A standard day

In the morning, we went to the clinic to find that it would be another quiet day. Instead of staying in the triage area, I requested to sit in with the doctor as he saw the patients.

Language was a bit of an issue, but some of the medical terms are similar and many of the patients came in with diarrhoea and vomiting. The doctor I sat in with saw a mixture of patients (children, pregnant ladies and general medicine).

Many of the pregnant women had come in for a standard antenatal check. Of course there is no ultrasound but the doctor checks the health of the mother, the size of the uterus and the heart beat of the baby.

Examinations for the patients were limited to the system of the complaint (e.g. abdominal examination only for diarrhoea/vomiting) and the doctor always seemed to prescribe antibiotics for gastroenteritis.

The two other volunteers had decided to make posters to put up on the clinic wall and as there weren’t that many patients, they spent part of the morning drawing the posters – and very well too!

  

Jorge (field manager) came to the clinic to talk to us and told me that he had organised for me to go to the elderly care home (Casa Maria) the next day.

I returned home and rested for a while before heading to Maximo Nivel for my Spanish class. The World Cup was starting but as I had to be in class, I didn’t go to watch the Brazil vs Croatia game.

In the evening, Thelma’s grandchildren were at the house and so I spent time playing with them which was fun. By the time they left it was almost 10pm so I decided to read a bit and go to sleep.