La Cucaracha!

Props to Kala. She just killed this sweet cockroach in our room. All the while I'm jumping on the bed singing "la cuaracha! la cucaracha!" But I'm a supportive friend right? And she's real annoyed. Not really. I hope. Today was an absoultely crazy day at the clinic. In fact these last couple days have been pretty crazy. Our second patient of the day came in (it's like 4 days before her due date), and last week when she came in her baby was fine. He was sideways so we told her she'd have to have a C-section (which she'd already had one so it wasn't a big deal). The doctor told her NOT to go to a comodrona (like the village midwife) to turn the baby, but we're pretty sure this lady did. Because when she came in today, worried because she couldn't feel the baby moving, we could feel that the baby was completely turned around, now ready for a regular birth. This does not happen normally to 8 month babies. The woman's name was Eloisa and she was 28. We couldn't hear the baby's heartbeat with the stethoscope and then when we did the ultrasound we couldn't find the heartbeat. Then we saw the broken umbilical cord. When the comadrona turned the baby around the umbilical cord broke. The baby, his name was going to be something Emmanuel, was dead. We had to tell her. It was awful. She was bawling and holding her stomach and saying "move, my little baby, move!" The doctor had a ton of patients to see so some of us girls stayed with her as she was crying. She kept asking "why me" because it's the second baby she's lost. She said that if her baby was dead she wanted to die too. We prayed with her first in English and then in Spanish. After a while all the girls left and I sat there with her and we talked about her other kid and her husband and the baby. She'd already bought his clothes and her 2 year old son was so excited to have a baby brother. There was nothing I could say to her. We talked about how her baby was in heaven and how it would be so much better there than she could ever give him down here. We also talked about how God doesn't will stuff like that to happen (obviously I'm not Calvinist) but how he can make good come out of it. Then she left. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital with her brother in law. To have the dead baby. They were so poor they couldn't afford a coffin for the baby, so the doctor wrote this thing up so Social Security would cover it. I can't explain how painful it was. The mother in law went back home to get the house ready for Eloisa. I didn't cry. Not gonna lie it worried me a little bit. Is it wierd that, yeah I hurt for her, but it didn't affect me so much? Sometimes I wonder if something's wrong with me. I guess I've just learned to separate myself from my patients. I knew coming down here that I would see stuff like this and I guess I kinda braced myself for it. Instead of being sad it just makes me want to be a doctor so much more. So that I can prevent and help stuff like this in the future. All the other patients that came in today were piled up by the time Eloisa left and I was taking names and medical history and symptoms and blood pressure so the doctor could get in and out as fast as possible. I felt so useless though. I mean, these people call me doctora (that's what the lab coat does for you) and there's seriously nothing I can do for these people. Not even just legally, but I seriously have no idea what's wrong with these people. It makes me want to know everything ever about our bodies and medicine. I want to fix everyone. We had a cute little boy come in today too with a huge gash in his head. I got to clean him up and draw up his novacaine and put some novacaine on a bandage to numb his face. Medicine is fun. Sorry this whole blog is really sad, but here's just a little more. My grandpa died on Saturday. I was supposed to fly home for it but then he didn't die as soon as we thought he would and now I can't miss school to go. Grandma said she'd buy me a ticket, but I think I'm okay. He was so sick: alzheimer's, PTSD, depression, dementia. He was miserable. He escaped out his hospital room window, pulled out his catheter and was bleeding everywhere, thought everyone was trying to kill him. I wish I could have been there with my family, but they're being so strong. I think it's a relief for everyone. This last month has just been physical death. My grandpa's been gone for a lot longer than that. And I was here this summer for my grandma and mom and Shirl when my he was "actually" dying. That was the painful part. When grandma would cry a lot because she was losing her husband. My dad's gonna videotape the funeral for me. If things were lax down here I'd fly back in a second, but I feel like I've caused a lot of problems already getting permission for my family to come and for me to go to Belize with them (THEY COME TOMORROW!! WOOHOO!!!!)and then I was going to go back but he didn't die and wow. I feel bad for all the supervisor people cuz I've been such a pest. Now I just found out my summer class starts a few days before we get back so I'm gonna have to ask them for permission to leave a couple days early cuz there's no way I'm missing my first few days of Physics for Biology and Pre-Med at the U. Crap it's gonna kill me. But seriously prayers that I will be able to return in time for my class would be greatly appreciated (by me and my physics-retarded mind...I'm no Uncle Kurt).


K so apart from this being the most morbid blog EVER...some good things are going on too. The Bethel spring break team is down here so we had dinner with them last night. My buddy Scott came down and it was so good to see him! I love the girls down here but it's cool having someone around who really knows me, you know? We showed them around the city last night (and I peed my pants...go figure) and we had 2 of them at our ministry site today. Kind of a wake-up day for this poor sweet freshman pre-med girl. Oh well, she handled it really well.


Oh yeah and my glands are super swollen and puss-covered. Sweet huh? K well hopefully the next blog will be more full of fun, but I thought you all deserved to know what's going on down here. It's not always fun. Although one more thing. That wierd Asian guy Yoshi at our house (yes his name's Yoshi...like Super Mario) got wasted and beat up and robbed last night and came knocking at the door at like 3 in the morning (cuz his keys were robbed too). So sweet little doña Elvira wasn't too pumped about that. Keeps it interesting, keeps it interesting. Oh one more thing. The taxi driver that brings us to Chimaltenango (the clinic) when the doctor's car isn't working...yeah his name is for sure Ceasar Agustus. Cesar Agusto to be exact. Sweet huh? He's 70 something with 11 kids, 20 grandkids, and 2 great-grandkids (and one of his kids is only 16). He's seriously the man.


Oh yeah and this guy Mario opens the gate at the clinic. He has some sort of mental thing and walks with a limp and always takes pics of us on his camera phone. Kinda creepy, but so nice. So nice. This is him watering the plants but staring at us the whole time. Not even sneakily.



The wierd faces pic is me and Rafa. Seriously the biggest goon ever. And the other one is Guillermo, his cousin, aka Willy. They're some of the finca guys. Great guys. So much fun.


This is me cutting Molly's hair on the roof of the convent (during our lunch break of course!) It would have been a lot cuter if it hadn't been for her stupid cowlick! We have a lot of fun on that roof....always ducking quick when the nuns walk by. They probably wouldn't care, but we like to be safe (and sneaky!)


And here's beautiful Tanya after we did her birthday makeup. She's so funny, she hates makeup, but she knew she looked good. Dang!



Oh and her I am peeing my pants ON THE SIDEWALK OF THE MAIN STREET! Wait I take that back. I think those are Molly's pants. Okay so here I am peeing Molly's pants on the sidewalk of main street. Yeah. I know. I need help.


And here I am with Oscar (seriously my favorite kid at the school.) I can't even explain how adorable he is. Him and his sister Jennifer. Precious. I want them as my own children. It's very possible that I might kidnap them before I go back home.

Oh kidnap reminds me of something else sad to end this blog with. A lady in the clinic today told us that she had twins but the doctors only gave her one. They just straight up kidnapped the other one. It's crazy that that kinda stuff can just happen here. It makes me so mad. So mad.

K for real that's all. Family can't wait to see you!!!!!