Rainy Days & Naptime

It storms quite frequently here in Chitré, normally in the late afternoon.  Today was a different story, though. It began raining early this morning and continued to do so through the late afternoon.  When this happens it definitely doesn’t make for a quick drying process of my laundry, and of course, I did two loads last night.  So unfortunately, both loads are still wet, and I must wait for a day of sunshine to allow them to dry. We ended up making a contraption for our clothes under the patio awning; in hopes they would dry quicker, but with no heat it is still a slow process. Crossing my fingers, Mr. Sun will come out tomorrow!

Anyway, instead of going to the Psych hospital as planned this week, my group ended up going back to the hospital we worked in last week, Caja de Seguro Social.  Since I have already rotated through the ICU, OR, and ER at this facility, I was placed with two other classmates on the Orthopedic floor.  There wasn’t much for us to do besides take blood pressures and pass out medications, so we quickly finished up our tasks early on in our day.  Towards the middle of the day, one of the doctors we had met last week, stopped by the Ortho floor, realized we didn’t have much to do, and took us away.  He works on the Neurology floor, so we were able to spend some time their today.  There were about 15 patients on his floor, most suffering from spinal injuries, and a few others with brain injuries.  We even were able to head back to the OR, and watch a spinal repair surgery! It was pretty intense! The surgery lasted for about 8 hours, so of course we weren’t able to see the entire procedure, but it definitely spiced up my day for the little bit I was able to see. We got home from the hospital around noon, made lunch, and then I was able to take a much-needed nap! I have woken up around 6am everyday since I have been here, and it is definitely catching up with me.  It was still raining at this point, and since our trip is coming to an end most of the assignments are already completed.  I figured taking a nap would make the time go faster as well, and I would wake up and be closer to coming home! Yipee :)) I’m going back to the hospital again tomorrow, for the last time.  Tomorrow is our last day of clinical, we will spend Thursday giving our final presentations for the class, and then we leave early Friday morning to head back to Panama City.  We are staying at the City of Knowledge again, when we arrive in Panama City.  Our flight leaves on Saturday, it’s almost here, I can’t even wait!!

XOXO, Jenny