Monday: I got to catch a baby! Mom had a post-partum hemorrhage which was kind of scary but bimanual pressure on the uterus (one in one out) actually seemed to help stop the bleeding. Later in the night there was a woman who had a spontaneous, incomplete abortion at 9 weeks. She has 5 kids already but this was her 2nd in a row and needless to say it was tough.
Tuesday: This was the last week of one of the volunteers (Camilo) and so I tried to go with him to the lake-side town of San Marcos. However, the lake was so rough that not very many boats were running and as it turned out the first boat ride to San Pedro was more than enough for us. I felt pretty sick but was kind of relieved to see that the Guatemalans on the boat also looked scared and sick. I'd rather be vindicated but unsafe rather than wrong and safe! So Camilo and I spent the day hanging out in San Pedro. We at a lot:
Luckily the boat on the way back was less terrifying and as an added plus the sunset was gorgeous. Here I am at the front of the boat and also a view of Santiago from the lake:
Wednesday: On call again. A 13 year old came in unconscious and having vomited blood. She had a blood glucose of 11 (very, very low). The family said that this happened all of a sudden. They were convinced she was going to die and wanted to go home rather than be transferred to another hospital. After quite a bit of convincing (during which time we couldn't get any other blood work because, among other things, the person who processes labs was sick), the family agreed that she could be transferred to Solola, about 2 or so hours away. Well, she made it to Solola, and they were working on transferring her to Guatemala City when she died. The thing is that she started kind of making sounds after we gave her some dextrose (sugar) ... I guess as is often the case we will never know what happened.
Thursday: I spent the morning getting my travel plans together for the remainder of the trip. I feel very good about having gotten my tickets (first Tikal, then Belize with Laura and Chad and Chris, then Mexico with my mom, then St. Cristobal de las Casas, then back to Guatemala for travels with Jess). In the afternoon I went back to the hospital to do prenatal clinic, and had dinner with the other volunteers because it was Camilo's last night here. We had a delicious zucchini quiche and carrot cake for dessert.
Friday: Clinic was super busy this morning but quieted down in the afternoon. Class with my Spanish teacher was good today. I've been having a 2 hour lesson about 3 times per week and I think it is helping (finally). I also got a phone call from my host mom that they picked up the package in Guatemala city. I think that is what the message said anyway :)
Tomorrow we are planning to go to Panajachel which is the most built up town on the lake. I hope that the lake isn't too rough (there were actually white-capped waves the other day when we went to San Pedro). I think that we're going to make a T-day dinner and need to pick up many of the ingredients. Is everyone looking forward to Thanksgiving??
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