1/4 of the way DONE with this trip!!!

Today was the last day of the first rotation at Centro de Salud Colonia America! :) I'm SO happy to be moving on to more exciting places (I hope!) because consultations can get kind of dry after seeing the same thing over and over again...I probably mentioned this in my previous post, but the new doctor I shadowed, Dr. Rogeilio, finished at 10:30am all 3 days I shadowed him. It was kind of annoying because my shift is supposed to end at 12! So I always end up leaving early after I shadow Dr. Francisco who ends not that much later..Haha. Life of a doc in Mexico...pretty chill...

Today was funny though because I brought my camera to take pictures of the clinic and with the doctors. I told Dr. Rogelio that I wanted to take pictures of the patients, but I was too shy too...so he accompanied me. Haha! He's so cute. He was like "Vamos mija." First, we took pictures of the doctors which was ALSO funny because the doctors pretended to be patients for pictures sake.

LOL.

Then I took a picture with Dr. Rogelio and Dr. Francisco

Dr. Rogelio...God my eyes are small..

With Dr. Francisco..he's so awesome! I learned so much from him!!

Another Doctor!

Patient waiting room...there's actually more patients waiting on the other side, but didn't get a picture of it. People are so open here. The women literally just breastfeed their baby while waiting...shirt open, boob hanging out and all.

btw, this is what they use to hear a baby's heartbeat inside the mother's womb. Old school style. In the US, I believe it is done by ultrasound.

Anyways, today, after shadowing Dr. Rogelio, I shadowed Dr. Francisco. I did the physical exam (throat, heart, respiration, etc.) as usual, but today he was like quizzing me like crazy. He kept asking me questions. One question that got me was when he asked me what I thought about the patient's weight, and I didn't know because the patient didn't LOOK overweight. Plus, the height was in centimeters and the weight in kilogram...lol, so I didn't really know what the norm was or anything...if only everyone else followed the US and used lbs instead of kg and inches instead of cm, everything would be easier HAHAH!!

I did learn a lot from this place despite the fact that it was very uneventful most of the time.

Some things that I learned:

• Despite the fact that many people in Mexico suffer from extreme poverty (I believe 75% in the state of Oaxaca), the diseases that are most prevalent is similar to a developed country's such as the US. The most common diseases seen were diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
• The doctors have a heavyload on them as they are the ones who are responsible to teach preventative care to the community as well as family planning. According to Dr. Francisco, though they tell the patients about family planning, it is not that effective since family planning is against their culture as well as their religion.
• Water and vegetables are not a stable part of the Mexican diet since most people who come in complain of stomach ache and constipation or urinary infections. However, water is more expensive than coke so many poor people cannot afford it.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. But, I'm definitely glad to move on. I cannot WAIT to go to Hospital Civil to see some surgeries! But, that's not until another 3 weeks AND I'm bummed that I'm only there for three days! :(

Ugh. Today's Friday, but I have class from 5-7pm tonight! =(

It seems the days are FLYING by!