Another day down, about 18 to go. It seems kind of crazy that I will be here only 18 more days. I guess that means time is starting to speed up as I get more comfortable here. Only a few more days and I’ll be half-way done with this experience, which seems kind of crazy! The first few days were really slow going, but now things are going pretty fast as I’m much more busy during the day actually seeing patients and doing procedures. I’m having fun, but missing my family of course, so I’ll be grateful to return home when that time comes.
Today I realized I haven’t seen a thing since I’ve been here in Belize. I only took one stroll into San Ignacio at night to eat. Other than that I’ve been stuck at the hospital. I’ll have this weekend and next to head out and see things, but my last weekend will be difficult because I’m heading out on Sunday. With this thought, and so much to see here, I decided I would take off this Friday and go out to see things. That will be about 11 days of work in a row, some of the days working into the night so I think I deserve an extra day off since I missed last weekend. I may never be here in Belize again, but I’ll have plenty more days of working at the hospital and being on call so I thought I better see what I can while I’m here. I called Kib, the guy I met at church this Sunday to see what he was doing Friday. He was happy to go out to see some of the sights. We decided we would head down to Caracol Friday morning at 8 am. He’s going to pick me up from the hospital. Caracol has been described as the most extensive and magnificent Mayan ruin in Belize. It is set in the deep jungles of southwestern Belize only a few miles from the Guatemalan border. It is a bit of a drive from Santa Elena, about 2 hours. I’ve heard that the whole drive is down a dirt road that can get pretty hairy in some places, but the drive is worth it. This is one place I definitely wanted to see while here so I’m grateful I’ll have the chance. Afterwards, on the way back to town, there are a few cool spots to see. There is a big cave with a river running through it where many tourists go and I guess there is a beautiful spot on top of the “mountain” with many pools where people love to go swim. We’ll probably stop off at those places or at some of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. Kib seems like a really nice guy and it’s really nice of him to take me out. I’ll have to pay for gas and give him a tip or something.
On Saturday through the weekend I think I’ll head east to the water and see what I can find to do. I’d also like to take a trip to Tikal in Guatemala and go to the Belize zoo before I leave. We’ll see if I can fit everything in.
I guess I’m rambling a bit because I don’t really have any good stories from the hospital today. It was a pretty slow day. The ER was literally dead. I don’t think we had one E.R. patient today! That was a bummer, but there was a good amount to see in the clinic. They were overall just routine visits with nothing too memorable. We had a guy with hypertension, a man with tendonitis, a woman with likely endometriosis, a few people with the flu, a kid with idiopathic hives, and others. One learning case was a boy who smashed his finger. He was a clinic patient and he had a significant comminuted fracture of the proximal phalynx of the 4th digit. There was basically no displacement and the alignment was mostly preserved, but it looked ugly so we called the ortho surgeon. I really like him because he is really friendly and likes teaching me things. He let me help him put a splint on it using their old school plaster cast material. We had to immobilize from the wrist to the far finger joint. I thought the kid would need a surgery and a pin, but the surgeon chose not to. It was a fairly interesting case.
My patient with the foot burns is doing well. His blood pressure was going a bit low today, but overall he is doing well. His wounds are looking a bit better and his white blood cells are coming down. Tomorrow I’m going to do a foot treatment and then Dr. Gamero wants to discharge him. I think it’s too early, but I guess were limited because of funds. We’ll just show them how to scrub the feet and hopefully they can keep the feet treated and clean.
Tonight I hitched a ride in to San Ignacio from the cook. He took me to a restaurant that he really liked that served American food. It was called Mom’s Place. Like I showed in my last post I was itching for some type of meat for once. I ordered a philly-cheese steak Belizean style! It was absolutely delicious! Probably the best philly-cheese steak sandwich I’ve ever had. To top it off I had fries with it and a sprite. That’s about as American as you can get I think? I’m sure it was loaded with calories, but it was great to have some food from home. Luckily, it was still light outside when I finished so I took a few pictures of the area as the sun went down. The sun goes down here at 6 - 6:30 pm which is really annoying! I walked down to Eva’s restaurant where I ate the time before and ordered a fanta as I used their free wireless internet. It was actually pretty fast compared to the hospital internet and I was able to chat/web cam with Jess and RJ, which is always fun! I could also actually upload more than one picture on the blog so I put all three of them from the foot burn experience. It still took a while, but the hospital takes FOREVER just to upload one picture. Next time I go back to Eva’s I’m going to try and upload one of the few videos I’ve done.
Anyway, this is getting super boring so I better finish up and go to bed. Adventist morning worship comes pretty early! Until next time. . .
Today I realized I haven’t seen a thing since I’ve been here in Belize. I only took one stroll into San Ignacio at night to eat. Other than that I’ve been stuck at the hospital. I’ll have this weekend and next to head out and see things, but my last weekend will be difficult because I’m heading out on Sunday. With this thought, and so much to see here, I decided I would take off this Friday and go out to see things. That will be about 11 days of work in a row, some of the days working into the night so I think I deserve an extra day off since I missed last weekend. I may never be here in Belize again, but I’ll have plenty more days of working at the hospital and being on call so I thought I better see what I can while I’m here. I called Kib, the guy I met at church this Sunday to see what he was doing Friday. He was happy to go out to see some of the sights. We decided we would head down to Caracol Friday morning at 8 am. He’s going to pick me up from the hospital. Caracol has been described as the most extensive and magnificent Mayan ruin in Belize. It is set in the deep jungles of southwestern Belize only a few miles from the Guatemalan border. It is a bit of a drive from Santa Elena, about 2 hours. I’ve heard that the whole drive is down a dirt road that can get pretty hairy in some places, but the drive is worth it. This is one place I definitely wanted to see while here so I’m grateful I’ll have the chance. Afterwards, on the way back to town, there are a few cool spots to see. There is a big cave with a river running through it where many tourists go and I guess there is a beautiful spot on top of the “mountain” with many pools where people love to go swim. We’ll probably stop off at those places or at some of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. Kib seems like a really nice guy and it’s really nice of him to take me out. I’ll have to pay for gas and give him a tip or something.
On Saturday through the weekend I think I’ll head east to the water and see what I can find to do. I’d also like to take a trip to Tikal in Guatemala and go to the Belize zoo before I leave. We’ll see if I can fit everything in.
I guess I’m rambling a bit because I don’t really have any good stories from the hospital today. It was a pretty slow day. The ER was literally dead. I don’t think we had one E.R. patient today! That was a bummer, but there was a good amount to see in the clinic. They were overall just routine visits with nothing too memorable. We had a guy with hypertension, a man with tendonitis, a woman with likely endometriosis, a few people with the flu, a kid with idiopathic hives, and others. One learning case was a boy who smashed his finger. He was a clinic patient and he had a significant comminuted fracture of the proximal phalynx of the 4th digit. There was basically no displacement and the alignment was mostly preserved, but it looked ugly so we called the ortho surgeon. I really like him because he is really friendly and likes teaching me things. He let me help him put a splint on it using their old school plaster cast material. We had to immobilize from the wrist to the far finger joint. I thought the kid would need a surgery and a pin, but the surgeon chose not to. It was a fairly interesting case.
My patient with the foot burns is doing well. His blood pressure was going a bit low today, but overall he is doing well. His wounds are looking a bit better and his white blood cells are coming down. Tomorrow I’m going to do a foot treatment and then Dr. Gamero wants to discharge him. I think it’s too early, but I guess were limited because of funds. We’ll just show them how to scrub the feet and hopefully they can keep the feet treated and clean.
Tonight I hitched a ride in to San Ignacio from the cook. He took me to a restaurant that he really liked that served American food. It was called Mom’s Place. Like I showed in my last post I was itching for some type of meat for once. I ordered a philly-cheese steak Belizean style! It was absolutely delicious! Probably the best philly-cheese steak sandwich I’ve ever had. To top it off I had fries with it and a sprite. That’s about as American as you can get I think? I’m sure it was loaded with calories, but it was great to have some food from home. Luckily, it was still light outside when I finished so I took a few pictures of the area as the sun went down. The sun goes down here at 6 - 6:30 pm which is really annoying! I walked down to Eva’s restaurant where I ate the time before and ordered a fanta as I used their free wireless internet. It was actually pretty fast compared to the hospital internet and I was able to chat/web cam with Jess and RJ, which is always fun! I could also actually upload more than one picture on the blog so I put all three of them from the foot burn experience. It still took a while, but the hospital takes FOREVER just to upload one picture. Next time I go back to Eva’s I’m going to try and upload one of the few videos I’ve done.
Anyway, this is getting super boring so I better finish up and go to bed. Adventist morning worship comes pretty early! Until next time. . .
Yummy Philly Cheese!
San Ignacio Street
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