The final stretch

Wednesday, July 18: I went to clinic all day out in one of the local villages. Dr. Le and Dr. Thompson (a retired air force colonel and flight surgeon) are awesome and allowed us to participate in their patient check-ups.

Thursday, July 19: Since I only got to spend one day with social services, I requested to spend the last day building a house!

My last night in Piura involved an insightful conversation with a retired Air Force colonel and flight surgeon, Dr. Jeff Thompson. He shared stories, advice, and wisdom and made recommendations for future base suggestions (as if my preference matters). I could tell from my previous observations in the clinic that he was a military doctor! What a respectful, thorough doctor he was.

Friday, July 20: We left Piura and flew to Lima where we did a day tour. The next day we flew toCusco. At the hostel we met Jorge, who was born in Peru, raised in LA, and is currently traveling the world. He watched over us and escorted us out on the town. 

Saturday, July 21: In the evening I went out in Cusco with Jorge, Ellen, Lauryn, & Lisa.

Sunday, July 22: Re-engergized and prepared for the trek

Monday, July 23: The 26 mile trek begins!

Tuesday, July 24: Mostly uphill all days, very hard, made it to Dead Woman's Pass followed by a long downhill section

Wed, July 25: Longest day of hiking. Hiked through a rainforest

Thursday, July 26: Woke up early to wait in line for the gates to Machu Picchu to open. Saw the sun rise on Machu Picchu then hiked to the Incan site! 

Bug Spray=perfume of the month

Thursday, July 12: Hospice and home visits. At hospice, Manuel told me I could "massage his pants" instead of his hands. He is a dirty, old man. At a home visit, Hope and I were given coco morado...quite an awkward situation to try and eat it while everyone in the family watches you. The staff threw us a party for dinner!

Coco Morado grossness...A good experience though! 

The party hosted by the awesome staff here at the parish.

Friday, July 13: Emergency room in the morning. Afternoon off to work on papers.

Saturday, July 14: We went to a weird, massage/positive energy therapy center where we received massages. I was given an electric massage, but some of the gals had a much different experience that involved walking on them and jumping on the table.A group from Oklahoma/Texas/Cali showed up. Some of them are part of a medical mission that will be performing hernia surgeries all week. I'm excited to see BLOOD & GUTS!

As you can tell, the massage place was very exciting.

Sunday, July 15: Sunday, not-so-funday. We worked on our aggregate papers and projects. My group of 5 is doing our project on the pro-life clinic located here at the parish...25 page papers kind of suck.

Monday, July 16: Hospice in a.m., ER afternoon. We went to another village fiesta in the evening.

I finally got some members of the Peruvian Army to take a picture with me. 

Tuesday, July 17: I spent the day with the medical mission watching hernia surgeries. They set up in the clinic here at the parish which has a very nice OR. We got to follow our patients from pre-op, through surgery, post-op and discharge. This made for an interesting and long day. Tonight we presented our aggregate research findings via powerpoint to our instructor and one of the parish nurses, Veronica. It feels goo to be done with that madness.

Manuel and his post-op team: pre-PA student, nursing student, soon to be med student

We're sexy & we know it.

Yay, blood and guts!

This surgeon was super awesome, or as Nathan would say, "hecka chill."

Brush your teeth...ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch

Sunday, July 8: Attended church in La Legua (a local town where we go for Sunday masses) followed by a lazy Sunday

Monday, July 9: I went to the nursing home in morning where Haley and I cut gauze for ~2 hours. Boring! We went on six home visits in the afternoon.

2 x 2 gauze pads

Tuesday, July10: I had my teaching project in the morning at the parish school. My topic was oral hygiene so I taught a group of 3rd graders about proper dental care. I went on home visits with Ashley and Jacki in the afternoon. A few of the nurses in my group decided that we would like to host our own Peruvian family so we informed the parish nurses of this and we were paired with families very quickly! I met my family after mass tonight! Jose (31), Roxana (23), Nayeli (9), Camela (7), Jose (4) are so sweet. Hosting a family is a minimum commitment of $300/year and it's nearly impossible not to make such a commitment after working with these loving, gracious, thankful, faithful Peruvians for almost three weeks now. Hopefully I'll be back to visit them in the future!

Our lovely posters

Cepillate los dientes!

One of the houses we went to for a home visit had a pretty front lawn!

My Peruvian family :)

 

Wednesday, July 11: This morning at the hospital I got to spend time in the immunization room where I stuck numerous patients. It was awesome--IVs, IM injections, and nebulizers were administered. The staff in the immunization room consisted of two Peruvian nursing students who were great about letting us to practice on them, each other, and their patients. For lunch the parish hosted a picnic for the families and their American sponsors. My afternoon in the pro-life clinic involved fundal checks, holding babies, ultrasounds, and natural family planning counseling. After dinner we attended a fiesta which turned out to be even better than the other fiestas we've been to. Happy 21st Birthday, Lisa!

The nursing student let me practice on her. Why was I not wearing 2 gloves?! Major no no.

IM injection

Ashley practicing on me.

At the picnic

Babies!

Ana and Sophia...we cross paths again :)

Make the first wipe a good one

Tuesday, July 3: I spent another, less exciting morning at the midwife clinic. Jacki, one of the parish nursing assistants, took Haley and I on home visits in the afternoon. We walked to get helado (ice cream) after dinner. Ah, delicious.

Arriving at the midwife clinic via motortaxi

Wednesday, July 4: The kitchen was elaborately decorated in red, white, and blue. We started our day with a 4th of July presentation at the Parish School. The effort that was put into this USA assembly was awesome! During the day we went about our usual clinical business. I spent the morning with an OB/GYN that is visiting with a group of 50 missionaries from Arizona. She was totally awesome and I got to do three spec exams on her patients in the pro-life clinic. Mass tonight was 90 minutes long because it was a special healing mass which the parish has every first Wednesday of the month. A nearby village hosted us for a post-dinner 4th of July celebration. Music, fireworks, and dancing. 

Decorations!

At the parish school

My little Peruvian BF at the evening fiesta. Happy 4th!

Thursday, July 5: I have acquired a permanent stench from my morning spent at hospice. This afternoon I did 6 home visits!

Haley doing a tube feeding for Maximino at the hospice center.

Friday, July 6: My morning spent at hospice involved a very nauseating diaper change. 'nuff said.

Saturday, July 7: This morning we took our Peruvian family to the open market where we bought them two mattresses and food. The rest of the day involved napping and lounging around :)

Hanging out at the parish

Travelers Diarrhea Spares No One

Friday, June 29: At hospice today I washed/cut hair, did nails, gave arm/hand massages, repositioned, and tube fed patients. Any takers for a haircut when I get back to the states?! I accept ca$h ;)

Maximo es muy guapo. He is blind which is the only reason he agreed to let me cut his hair.

Saturday, June 30: BEACH DAY! I didn’t even feel like I was in Peru. 

 

Pisco Sours<3

We stayed to watch the sunset :)

Sunday, July 1: Fifty missionaries showed up this morning so we made sure to get down to breakfast on time. They're here all week so things will be a little kray. All 60 some of us went to Hogar Madre del Redentor which is a preventative home for girls who have been raised in potentially abusive situations. They live in a nice compound under the supervision of nuns. Rosana took my hand when I arrived and she stayed by my side all afternoon. Some of the other girls performed cultural dances for us. 

Rosana!

Monday, July 2: My morning was spent at a midwife clinic. The midwife was super cool. She saw about 32 patients per day for pregnancy check-ups. She also had a delivery room where she delivered non-complicated pregnancies. While I was there, a laboring woman came in and lucky for me, she progressed rapidly so I got to witness the birth. This patient made the birthing process look like a piece of cake. No pain meds, no significant other, very few moaning noises and the baby was out before her second push. Awesome stuff!! Yay, babies. The midwife actually took time to deliver the placenta without yanking and pulling at the woman. How nice of her. I haven’t seen patience like this in the US. She allowed me to do vaginal exams on her patients. For most people this probably sounds disgusting, but it was pretty sweet considering this doesn’t usually happen for nurses in the US. This afternoon Haley and I accompanied one of the parish nurses, Jackie, to a couple of home visits. The patients we visited were being monitored for high blood pressure and we took vitals, compared data, cleaned/cut/filed their nails, and washed their feet. This was my first time being inside one of the local homes. The floors were dirt, chickens roamed free, walls were made of sticks, bamboo, tarp, cement, among other things. The patients, per usual, were so friendly and gracious. At mass tonight the girls from Hogar Madre del Redentor showed up. We seem to have new visitors with us every mass... It makes the mass feel less redundant.