for their problems, and it doesn't require me to know much Spanish. One of my patients had H. pylori. I gave her all the medication she needs, but it's hard to treat in America so who knows if she'll get rid of the infection or not. I was trying to explain how important it was that she take ALL the medication and not just some of it and save it for later. Which is what they do. Oh.. one antibiotic now… then save the rest for another time I don't feel well. It defeats the purpose of treating anything.

After our morning at the clinic Dr. Xiomara took us to Hospital Escuela for a tour. Brittney and I took a bunch of pictures. Dupree said we could reconstruct the entire hospital from our photos, and I think he might be right. We saw all the pediatric areas – post surgical, neurosurgery, oncology, ortho, you name it they have it. As we were walking through the Pediatric ER someone stopped us and said.. Virginia as in Tech or UVA? As we explained it was Tech the guy that stopped us asked oh do you know a Brooke Bennis… yeah she's in our class. Turns out he's a medical student from Indiana doing a brigade at Hospital Escuela. We keep running into people that we know or know people that we know. The world is a very small place sometimes. We then went over to the adult side of the hospital and saw everything over there. The rooms have 5-6 beds, some times more, to each room. Blue rooms are for boys, and pink rooms are for girls. They generally have rooms segregated by sex but that's it. You can definitely see why infection would be a problem in the hospital. We saw the area where they treat the TB and HIV patients but we didn't go in. I am not sure it really matters, I think TB lives in the air. So at least if my PPD test comes back positive next year I have a good reason. The nicest area of the hospital was by far the pediatric oncology area. It was actually clean (it's one of the newer sections of the hospital). I still want to see the anatomy lab for the medical students, because from the stories we've heard it sounds rather scary...maybe sometime this week.

Friday afternoon Brittney and I had to give presentations on Folic Acid Deficiency and worm infections to Dr. Xiomara. I won't bore you with the details. But now everyone is smarter because they know the recommended daily folic acid requirements and how to treat intestinal parasites.

Friday night we all headed to the mall, ate some American food for dinner (TGI Friday's), and did a little shopping. Poor Dupre had to wait for us to shop, I kinda felt bad for him. We won't mention the fact that he brought medical journals to read at the mall, because only really nerdy people do that. The mall might have one of the most delicious deserts on the planet… it's a close second the best cannoli on planet earth that I had in NYC. The stand sells fondue chocolate and fresh fruit, strawberries, pineapple, pears, apples, bananas. It's amazing. Brittney and I were trying to figure out if we could franchise it in America, but decided internship probably wasn't conducive to such adventures.

Saturday (Feb 23) Brittney had her 24 hour OB shift. Dupree, David, Carmen (David's daughter) and I all went to see the big statue of Jesus. I should look up the actual name of the statute, but for now it's Jesus Grande. It's at the top of one of the mountains overlooking the city. There is a large catholic population in central America, so Jesus protects them by looking out over the city. It's similar to the statue in Brazil, but the hands are portrayed different than that one. Where the statue is there are also a few Mayan ruins. We saw on the areas where they use to sacrifice people and collect all the blood in a giant pool. Of course I took pictures of that.. seriously how cool is that stuff. That was about all the excitement of the day. I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself without my constant buddy Brittney. It was weird to go to the library or places without her. I am glad she's back now.

When she got home this morning, she gave me a recap of her night. Apparently, they were less busy yesterday than they were when I was there. She did get a couple of deliveries in but not as many as she would have liked. She did get a better explanation of the hierarchy system. Apparently, the female doctoras were all general practitioners so they can only do the vaginal deliveries, and the male doctors are the actual Ob-gyns, so they only show up for the complicated births and the c-sections. So that makes a little more sense. The doctoras asked Brittney if she knew me and then said that I was very quiet.. hahahahaha. Only because I don't speak Spanish very well. That and being sick are the only times I am not talking.

Brittney worked with one of the interns, which is equivalent to our third year of medical school. They change rotations every 15 days… and I thought every 27 was hard enough. Apparently, at Hospital Escuela where they do most of their OB training there is no Doppler, you have a stethoscope and your hand. They monitor the patients every 30 minutes, so if more than three people are laboring, you cannot physically do the work without bending time. I have tried to bend the space-time continuum a couple times and it just doesn't work. She said they are yelled at a lot. It interesting seeing how similar but different the medical training is here compared to home.

So a funny story from this week. Brittney has been on a mission to find low fat or fat free milk since we got here. Well we eventually found some and it comes in a bag. Yes you read that right, a bag. And let's just say the refrigeration of foods like milk and eggs is really just a suggestion in the grocery store. So Brittney had been using the milk out of a bag for several days, saying it tasted funny, but thought it was just the plastic that made it taste that way. The next morning, the milk was definitely chunky. Now we felt bad for poor Brittney drinking rotten milk all week. The funny part is she keeps telling people this story and she usually tries to tell it in Spanish…. Which is hysterical. We bought new milk, and that one also went bad, but before anybody drank it. We sure will be glad to be back in the states where we don't have to buy milk daily out of fear of it being curdled.

Tonight we are going to have dinner with the Whites. They are good people and Mrs. White makes really yummy food so I am looking forward to that.

Well it's been a good trip so far, and I only have one more week left. Hope everyone is well at home. I'll be seeing some people in just a few short days.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Honduras Part 5

Well… the past couple of days sure have been tiring.

Saturday (Feb 16^th) the whole crew (Abraham, Sofia, Brittney, Dr. David Ayes (who's in charge of the clinic), his daughter and myself) headed up to the top of La Tigra Mountain (a national forest) to do some hiking. We still aren't sure exactly how high we were, but when you are above the clouds it's high. Let's just say the road to get there was windy, and sometimes a little scary. Seeing as I really don't travel well I was looking a little green when we got there, but I wasn't going to let a little car sickness ruin our day. Being Gringos we had to pay $10 compared to the 10 limpiras that locals get to pay... I am pretty sure it's a scam they have going, and completely not fair. We took the moderate course, which had us huffing and puffy not too far into the trail. We like to blame the attitude with our inability to breathe, or the fact that it was steep incline. The forest was beautiful, very lush vegetation, but it was really hard to take pictures of it. Cameras don't really like fog, and have a hard time focuses. I think once we turned off the flash, the pictures started coming out better. Apparently Jaguars live in La Tigra, but we didn't see any. The live higher up on the mountain, all we saw was a groundhog or some other small animal that looks like a groundhog. We have a standing joke that Brittney would give away all our passports to save her life if need be, and for some reason she is always trying to give mine away first… anyway I doubt the Jaguars will stop attacking with just a passport, unless they were really looking for a way to come to America.

After our hiking adventure we went shopping at Valley of the Angels. We didn't have much time in the shops, but we were able to buy a few souvinors before it was time to go. Then it was time to head home so I could sleep before the 24 hour OB shift.

Sunday (Feb 17) -- My OB shift started at 8 am. I basically was dropped off at the triage area of the maternity ward and was told I'd be picked up the next morning. The doctor I was suppose to work with didn't get there until 9, so I just sat around being confused not knowing exactly where or what I was to do. Then he gave me a tour of the maternity area, the laboring room, the birthing room, the OR, and the post partum wings. Then he left me in the laboring rooms with the nurses and doctoras (female doctors) who didn't really speak English. First there was a c-section. I believe the cause was failure to progress, but asking that in Spanish didn't really give me an answer I understood. The male doctors pretty much only show up for the c-sections. The female doctor was first assist and there was also a scrub nurse. Everything was pretty much the same in terms of the procedure as it would have been in the USA. They use washable gowns and draping cloths and they close everything with chromic. I can count the number of times I've seen chromic used on one hand.

After the c-section I was shown how they monitor the laboring patients. One of the doctoras speaks almost as much English as I do Spanish, but between the two I got the gist of what was going on. As you would expect, things are pretty primitive, as there are no monitors or anything high tech. The toco "monitor" is your hand, you place it on the fundus of the uterus and keep it there for 10 minutes, counting the number and duration of each contraction. At least if the machines ever break back home, I am totally ok to still know what's going on. They did have a Doppler for the fetal heart rate, and those were checked every 30 minutes. Other than that, we sat there and watched the patients. They get NO pain meds what so ever. So if I ever hear a pregnant lady complain about the pain, I am just going to ignore it. The laboring room had 10 beds in it. And for some reason all the babies always want to be born at the same time, I still haven't figured that one out yet. But essentially when the baby is crowning they move them from the laboring room to the birthing room, which is the bed with stirrups. A couple pushes later and we have a baby. They do an abnormally large number of episiotomies.. almost everyone got one, and these women have small babies. I think it has something to do with the training, because again I can count the number of episiotomies I've seen on one hand too.

After the delivery mom and baby lay on a stretcher in the hall for 30 minutes or so then they are wheeled to the post partum hall, which is another big room with lots of beds. There really is no privacy or anything along those lines. The moms stay for 6-8 hours, they get 2 Tylenol and a shot of oxytocin and then the boot to the door. I watched several deliveries and how things were done. Later on in the day, I delivered 5 babies all on my own, and when I say on my own, that's exactly what happened. Sometimes there was a nurse there, but mainly she yelled things in Spanish, which I took as push the baby out now. Now 5 might seem like not a lot, or a whole bunch. But on my OB rotation during 3^rd year, we had 6 babies all month. They kept apologizing for it being a "slow" day, they usually have 35+ a day. I think we ended up with 25 or so.

I enjoyed delivering the babies, it was cool, but I still don't think it converted me back to OB-gyn. I do believe I am a surgeon at heart, even if it did take me a long time to realize that. After one of the babies didn't want to come out, and we had to rotate the head and push on the fundus to get the baby out, I am pretty sure I don't want anything more complicated like that in terms of newborn lives. I took pictures of the hospital and one of the babies that I delivered, so check them out.

The overall experience was great. I know that I can deliver a baby on my own, without any high tech machines and things will be ok. Bring on internship.

Monday (Feb 18) I finished work at 7 am, and came back to Baxter to sleep. Brittney, Sofia, and Abraham were all in the clinic. Sofia's PhD project involves nutrition education to moms of malnourished kids. All the kids were coming in for evaluation and medical attention. Brittney ended up seeing all the regular clinic patients on her own in the morning. She did have Amber to help her translate all that, but she did say it was weird for me not to be there, we've been pretty inseparable since we got here. After lunch I met up the rest of the group at the clinic. We finished seeing the rest of the nutrition program kids. There were several special needs kids, which is usually something rare in developing countries. It was a long day for me.. I was very tired at the end of the day.

Also last night it POURED all night. I swear they made up this "dry" season thing, because it rains almost every other day. I'd hate to be here during rainy season, if this is dry.

Today (Feb 19) we were supposed to get to see cardiothoracic surgery at Hospital Escuela but that did not happen. I am not sure if I've mentioned Hospital Escuela before, but I'll go over it again. It's the main teaching hospital in Honduras. The Honduran Medical students all do their training there, and it's where most of the specialists work. They pretty much let their upper level students (our 3 or 4^th years) do whatever they want, they are the doctors. I know that I don't know enough to be completely responsible yet, and I still need to be taught lots of things. Patients mainly go there to die, or that's what they say on the streets. We've been told that there's dried blood on gurneys, and patients stacked everywhere (which after our brief trip there this morning, is true). Many patients will ask to go to one of the other hospitals like San Felipe if given the option. They've had a recent outbreak of infections, which caused them to shut down the OB floor and the OR's due to high mortality. The OR's are still not completely open, so we didn't get to see anything today. We are going to try again tomorrow. I'll give you a full account of the hospital once we actually get to spend more than 5 minutes there.

This week we have another medical student (Dupree) here from University of Florida. He and Brittney were talking pediatrics today (Crazy peds loving people), and I was trying to get all the gossip on MICU (medical intensive care unit) for my March rotation.

We are hopefully still doing a Brigade this week with the health department, so that should be interesting. Hope all is well in the USA. Don't forget to check out the new pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Allison