Hey Everyone,
My apologies for the lack of posting in my final days in Guatemala. I just finished an email out to my bible study, so I'm going to be uber-unoriginal and repost those words. If you have any other questions or curiosities, don't hesitate to email or call or heck, even come visit! I'll be chillen in Wilmington for most of the remainder of the summer and anyone is welcome. Mom just has 2 rules: that you will help yourself to anything and that you will pick up after yourself :-)
Ok, here's the update for ya:
They released me from UNC Neurosciences Hospital on Wednesday afternoon with a turtle-shell type brace, also known as a TLSO brace, which as of know I am to wear 24 hours a day for 12 weeks. The neurosurgery team was not sure whether to do surgery or not--but after a 2 consecutive days worth of x-rays while wearing the brace and the fact that I did not have any neurological injury d/t the fracture (it's what is known as a "burst fracture" at T12--think of a coke can being crushed down vertically---well the fracture protrudes into the spinal column but, divinely, stopped before hitting my spinal cord), they decided to pursue conservative treatment. Praise God. That news came Tuesday night and was the best news I could have imagined. Tuesday night I had some tingling in my right leg which delayed my discharge on Wed., but they think it was more due to where my brace puts pressure when I sit at too small an angle, which I was doing for a decent amount of time on Tuesday with visitors, and also d/t anxiety--which I am fully able to admit I was having. But my neuro exams all looked good so they sent me home--and the following day and a half my mom and step-dad cleaned my house, did laundry, and packed me up so I could come back to Wilmington with them for a while. So Friday afternoon we headed down to Wilmington, and since then we've just been resting and recuperating. It's really good to see my mom finally be able to take a deep breath and get some rest--I don't think I'll ever know what she went through until I myself am a mother--but from my perspective I've never seen her so scared, exhausted, and anxious. Sarah (Sperry) came down on Saturday to spend the night and visit and my dad is going to come down from DC to visit next week and "babysit" me as mom likes to say. I really am pretty mobile--I mean I can stand, walk, and lay down--sitting is really the only thing I am not supposed to do, interestingly enough, as it puts the most stress on one's back (and also makes my leg go numb, ha). But I'm learning my limitations and realizing that some things are indeed tough--and that, at least for a while, I need to set my pride aside and be ok with receiving help, i.e. the fact that yes, my mom has to help me bathe and dress. But none of that holds a flame to how thankful I am every time I look down and realize that I can wiggle my toes, feel my legs, and walk. I truly had no idea how close my injury was to causing neurological damage, and I am just so unbelievably thankful for God's protection and His answered prayers. It's funny my mom and I were talking about the fact that when prayers are answered, we often don't know how bad things could have been. So over the next few months I will get plain films every 2-3 weeks, meet with the neurosurgery team to make sure everything is progressing as we would hope, and with God's continued care and everyone's prayers, hopefully be out of this thing for good at the end of September. I'm not out of consideration for surgery until, well, they say I'm completely out of consideration for surgery, so I would so much appreciate your continued prayers for healing. Also since I am not allowed to sit, the first 6 weeks of school will be a challenge, especially since our first couple blocks are pretty lecture-intensive. So please pray for a solution to be made apparent for that, as well.
Well, before I get uber sappy on all of you...this experience has not gone without its funny moments. Yes I have now been catheterized, used many-a-bedpan, and while hospitalized in Guatemala, the nurses did in fact put me in a diaper. Honestly I think that may have been the first time I cried through the entire experience, haha (not really, I'm sure I cried before that :-)). But all of those things gave me a good dose of humility, were a lesson in what it's like to be a patient and go without the independence that, at least I know, I take for granted, and for heaven's sake, will make me NEVER question someone who suffers from back pain. And lastly...with diapers the experience wouldn't be complete without maternity clothes, right?! Right. Those just happen to be the only clothes that fit over and half-way hide the brace. So, ladies, I have in my possession a very nice maternity wardrobe from Target that I sure as heck will never fit into when I am actually pregnant....up for grabs in a little less than 3 mos ;-) Should we begin placing wagers on the first taker?!
Love to you all...If anyone would like to chat or come visit, I would love that! Give me a shout on either my cell, 919-358-1137 or at home, 910-794-1469.
xoxo
Kristen
Monday, July 7, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
"No Puedes Caber!"....That's what she said.
So this is my last blog entry for a weekend adventure that I've had in Guatemala. It's been pretty crazy down here for the past 4 weeks and of course it just gets crazier right? This past weekend we lost a lot of good friends as they split their separate ways to go back to the United States. I already talked about Kristen's situation but we also lost Kina, Megan, Shannon and Nick. The rest of us decided to spend one last adventure in Tikal and the Mayan Ruins and so away we went!
Friday, June 27:
Christina, Chris, Pai, Lisa, Liam and myself got up pretty early to head out to Antigua so that we could go and pay the travel agency that we were using to head up to Tikal. Just a fair warning to those of you who want to travel in Guatemala...everything must be done up front and in CASH. None of this messin around with credit cards stuff. Cash gets stuff done. So yea, we had lunch at Pollo Campero (aka KFC) and then hung out in Antigua most of the day just walking around until we hopped on our shuttle out to Guatemala City. We got to Guatemala City and immediately we thought it was a dump. We were pretty depressed by it haha. There was blood all over the men's bathroom and it was a little scary. But anyway, we were supposed to leave at 915pm but our travel agent booked us on a 1015 bus instead up to Tikal and so we had to wait an extra hour. We were not happy campers...But we finally got on the bus and when we did it was pretty much the most excruciatingly painful experience I think I've ever had on a bus. Very uncomfortable, very hot and I got about 0 hours of sleep in the 9 hours we had to travel from Guatemala City to Tikal. Way to start off the trip?
Saturday, June 28:
We arrived in Flores at approximately 7am which is the small little tourist town next to Tikal where you can shuttle over to the Mayan Ruins. This is where the entire trip went downhill for me. As I was getting off the bus, I went to reach into my bookbag to find my wallet only to find that it wasn't there. I looked everywhere for it and it was gone. Someone stole it. I think that someone grabbed it while I was attempting to sleep on the bus and without me looking just got the wallet and when we landed in Flores, took off. They got all my remaining cash and my credit card, drivers license, insurance card and UNC ID. So I was pretty pissed. To add to that, our shuttle to take us to our hotel in Tikal hadn't arrived so we were freaking out about that. So while I was cancelling credit cards and talking back home with my parents we finally got a shuttle and miraculously ended up at our hotel in Tikal. The hotel itself was pretty nice and it was good to relax for a bit before we started up our tour. Our tour guide's name was Nixon and he had the craziest hair I think I've seen in Guatemala. But anyway, he took us on this great tour of the temples and told us about some of the hieroglyphics that are on the structures and what they mean. We got to climb Temple IV which was where they shot the Star Wars scene for the Ewoks and then we went through Mundo Perdido which shows the equinox and solstice that the Mayans marked and then we climbed Temple V to get a great view of the rest of the complex which was INSANE. We pretty much climbed a wooden ladder on the side of the temple to a height of about 200 ft. Then we checked out the rest of the Grand Plaza which is where most of those pictures you guys see in postcard comes from. Overall it was amazing and the pictures we have are really good...they'll be posted soon I promise. After the tour, we had a really good lunch at the park and by the time everything was done we were EXHAUSTED. After a quick dip in the pool we all passed out and woke up in time for dinner. After dinner we just hung out some more in the rooms and went to bed to wake up again the next morning...
Sunday, June 29:
So at approximately 430am, all of us but Chris got up to do the sunrise tour off the top of Temple IV since it had the best view of the park. We didn't want to pay an entrance fee to get into Tikal so we attempted to take a shortcut through the back of our hotel and straight into the jungle and hopefully the path that lead to Temple IV. It took a little bit of time but we made it through safely without paying! (Yay for being poor med students). But Christina swears that she heard a jaguar while we were walking through so that was a little creepy. But we got up to the Temple where we saw...not such a great view haha. It was a little foggy but we did get to see a little bit of sun. The great part about it all though was the sounds you could hear from the jungle. You could see and hear howler monkeys, definitely see lots of birds and then hear jaguars in the distance. It was pretty amazing. After the sunrise tour, I came back to pass out because I was still pretty tired while Pai, Chris and Liam went exploring the park some more. They went to Temple VI and then back to the Grand Plaza to see a Triathalon that was taking place. After all of this, we came back to the hotel, had lunch and watched Spain whoop that ASS on Germany (Sorry for you Alemania fans). Then we headed back to Flores so that we could catch our bus back to Guatemala City. In Flores, we ended up at this tiny bar full of mosquitoes where we unhappily drank gross beer (Dont drink Brahva) and played cards. But then we decided to go to a good dinner place where they served authentic Mayan foods and it was DELICIOUS. We also met up with Kina and Megan who were passing through on their way to Tikal so that was nice to see them. After all of that we ended back up at the bus station ready to board our bus back home.
Sunday/Monday June 30:
The bus back home was a complete polar opposite of the way up. It was FREEZING in the bus with the air conditioning on full blast. Also, since we didnt fall asleep on the way up, Lisa Chris and Christina thought it'd be good to take some Lunesta and pass out. Which they did haha. I was too paranoid about my wallet so I stayed up and protected my passport with my LIFE. So I didn't get much sleep. However the joke of the trip did happen during this ride back to the Capital. Lisa took 3 Lunesta pills, 3 mg a piece. Basically she was completely woozy and out of it. But she was still apparently coherent enough to talk to the driver and attempt to tell him to turn off the air conditioning by saying, "Es possible...caliente?" And then she got off the bus during a quick break and just pointed at the luggage storage on the bottom of the bus and said "Es possible...*point*". I got out to help her ask for her pants but the driver took it as us wanting to actually physically go underneath the bus and stay there. Hence, "No puedes caber!". It was hilarious haha. But anyway, we got back to Guatemala City safe and sound, we hopped on a shuttle back to Antigua and then said our goodbyes to Pai and she left us to go back home to the States. The rest of us then came back to Santa Cruz where we PASSED out but still welcomed 3 new students:
-Jordi, junior at Davidson
-Tori, MS2 at Baylor
-Caitlin, MS2 at Baylor
I haven't decided if I should haze them or not yet. Probably won't haha. But that's basically the update for the weekend! A little bit more of bad news and because of my wallet loss I am now coming home on July 6th since I have no money. Christina is my sugar mama and being my personal ATM. She says she'll break my legs if I don't pay her back...and I believe it. But anyway - I will leave you all with a little bit of information I learned at Trivia Night:
Hope everyone's doing well and having a good summer!
Nos vemos pronto,
Neil
Friday, June 27:
Christina, Chris, Pai, Lisa, Liam and myself got up pretty early to head out to Antigua so that we could go and pay the travel agency that we were using to head up to Tikal. Just a fair warning to those of you who want to travel in Guatemala...everything must be done up front and in CASH. None of this messin around with credit cards stuff. Cash gets stuff done. So yea, we had lunch at Pollo Campero (aka KFC) and then hung out in Antigua most of the day just walking around until we hopped on our shuttle out to Guatemala City. We got to Guatemala City and immediately we thought it was a dump. We were pretty depressed by it haha. There was blood all over the men's bathroom and it was a little scary. But anyway, we were supposed to leave at 915pm but our travel agent booked us on a 1015 bus instead up to Tikal and so we had to wait an extra hour. We were not happy campers...But we finally got on the bus and when we did it was pretty much the most excruciatingly painful experience I think I've ever had on a bus. Very uncomfortable, very hot and I got about 0 hours of sleep in the 9 hours we had to travel from Guatemala City to Tikal. Way to start off the trip?
Saturday, June 28:
We arrived in Flores at approximately 7am which is the small little tourist town next to Tikal where you can shuttle over to the Mayan Ruins. This is where the entire trip went downhill for me. As I was getting off the bus, I went to reach into my bookbag to find my wallet only to find that it wasn't there. I looked everywhere for it and it was gone. Someone stole it. I think that someone grabbed it while I was attempting to sleep on the bus and without me looking just got the wallet and when we landed in Flores, took off. They got all my remaining cash and my credit card, drivers license, insurance card and UNC ID. So I was pretty pissed. To add to that, our shuttle to take us to our hotel in Tikal hadn't arrived so we were freaking out about that. So while I was cancelling credit cards and talking back home with my parents we finally got a shuttle and miraculously ended up at our hotel in Tikal. The hotel itself was pretty nice and it was good to relax for a bit before we started up our tour. Our tour guide's name was Nixon and he had the craziest hair I think I've seen in Guatemala. But anyway, he took us on this great tour of the temples and told us about some of the hieroglyphics that are on the structures and what they mean. We got to climb Temple IV which was where they shot the Star Wars scene for the Ewoks and then we went through Mundo Perdido which shows the equinox and solstice that the Mayans marked and then we climbed Temple V to get a great view of the rest of the complex which was INSANE. We pretty much climbed a wooden ladder on the side of the temple to a height of about 200 ft. Then we checked out the rest of the Grand Plaza which is where most of those pictures you guys see in postcard comes from. Overall it was amazing and the pictures we have are really good...they'll be posted soon I promise. After the tour, we had a really good lunch at the park and by the time everything was done we were EXHAUSTED. After a quick dip in the pool we all passed out and woke up in time for dinner. After dinner we just hung out some more in the rooms and went to bed to wake up again the next morning...
Sunday, June 29:
So at approximately 430am, all of us but Chris got up to do the sunrise tour off the top of Temple IV since it had the best view of the park. We didn't want to pay an entrance fee to get into Tikal so we attempted to take a shortcut through the back of our hotel and straight into the jungle and hopefully the path that lead to Temple IV. It took a little bit of time but we made it through safely without paying! (Yay for being poor med students). But Christina swears that she heard a jaguar while we were walking through so that was a little creepy. But we got up to the Temple where we saw...not such a great view haha. It was a little foggy but we did get to see a little bit of sun. The great part about it all though was the sounds you could hear from the jungle. You could see and hear howler monkeys, definitely see lots of birds and then hear jaguars in the distance. It was pretty amazing. After the sunrise tour, I came back to pass out because I was still pretty tired while Pai, Chris and Liam went exploring the park some more. They went to Temple VI and then back to the Grand Plaza to see a Triathalon that was taking place. After all of this, we came back to the hotel, had lunch and watched Spain whoop that ASS on Germany (Sorry for you Alemania fans). Then we headed back to Flores so that we could catch our bus back to Guatemala City. In Flores, we ended up at this tiny bar full of mosquitoes where we unhappily drank gross beer (Dont drink Brahva) and played cards. But then we decided to go to a good dinner place where they served authentic Mayan foods and it was DELICIOUS. We also met up with Kina and Megan who were passing through on their way to Tikal so that was nice to see them. After all of that we ended back up at the bus station ready to board our bus back home.
Sunday/Monday June 30:
The bus back home was a complete polar opposite of the way up. It was FREEZING in the bus with the air conditioning on full blast. Also, since we didnt fall asleep on the way up, Lisa Chris and Christina thought it'd be good to take some Lunesta and pass out. Which they did haha. I was too paranoid about my wallet so I stayed up and protected my passport with my LIFE. So I didn't get much sleep. However the joke of the trip did happen during this ride back to the Capital. Lisa took 3 Lunesta pills, 3 mg a piece. Basically she was completely woozy and out of it. But she was still apparently coherent enough to talk to the driver and attempt to tell him to turn off the air conditioning by saying, "Es possible...caliente?" And then she got off the bus during a quick break and just pointed at the luggage storage on the bottom of the bus and said "Es possible...*point*". I got out to help her ask for her pants but the driver took it as us wanting to actually physically go underneath the bus and stay there. Hence, "No puedes caber!". It was hilarious haha. But anyway, we got back to Guatemala City safe and sound, we hopped on a shuttle back to Antigua and then said our goodbyes to Pai and she left us to go back home to the States. The rest of us then came back to Santa Cruz where we PASSED out but still welcomed 3 new students:
-Jordi, junior at Davidson
-Tori, MS2 at Baylor
-Caitlin, MS2 at Baylor
I haven't decided if I should haze them or not yet. Probably won't haha. But that's basically the update for the weekend! A little bit more of bad news and because of my wallet loss I am now coming home on July 6th since I have no money. Christina is my sugar mama and being my personal ATM. She says she'll break my legs if I don't pay her back...and I believe it. But anyway - I will leave you all with a little bit of information I learned at Trivia Night:
A male penguin has 1 orgasm a year.
Hope everyone's doing well and having a good summer!
Nos vemos pronto,
Neil
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
We just cant seem to catch a break can we?
Hello readers! Sorry that its taken so long to update the blog. We´ve ran into a couple of issues down here in Guatemala and so I think its time to share them. The story begins with Kristen´s last weekend here in Guatemala. Her, Pai and Liam went up to Semuc Champey which is this absolutely gorgeous natural limestone structure that has natural pools formed from this river as well as caves and waterfalls and things of the sort. I can only describe it because I´ve seen pictures but I know that Pai and Kristen could add onto it. But anyway, at the end of their tour for Semuc Champey the three of them had the option of jumping off of this waterfall into a large pool below. Since you´re only in Guatemala once, why not jump off? So Pai and Liam jumped off and didn´t suffer any injuries except some bruises to the butt and thighs. Kristen however did something to her back when she landed in the water. The waterfall itself was a 45 foot high drop and Kristen went straight in like a pencil like you´re supposed to. However, when she was coming back up she did something to her back where it hurt like hell. She was in pain for the rest of the day and she returned to Santa Cruz still in an insane amount of pain. We immediately called the doctors and they came and took a look at her and gave her strong pain medication and told her to be on strict bed rest for the rest of the week. Well as the week went on, Kristen didn´t improve much. She still said she had a lot of pain in her lower back, especially on her right side. She almost described it as flank pain but then as the days went on she said it was more of a deep, localized pain next to her spine.
Come Friday, she still didnt feel that great and so she was advised to go to Guatmeala City for X-rays, MRI and CAT scans. After all the tests, it was confirmed that Kristen has a compression fracture in T12 in the body of the vertebrae. She stayed overnight at the hospital on Saturday night and had a medical evac straight back to RDU on Sunday. Thank god we have such incredible insurance from UNC because it covers the flight and all medical procedures done to Kristen while she was in the capital and it also covers 80% of prescriptions and tests. The students here have tried to get in contact with her but we think that she´s just either in a hospital or at home in Wilmington. Kristen if you are reading this then we are all thinking about you and we really hope that you are feeling better. I know that I personally miss you a ton and I am incredibly worried about you. You´re in all of our thoughts and prayers here in Guatemala sweetie.
So yes, that´s why we can´t seem to catch a break in Guatemala. There´s more to come following this topic, but I wanted to post quickly what happened. If you fellow MS2s and friends can get a hold of Kristen please let me know how she is doing and I will relay that to everyone here in the clinic. I hope everyone is having a good summer and please keep Kristen in your thoughts and prayers.
Hasta luego,
Neil
Come Friday, she still didnt feel that great and so she was advised to go to Guatmeala City for X-rays, MRI and CAT scans. After all the tests, it was confirmed that Kristen has a compression fracture in T12 in the body of the vertebrae. She stayed overnight at the hospital on Saturday night and had a medical evac straight back to RDU on Sunday. Thank god we have such incredible insurance from UNC because it covers the flight and all medical procedures done to Kristen while she was in the capital and it also covers 80% of prescriptions and tests. The students here have tried to get in contact with her but we think that she´s just either in a hospital or at home in Wilmington. Kristen if you are reading this then we are all thinking about you and we really hope that you are feeling better. I know that I personally miss you a ton and I am incredibly worried about you. You´re in all of our thoughts and prayers here in Guatemala sweetie.
So yes, that´s why we can´t seem to catch a break in Guatemala. There´s more to come following this topic, but I wanted to post quickly what happened. If you fellow MS2s and friends can get a hold of Kristen please let me know how she is doing and I will relay that to everyone here in the clinic. I hope everyone is having a good summer and please keep Kristen in your thoughts and prayers.
Hasta luego,
Neil
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Hey I have an idea - Let's go to El Salvador!
Hello again readers - So I know that I just updated like 4 hours ago but I think that I need to recap what we did this weekend. The big group of students got split into three groups. Pai, Liam and Kristen went to Coban and Semuc Champey for the weekend and I will let them tell you about their adventures out there. Megan, Kina and Nick stayed around the lake and got some diving and touring done. Then the rest of us - Me, Christina, Shannon, Mitch, Lisa and Chris - all took Friday off and traveled down to El Salvador to see what they could offer us for the weekend. The following is a list of things that happened in no particular order. If you're really bored, see if you can put them in order and get back to me on it:
-"Lisa, keep shakin that ass girl"
-Los Cobanos, it looks like paradise online but it was really a fisherman's wharf.
-Being pelted with rocks from the tide in the Pacific Ocean
-Enjoying a beautiful sunset during a typical El Salvadorean meal which is basically seafood.
-Chris being called out by a Cuban lady when he tried to explain he knew little Spanish by saying "mi espanol pequeno" and she took it as "pequeno, poquito y corto pene". Don't worry - we backed him up by saying it was grande.
-Neil being called out by the same Cuban lady to go up and dance with her and failing to shake his hips because I have no skillz.
-Start drinking at 4pm because we had nothing better to do.
-Ordered lunch and waited for 2.5 hours until we actually got it.
-Riding in the back of a pick-up truck to get from one town to the next.
-Laying out by the pool for 8 hours and applying so much sunscreen on Lisa's back that I'm pretty sure she came back more pale than she started out.
-Mitch the asshole, since he didn't notify the owner of the hotel that he was sitting on the beach with his surfboard instead of actually surfing and the owner thought he was pretty much dead.
-Chris, Lisa, Christina and myself desnudarse-ing in the pool at 2am
-Chris, Lisa, Christina and myself being absolutely and ridiculously drunk at 1:59am
-Watching Cuban dancers shake their stuff and being absolutely mesmerized and in awe.
-Lonny our guide who pretty much sucked up to us the whole trip but was a blessing since he toured us all around La Libertad and made sure we were safe.
-Christina continuing to repeat that Chris' package was glorious.
-Grandma Shannon...who went to bed at 8pm.
-Going to La Libertad with the intention that we were going to a reggae festival but instead we ended up partying with locals.
-Dancing to "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys and being the first americans ever to visit a discoteca in La Libertad.
-Mitch dancing with a local all night and not looking too happy about it all night.
-Bubbles and smoke machine on the floor in the discoteca which made it that much cheesier. Oh did I forgot to mention that it took place in a garage?
-Chris electocuting himself in an attempt to turn off the pool lights so that he could desnudarse.
-Praying and crossing our fingers that Los Cobanos didn't look like its surroundings which included mud, swamp and shacks. We didn't luck out.
-Paso Misterioso, basically it was incline where we parked the car in neutral at the bottom of the hill and instead of letting gravity do its normal thing, we went UP THE HILL. It was very crazy.
-Going through 400Q in phone minutes in 2 hours because of roaming and international charges. Lame.
-Awesome "family room" with a king size bed, 3 singles and a couch. Oh - and agua calienteeee.
-Paying 19 dollars for a bottle of rum, bottle of vodka, 3L of pepsi and a gallon of orange juice. Baller.
So that pretty much sums up our weekend - lots of ridiculousness but we had a good time. On the trip back to Lake Atitlan we were all pretty tired and most of us got a lil sick to our stomachs since the whole ride was REALLY hot and humid and it just didn't mix well with all the bumpiness of the roads and turns. But we made it back okay and are ready to start another week of clinic before we head out to next adventure - Tikal!
Adios,
Neil
-"Lisa, keep shakin that ass girl"
-Los Cobanos, it looks like paradise online but it was really a fisherman's wharf.
-Being pelted with rocks from the tide in the Pacific Ocean
-Enjoying a beautiful sunset during a typical El Salvadorean meal which is basically seafood.
-Chris being called out by a Cuban lady when he tried to explain he knew little Spanish by saying "mi espanol pequeno" and she took it as "pequeno, poquito y corto pene". Don't worry - we backed him up by saying it was grande.
-Neil being called out by the same Cuban lady to go up and dance with her and failing to shake his hips because I have no skillz.
-Start drinking at 4pm because we had nothing better to do.
-Ordered lunch and waited for 2.5 hours until we actually got it.
-Riding in the back of a pick-up truck to get from one town to the next.
-Laying out by the pool for 8 hours and applying so much sunscreen on Lisa's back that I'm pretty sure she came back more pale than she started out.
-Mitch the asshole, since he didn't notify the owner of the hotel that he was sitting on the beach with his surfboard instead of actually surfing and the owner thought he was pretty much dead.
-Chris, Lisa, Christina and myself desnudarse-ing in the pool at 2am
-Chris, Lisa, Christina and myself being absolutely and ridiculously drunk at 1:59am
-Watching Cuban dancers shake their stuff and being absolutely mesmerized and in awe.
-Lonny our guide who pretty much sucked up to us the whole trip but was a blessing since he toured us all around La Libertad and made sure we were safe.
-Christina continuing to repeat that Chris' package was glorious.
-Grandma Shannon...who went to bed at 8pm.
-Going to La Libertad with the intention that we were going to a reggae festival but instead we ended up partying with locals.
-Dancing to "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys and being the first americans ever to visit a discoteca in La Libertad.
-Mitch dancing with a local all night and not looking too happy about it all night.
-Bubbles and smoke machine on the floor in the discoteca which made it that much cheesier. Oh did I forgot to mention that it took place in a garage?
-Chris electocuting himself in an attempt to turn off the pool lights so that he could desnudarse.
-Praying and crossing our fingers that Los Cobanos didn't look like its surroundings which included mud, swamp and shacks. We didn't luck out.
-Paso Misterioso, basically it was incline where we parked the car in neutral at the bottom of the hill and instead of letting gravity do its normal thing, we went UP THE HILL. It was very crazy.
-Going through 400Q in phone minutes in 2 hours because of roaming and international charges. Lame.
-Awesome "family room" with a king size bed, 3 singles and a couch. Oh - and agua calienteeee.
-Paying 19 dollars for a bottle of rum, bottle of vodka, 3L of pepsi and a gallon of orange juice. Baller.
So that pretty much sums up our weekend - lots of ridiculousness but we had a good time. On the trip back to Lake Atitlan we were all pretty tired and most of us got a lil sick to our stomachs since the whole ride was REALLY hot and humid and it just didn't mix well with all the bumpiness of the roads and turns. But we made it back okay and are ready to start another week of clinic before we head out to next adventure - Tikal!
Adios,
Neil
Thursday, June 19, 2008
You know we actually do work here...
So while going over the blog I realized that it seems like all we do in Guatemala is travel and have fun. Therefore I thought I should probably explain some of the things that we do and see here in clinic. So we´ve given you the basic overview of Santa Cruz and how everything kind of runs around here. There´s two main doctors and a nurse that are kind of the attendings here that we report to. Then the students come in and can take histories, do physical exams and even give their recommendations for diagnosis and treatment plan before the attendings sign off on it. So it´s a really cool experience that we get to be involved from the beginning all the way to the end. Here are a couple of things that we´ve seen so far!
-Scarlet Fever
-Thrush
-Scabies
-Head Lice
-Diarrhea....every single type of it
-Malnutrition like no other
-Warts
-THE Gout
Christina, Kristen and I have also gotten some training on what to do for prenatal care for women around here. We have been involved in the prenatal care for most of the women in the village and so we tell them what are dangerous signs that they should be on the lookout for during their pregnancy and then what to expect when its time to deliver the baby. I think Kristen already alluded to this but we get to sit in on ultrasounds and we´ve even done some of the Leopold presentation things to feel for a baby´s head, back and extremities. Overall its a pretty cool experience.
So besides all the patient care we have been involved in a couple of projects that we want to complete in our time here at Santa Cruz. Christina and I are working on a Recycling Trash Project. In Santa Cruz, there aren´t really things such as trash cans or even like a landfill area where all the trash gets put. Instead - it just gets thrown into the streets and accumulates there. So even with all the beauty that you guys can see in our pictures...there are some pretty disgusting things as well. In an effort to combat this - we´ve come up with a recycling program where we give a presentation on trash to the elementary school kids here on why trash is bad and what ways we can help clean up Santa Cruz. Then at the end of the presentation we give each student 3 large 1.5L bottles and tell them to fill them up with inorganic trash until the bottle is COMPLETELY full. Then they can return the bottles to us in return for a pair of colorful crocs! The kids love the shoes so they´re very motivated to participate in this. We then take the bottles and use them in construction projects to make walls and things of the sort as a sort of eco-construction project. It´s pretty neat stuff and I´ll keep you all posted if we have any more developments on the things we´re building and participation and such.
The other project that other students are working on is the nutrition project. Malnutrition is a big problem here in Santa Cruz and its even more so for the mothers of recently born children or even those that are pregnant and about to deliver. We always see babies that are way under the curve as far as weight and length are concerned and so in order to improve this situation some of the students have started a nutrition class for these mothers. Shannon, Pai, Nick and Kristen are the ones that are working on this and I´ll let them explain it more in detail but the jist of it is that these guys are making recipes and teaching a cooking class every week for these ladies so that they can get an idea of what is good to feed their babies and to make sure they are getting enough calories to grow. It´s a very involved project and I don´t know half the details that they do but I´m sure they´ll be glad to tell you all.
Okay - so there, I proved that we don´t just roam around all day playing games haha. It´s pretty cool working up here and it´s kind of a bummer that the summer is coming to an end and for most of us this is our last weekend up here. But we´ll make the most of our time up here and hopefully make a good impact on the community before we leave. That´s it for now - I´ll write back in a few about our awesome adventures in El Salvador and this past weekend.
Hasta Luego!
Neil
-Scarlet Fever
-Thrush
-Scabies
-Head Lice
-Diarrhea....every single type of it
-Malnutrition like no other
-Warts
-THE Gout
Christina, Kristen and I have also gotten some training on what to do for prenatal care for women around here. We have been involved in the prenatal care for most of the women in the village and so we tell them what are dangerous signs that they should be on the lookout for during their pregnancy and then what to expect when its time to deliver the baby. I think Kristen already alluded to this but we get to sit in on ultrasounds and we´ve even done some of the Leopold presentation things to feel for a baby´s head, back and extremities. Overall its a pretty cool experience.
So besides all the patient care we have been involved in a couple of projects that we want to complete in our time here at Santa Cruz. Christina and I are working on a Recycling Trash Project. In Santa Cruz, there aren´t really things such as trash cans or even like a landfill area where all the trash gets put. Instead - it just gets thrown into the streets and accumulates there. So even with all the beauty that you guys can see in our pictures...there are some pretty disgusting things as well. In an effort to combat this - we´ve come up with a recycling program where we give a presentation on trash to the elementary school kids here on why trash is bad and what ways we can help clean up Santa Cruz. Then at the end of the presentation we give each student 3 large 1.5L bottles and tell them to fill them up with inorganic trash until the bottle is COMPLETELY full. Then they can return the bottles to us in return for a pair of colorful crocs! The kids love the shoes so they´re very motivated to participate in this. We then take the bottles and use them in construction projects to make walls and things of the sort as a sort of eco-construction project. It´s pretty neat stuff and I´ll keep you all posted if we have any more developments on the things we´re building and participation and such.
The other project that other students are working on is the nutrition project. Malnutrition is a big problem here in Santa Cruz and its even more so for the mothers of recently born children or even those that are pregnant and about to deliver. We always see babies that are way under the curve as far as weight and length are concerned and so in order to improve this situation some of the students have started a nutrition class for these mothers. Shannon, Pai, Nick and Kristen are the ones that are working on this and I´ll let them explain it more in detail but the jist of it is that these guys are making recipes and teaching a cooking class every week for these ladies so that they can get an idea of what is good to feed their babies and to make sure they are getting enough calories to grow. It´s a very involved project and I don´t know half the details that they do but I´m sure they´ll be glad to tell you all.
Okay - so there, I proved that we don´t just roam around all day playing games haha. It´s pretty cool working up here and it´s kind of a bummer that the summer is coming to an end and for most of us this is our last weekend up here. But we´ll make the most of our time up here and hopefully make a good impact on the community before we leave. That´s it for now - I´ll write back in a few about our awesome adventures in El Salvador and this past weekend.
Hasta Luego!
Neil
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Hey Nino!...Dimo el Billo
Hola amigos! Time for another update for the students of Mayan Medical Aid from this past weekend. The pictures are all uploaded and posted on the Picasa site so you can look through them and ogle them in envy. Sooo here we go:
Friday, June 13:
So some of us decided to take this day off from clinic because for the first time in a longgg time - it was a GORGEOUS day. Kristen, Christina, Shannon, Kina and I all headed out to Casa Del Mundo which is basically this beautiful isolated swimming hole at the lake. The water was a lil cold...the soldiers had to retreat for a bit if you get my drift...but it was actually really nice. We got some awesome pictures with Kristen's underwater camara so you guys can see. Then Shannon and Christina stayed behind while Kristen, Kina and I hiked 2 hours to San Marcos. Two hours included stopping for pictures b/c we seemed to come upon a Kodak sight every 50 meters. San Marcos is just a little town on the lake that is more resort-like and it was just nice to walk around and see it. After that we picked up Shannon and Christina and met up with the rest of the estudiantes to head out to Antigua! Laurie and Jeremy also joined us to begin their journey back home. If you haven't read about it - read the post below.
We arrived in Antigua at about 6pm and met up with a new student named Megan (she's Canadian eh and goes to school w/ Kina). The first thing we did (surprise surprise) is go eat at Panza Verde. It was basically this really elegant, fancy restaurant that cost us each $25-30 a head...but totally worth it. The food was excellent, the music soothing and the company was even better. After dinner, we met up with Kina's new friend Fernando who's a local from Guatemala City. He took us out to a local bar where there were a bunch of people dancing to anything from salsa to electronica. We attempted to have a couple of drinks there but it was quite crowded and so we ended up leaving there not too long after we got there. Then we went to another salsa/meringue bar where we danced the night away and finally ended up at Reilly's the Irish bar for a couple more drinks before calling it a night and passing out in our BEAUTIFUL hotel. Quite a welcome change from the mosquitoes and scorpions of Casa Rosa.
Saturday, June 14th:
So the gang woke up early (all except Mitch who had to run) to get to the coffee plantation tour we had scheduled at 9:30. The tour included a presentation on the Mayan instruments that are used in villages and towns today and it was really cool to see everything they used to make music. What was even better was the Kindengarten teacher who spoke Spanish to us in the slowest way possible. Very awesome for understanding. Then we had the coffee tour itself and learned a lot of cool things about coffee (one plant only makes one pound of coffee or 40 cups!). Then we got to sample coffee and it was pretty much the best coffee I've had in my life (3rd best quality in the world according to the guide). After the tour we all came back to Antigua where we had lunch at this local place that was recommended in Pai's guidebook. Well - the food was delicious but those corn tortillas didn't sit well with me and I wasn't feeling so hot the rest of the day. But after lunch, we all kind of split up and were being tourists in Antigua. Some of us shopped (and bought 2000Q hammocks), others went to practice conversational Spanish and then the rest of us pretended to be Asians and took pictures of every church we could find in Antigua (That'd be me). Then we all had dinner at another fancy restaurant called El Sereno where Fernando and another new student (Liam - from NYC, Osteopathic Medicine) joined us. Very fancy restaurant, awesome sunset view and even a proposal room with rose petals and candles all around the table...put it on your list those of you that are close to gettin married..it'd be real baller. After dinner we all came back to the hotel to have AMAZING cake that we bought in the market and then passed out because we had another busy day the next day...
Sunday, June 15th:
So at 6 in the morning everybody except for Christina and Lisa woke up to head out to the Pacaya Volcano near Antigua. We got there and were immediately hounded by kids trying to sell us walking sticks and horse rides to the summit. After all that, we began the 1.5 hour hike up to the volcano itself and when we got up there it was absolutely amazing. You could still see lava coming out of the crater every once in a while and our group walked over the volcanic rock to a lava flow which was awesome. It was really hot, lots of phosphorous and sulfur, but we got to roast marshmallows and they tasted delicious =) So after the volcano we all came back to Antigua, spent the last 2 hours shopping, hittin up the bank and eating (we ate at this place called Pollo Campero which is the Guatemalan equivalent of KFC) and then we hopped back on the shuttle to Lake Atitlan. Sunday night we were all pretty much tired but we still welcomed the last student to join us this week - Nick, from the University of Wisconsin.
Okay so that was believe it or not the short version of it all but I got it all in there. If you don't understand the joke in the title it's cuz Chris called a small kid in Central Park "Hey Nino" so he could give him the rest of his disgusting brownie. The "Dime El Billo" part comes from Shannon's attempt to ask for the bill at El Sereno on Saturday night. Classic...even though my Spanish teacher probably is writhing in pain from reading it haha. Okay - that's all for now, till next time!
ESTAMOS TERMINADOS!
Neil
Friday, June 13:
So some of us decided to take this day off from clinic because for the first time in a longgg time - it was a GORGEOUS day. Kristen, Christina, Shannon, Kina and I all headed out to Casa Del Mundo which is basically this beautiful isolated swimming hole at the lake. The water was a lil cold...the soldiers had to retreat for a bit if you get my drift...but it was actually really nice. We got some awesome pictures with Kristen's underwater camara so you guys can see. Then Shannon and Christina stayed behind while Kristen, Kina and I hiked 2 hours to San Marcos. Two hours included stopping for pictures b/c we seemed to come upon a Kodak sight every 50 meters. San Marcos is just a little town on the lake that is more resort-like and it was just nice to walk around and see it. After that we picked up Shannon and Christina and met up with the rest of the estudiantes to head out to Antigua! Laurie and Jeremy also joined us to begin their journey back home. If you haven't read about it - read the post below.
We arrived in Antigua at about 6pm and met up with a new student named Megan (she's Canadian eh and goes to school w/ Kina). The first thing we did (surprise surprise) is go eat at Panza Verde. It was basically this really elegant, fancy restaurant that cost us each $25-30 a head...but totally worth it. The food was excellent, the music soothing and the company was even better. After dinner, we met up with Kina's new friend Fernando who's a local from Guatemala City. He took us out to a local bar where there were a bunch of people dancing to anything from salsa to electronica. We attempted to have a couple of drinks there but it was quite crowded and so we ended up leaving there not too long after we got there. Then we went to another salsa/meringue bar where we danced the night away and finally ended up at Reilly's the Irish bar for a couple more drinks before calling it a night and passing out in our BEAUTIFUL hotel. Quite a welcome change from the mosquitoes and scorpions of Casa Rosa.
Saturday, June 14th:
So the gang woke up early (all except Mitch who had to run) to get to the coffee plantation tour we had scheduled at 9:30. The tour included a presentation on the Mayan instruments that are used in villages and towns today and it was really cool to see everything they used to make music. What was even better was the Kindengarten teacher who spoke Spanish to us in the slowest way possible. Very awesome for understanding. Then we had the coffee tour itself and learned a lot of cool things about coffee (one plant only makes one pound of coffee or 40 cups!). Then we got to sample coffee and it was pretty much the best coffee I've had in my life (3rd best quality in the world according to the guide). After the tour we all came back to Antigua where we had lunch at this local place that was recommended in Pai's guidebook. Well - the food was delicious but those corn tortillas didn't sit well with me and I wasn't feeling so hot the rest of the day. But after lunch, we all kind of split up and were being tourists in Antigua. Some of us shopped (and bought 2000Q hammocks), others went to practice conversational Spanish and then the rest of us pretended to be Asians and took pictures of every church we could find in Antigua (That'd be me). Then we all had dinner at another fancy restaurant called El Sereno where Fernando and another new student (Liam - from NYC, Osteopathic Medicine) joined us. Very fancy restaurant, awesome sunset view and even a proposal room with rose petals and candles all around the table...put it on your list those of you that are close to gettin married..it'd be real baller. After dinner we all came back to the hotel to have AMAZING cake that we bought in the market and then passed out because we had another busy day the next day...
Sunday, June 15th:
So at 6 in the morning everybody except for Christina and Lisa woke up to head out to the Pacaya Volcano near Antigua. We got there and were immediately hounded by kids trying to sell us walking sticks and horse rides to the summit. After all that, we began the 1.5 hour hike up to the volcano itself and when we got up there it was absolutely amazing. You could still see lava coming out of the crater every once in a while and our group walked over the volcanic rock to a lava flow which was awesome. It was really hot, lots of phosphorous and sulfur, but we got to roast marshmallows and they tasted delicious =) So after the volcano we all came back to Antigua, spent the last 2 hours shopping, hittin up the bank and eating (we ate at this place called Pollo Campero which is the Guatemalan equivalent of KFC) and then we hopped back on the shuttle to Lake Atitlan. Sunday night we were all pretty much tired but we still welcomed the last student to join us this week - Nick, from the University of Wisconsin.
Okay so that was believe it or not the short version of it all but I got it all in there. If you don't understand the joke in the title it's cuz Chris called a small kid in Central Park "Hey Nino" so he could give him the rest of his disgusting brownie. The "Dime El Billo" part comes from Shannon's attempt to ask for the bill at El Sereno on Saturday night. Classic...even though my Spanish teacher probably is writhing in pain from reading it haha. Okay - that's all for now, till next time!
ESTAMOS TERMINADOS!
Neil
Monday, June 16, 2008
... and a broken neck
So, good news is that we're home. Jeremy made it through the three hours of twisting roads and loud medical students, through 8 hours of plane flights, and through two seperate 7 hour trips to the ER. We're finally home. Thanks for everyone's help, thoughts, and prayers. My parents are also here helping us navigate the ER visits, picking up prescriptions, and doing other wonderful parent things.
We got into Chapel Hill at 6:15 on Saturday and went to the ER.... where we stayed until 5 am. Jeremy got some CTs done. They showed a fracture in the spinous process of C7 (cervical vertebra 7)... yup, a broken neck. We stayed around to wait for neurosurgery to finish what they were doing (probably save someone's life), and Jeremy wore a cervical collar until they could take some more x-rays and ensure that it was stable.... which it is. They then sent us home. During the CT, he also began having a new pain in the right side of his head.
Jeremy and I slept until 2 pm, and he awoke with a terrible pain in the right side of his head and swelling. It was his worst pain yet, so we brought him back into the ER around 3:30. They took some more CT scans, and the doctor thought that there may be an infection so they gave him some augmentin. We left around 11.
We're going to be back tomorrow for a wound recheck and Tuesday to get his stitches out.
So it looks like Jeremy's count is:
- fractured C7 vertebrae
- 20 stitches in about a 6" arc in the top of his scalp
- 2 stitches in the back of his head
- 1 stitch above his eyebrow
- possible infected scalp stitches
- 1 nasty arm wound that should have been stitched up
However, he did fall 40 feet and hike for 3 hours with a broken neck... thank God it was stable and I still have a husband.
We got into Chapel Hill at 6:15 on Saturday and went to the ER.... where we stayed until 5 am. Jeremy got some CTs done. They showed a fracture in the spinous process of C7 (cervical vertebra 7)... yup, a broken neck. We stayed around to wait for neurosurgery to finish what they were doing (probably save someone's life), and Jeremy wore a cervical collar until they could take some more x-rays and ensure that it was stable.... which it is. They then sent us home. During the CT, he also began having a new pain in the right side of his head.
Jeremy and I slept until 2 pm, and he awoke with a terrible pain in the right side of his head and swelling. It was his worst pain yet, so we brought him back into the ER around 3:30. They took some more CT scans, and the doctor thought that there may be an infection so they gave him some augmentin. We left around 11.
We're going to be back tomorrow for a wound recheck and Tuesday to get his stitches out.
So it looks like Jeremy's count is:
- fractured C7 vertebrae
- 20 stitches in about a 6" arc in the top of his scalp
- 2 stitches in the back of his head
- 1 stitch above his eyebrow
- possible infected scalp stitches
- 1 nasty arm wound that should have been stitched up
However, he did fall 40 feet and hike for 3 hours with a broken neck... thank God it was stable and I still have a husband.
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