Beginning of Week Two...

I´m sure thankful for my fun and enjoyable weekend, because I learned today that this is going to be a long hard week! Last night I met Dr. Flemming, a true blessing from God that she´s here! She has come a few times before, but yep, she´s a gynecologist from Nebraska here to run a gynecological clinic this week. See...a blessing that she´s here, not only for me, but for our OB-GYN med student! She invited me to help her and Laura out with the clinic this week...like I was going to say no! I was so excited! So this morning around 830 we walked to the small clinic and settled in a small room. There were about 10 patients waiting to be seen already that morning. Dr. Flemming was wonderful about getting me involved. I assisted women in changing and getting onto the table, giving and taking away medical instruments to her and Laura as necessary, and just doing the behind the scenes things that needed to be done! But the thing that was the greatest was that I got to stay with the kids while their moms were examined. Most kids were freaked out that mom was being looked at that way by a white person, so I tried to calm them down by coloring with them, or listening to their heartbeat through the stethsescope (OK...so my spelling isn´t that great yet whne it comes to medical terms...) There was one boy who actually fell asleep on me! haha. I felt very useful today. Dr. Flemming kept calling me an amazing nurse, just knowing what to do without being told! That made my heart melt. Laura also said that when we both graduate, she would love it if I was her nurse. We work so great together. See, even here, I´m receiving so much encouragement, especially about the career path I have chosen. I prayed so much today that the letter waiting for me when I get home will say, yes, please come be a student in our nursing program! I truly have found out that this is where my heart and passion is. We saw some wierd things today, let me tell ya. Some women complained of having breast pain, and it was caused by having too small of a bra. Some women were just constipated, boring! Lots of women had yeast infections, or other problems that were easily cured. Dr. Flemming is an amazing woman, I cannot even tell you how much I learned from her in the first day! She is SO great about explaining everything to me, I just learned a ton and I´m so thrilled about all my new knowledge! And we were all so tahnkful to have a wonderful translator, so I really could pay attention to what was going on today. After our first 10 patients this morning we went back for Siesta. On our way back, we made a home visit to the mother of one of the nurses at the clinic. This womans name is Angelica, and she has horrible cancer. Her home was nicer than most, but still not anything that someone with cancer should be living in. Smelly, flies everywhere, and hot. She was lying on a piece of old foam on a bed, with a cathedar, so she probably never moves. She has bed sores the size of softballs, and you can see so much of her bones. She´s super weak. She had a MASSIVE tumor on her back that had fallen off, they think, and so there´s this huge open sore probably the size of a cantalope on her back. Her daughters do an amazing job of cleaning her sores everyday, that´s the only reason she´s still alive. She´s too weak to make it through surgery, has another tumor forming in her abdomen, and will die a long, slow painful death in pain on this bed, probably by next year. It was extremely hard to watch this...daughters taking care of their sick mother and doing the best they could do, knowing it wasn´t enough. Toward the end of our visit, she started crying. I went up to kiss her goodbye and started to cry as well. My heart just automatcially fell in love with her. I wanted so much to convey to her that Jesus loves her, that she is in my prayers, and that I will be back to see her again, but I didn´t know how to say that in Spanish. It was the worst thing I´ve seen since I´ve been here, and I´ve seen a lot. On the walk back I tried to not cry, but I told Laura that was going to be one of my weaknesses as a nurse. I just had to cry a bit. It´s affected me all day, and probably will for a long time. If just seeing this one patient that´s like this in a city of 400,000, how many others like her are there¿ And I bet they don´t receive the amazing care that Angelica does from her daughters. It was nice to get back to the Parish and break for Siesta. We had some PB and J for lunch, then I went to my spot on the roof to rest for awhile. Around 3 we headed back to the clinic for the second shift. Here we saw a lot of different cases than we did in the morning. We saw herpes, gross, and lots of other very interesting caess that probably would never see in the states. Some women just make me sad. They come in and want to be checked for STDs because they know their husband sleeps around, or they want to go on birth control because their man friend is coming back for his once a year visitn with the intention of getting her pregnant, but she has already had 5 of his kids. Life is just so different here. But I do love helping. I learned so much today about everything. When I´m holding a child during their mothers visit, I now embrace the smell that comes with them because I know that they are very poor. When the kiss me on the cheek, or want a hug, I take it all in and return it right back to them. When the old, toothless, dirty beggar women greets me in the morning, I hug her back and wish her good day. I even don´t mind helping the people with terminal cancer and huge wounds, because I know that Jesus would have done the same. The phrase 'Love them Like Jesus' has been running through my head all day, which I think is important. I´m just so humbled and thankful for everything. Tomorrow I return to the clinic for more interesting and learning experiences. But now, I´m going to enjoy a refreshing shower and bedtime chats with my friends. Blessings to you all! Love, Emily.