Toma De Biopsia

As Damon Bland once told me, your opening sentence has to grab the reader, so I have come up with this: It was while I was standing two feet away from a tumor biopsy that I realized I was no longer in America. Today was the first day at the clinic, and I “shadowed” a nurse. I wouldn’t much call it shadowing because I gave two intramuscular injections today as well as took patient vitals and entered them into the computer. I surely didn’t expect to be thrown in as such, but luckily I have the wonderful gift of observation. Praise the Lord. It was quite hard to learn from a nurse who speaks no English. For example, it took the longest time for her to explain to me that in intramuscular shots, you want to draw the shot up first to see if you get blood in case you have hit a vessel. Try listening to that in Spanish. I learned a VAST amount of Spanish today, and it was mostly technical terms. I absolutely love the staff at the clinic though. Both the doctors and nurses are very friendly, and all of them tried to communicate with me. There were three or four patients today that spoke English and when they saw the confusion on my face as the nurse spoke Spanish to me, they translated. Praise God for small blessings.

So a summary of all I saw today: removal of stitches, biopsy of a tumor in a man’s lip, ECG El Salvador style, and the cleansing and wrapping of a recurring ulcer on an 82 year old woman’s foot due to poor circulation. She is also diabetic, and did you know you can’t clean the ulcers of a diabetic with soap or iodine. HMMM… I also did a lot of small things like giving shots, asthma treatments, taking vitals, and nebulizer. Tomorrow I expect to be doing tumor biopsies… j/k!! It was crazy though. It was very exciting and sometimes overwhelming. My brain was constantly working trying to translate what people said to me. Yo hablo poquito espanol, y comprehendo menos. Google translate became my best friend.

It was nice to be busy today, and it made me feel more useful and less homesick. I am excited about working in the clinic for the next seis semanas, and I am excited to work with such wonderful people. God has outdone himself with blessings today as there were so many people who showed me kindness. I know my God is always with me, and I praise Him always. My prayer is that I can minister to some of the people I encounter in the clinic, and maybe God will perform a miracle, and I’ll all of a sudden speak and understand espanol!! Ha maybe.

I miss you all, and I love you. Thank you for your prayers and support.

 P.S. If you are sending a letter it takes about 2 weeks to get here… so send it early. J