Hello friends!
I hope that you are all doing well! I am doing well also. I have had some technical difficulties...like last night I was going to update but all the power in the city went out! So, where I left off:
Monday: Orientation to Puyo and my next few weeks in the Oriente or Pastaza province. We are headed all over the province in small groups. Then we went to Parque Omaere right here in Puyo! Visit their website: http://www.fundacionomaere.org/ It was awesome where we learned about the traditions of the different indigenous people to the area and their medical knowledge of plants. It was all in English by this botanist Chris who is married to a Shaur woman. She makes traditional remedies with the plants. It was awesome to hear about the culture before I went tramping up to it. They had plant mixtures for everything from contraception, sinusitis, liver disease and GI problems. They even have awesome traditional houses. It was like Cherokee but less cheesy and more awesome because they live in the jungle. Chris was saying that the reason there are more plant remedies here is because they are more bioactive because of the temperature and the moisture of air in the rainforest.
Then we headed off to our first rotation as soon as we got home. Arajuno, a metropolis with one paved street. Luckily two of us went so we made it to our hotel after giving some locals quite a fright in their homes asking where to go. The hotel was...far from luxurious...but who needs hot water? We were at the Subcentro de Salud or kind of like a Health department for the area. It was disorienting because the doc we were supposed to be with was on vacation and no one else really seemed to want us. But I did a lot of height, weight, bp and temperatures (with a real thermometer, that I had to be taught how to read). Also the doctors dressed like teenagers in the US. Seriously. Abercrombie, American Eagle and Aeropostale t-shirts with jeans was the dress code for the young docs. I was so confused and thought they were patients! No one wears white coats..except us. We ate at the same restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They were a little different each time and each time pretty good at the bargain of $2 for soup (potato and mystery piece of meat) and plate with beans (or egg) and meat (chicken, beef or tuna salad). We walked around in the evening...and apparently there aren't that many white people that walk around in full scrubs because everyone stared at us. But the kids were great and really wanted to have their picture taken. Oh and on the two hour bus ride out (1 and 1/2 of which was unpaved) I heard Britney Spears, "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and laughed out loud.
Wednesday (Tuesday was mixed in above): We went out in the ambulance even farther into the jungle. It was quite bumpy but we did check ups on kids..everyone got Amoxicillin and I gave a penicillin shot in the butt to a very unhappy camper. Most of the time the docs ignored us but I am not quite sure why...a lot of people spoke Quichua. The local language so sometimes it wasnt just my Spanish being bad. Oh and the docs spent a lot of time making a "Boa" or like a chinese dragon for Chinese New Year. That took most of both afternoons.
Thursday: I went to Hospital Voz Andes where Dr. Teater was 22 years ago! It is a hospital run by American missionaries. It was comforting to be in a place where I understood the medicine a little more. I followed a family med doc who was "on call" and did endoscopies all morning. Much like in the US did not eat lunch until 3. (Way before the doc did though). I saw 2 and 1/2 endoscopies and got to peek at the esophageal/stomach line and small intestine. (there isn't a teaching screen, just one eyepiece.) I also heard rales and wheezing in a lung exam! Which I had never actually heard before! And I saw a positive costo-vertebral angle test where she just had pain over her kidney. I only had to ask a few questions in English and followed a good amount of the Spanish that the doctor spoke to the nurses, residents (from Ecuador on rotation there) and patients. Overall a great day and a place I could see myself if I were to do medicine abroad but I have trouble reconciling the hospital's place in Ecuador's medical system. It operates outside and patients have to pay when all of the other health care at the subcentros and public health hospitals are free. Of course there is already tiered health in that you can buy "insurance" each month to go to the state "Social Security" hospital. Which is a little better than the others but still only serves 18% of the population. And if you try breaking a $20 here you realize that there is not a whole lot of money even in the hands of those who are working.
Sorry no pics, having some mac/pc issues. This weekend to Tena for some jungle whitewater rafting!
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