sun, sand, horses, and tunnel vision???
Hello again.
I must say that last week was rather uneventful. So instead of trying to come up with something to say about every single day, I'm going to focus on this past weekend, our trip to the Pacific, and some exciting events from this most recent week.
We left Friday morning after Breakfast and arrived before lunch. We stayed in this super-ritzy resort called Villa Pacifico. We were on an all-inclusive package, which meant that we got all of our meals, snacks, and access to the nice pool and the beach for free. The 12 girls shared 2 suites, each with two bedrooms, a living room, and two bathrooms. Of course, being the short one, I got to sleep on the kids cot in the living room:
It was probably for the better, though, because when I woke up at 6:30 Sunday morning I could watch TV without disturbing anyone else.
Saturday night we got to watch the sunset over the beach. It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing ever. We also had some fun taking pictures on the beach.
All of the Pacific beaches here in Guatemala are black sand, made of mostly volcanic rocks and ash. Swimming in the ocean here is a little dangerous, but of course we did it anyway, and fortunately, no one got caught in the rip tide.
Sunday, Meg and I rode horses for a half and hour on the beach. The horse was incredibly tame, which was good, since it was my first time actually riding a horse (I don’t count the ones that walk in circles at the state fair). The only really scary part was when he decided he wanted to start running, and I was like “aaahhhh, I’m going to die!” but of course I didn’t.
We stayed until 4:00 on Sunday, swimming and tanning, and we got back to Antigua in time for dinner at Burger King. It was quite the weekend.
Sunday on the way home we stopped at a street market and I bought a really good ready-to-eat and drink coconut. But I couldn’t finish it all on Sunday, so I saved some of it for Monday. Bad idea. Monday night I started to feel really sick. I threw up all of my dinner. All day Tuesday I stayed in bed feeling really nauseous and weak, but Wednesday I was all better. Or so I thought. Wednesday afternoon we went to the clinic like we do every Wednesday and Friday, and for the first time we actually got to be with patients. I went with the dentist to observe a tooth extraction. The patient was this little boy whose tooth had broken off but the root was still in, so the dentist had to pull the root out. After he was all numbed-up and the dentist pulled out the tooth, he had me put gloves on and squeeze his gums with gauze to stop the bleeding. Fun, right? Well normally, yes, but with the fact that I had been sick the day before and hadn’t eaten much, and the fact that there was blood and the whole situation was just really unusual, I started to not feel so well. At first I was afraid I was going to throw up again. Then I started having tunnel vision and wobbling. At this point the dentist (who had had his back turned) turned around and told me to sit down. The next thing I knew I was sitting in a chair and feeling better. But then I saw Dr. Mira, who definitely hadn’t been in the room before, standing over me looking concerned. And there were some other people who hadn’t been there before. I was very confused for a second. Then I noticed that the fan was on, and I remembered that it hadn’t been on before. Oh crap, I thought; I fainted. And they were asking me if I could walk and guiding me into the other room and the whole time I was very confused, and worried about the little boy (how would you feel if the nurse taking care of you fainted?) and trying to explain in Spanish that no, I’m not afraid of blood and I’m fine trying to ask what happened and then Mira wanted to take my blood pressure and I just felt really, really, really stupid. Hannah and Crista, two of the other girls from our team, were there too, and they were telling me how some nurse came running down the stairs to get the doctor and everyone was all worried. I finally got to talk to the dentist and found out that the little boy was fine, hadn’t gotten scared or anything, and had even been trying to help revive me. So all in all it was a very exciting first clinical experience.
On a somewhat-related note, I got my e-mail from the nursing department, and as long as I complete physiology this summer I’m in the nursing program….yay! Of course if they find out that I fainted after watching a simple tooth extraction…
So that’s all for now. I’m going to go hydrate myself. I probably won’t have enough new information for another post on Sunday, but expect something early next week.
Paz,
Tanya
I must say that last week was rather uneventful. So instead of trying to come up with something to say about every single day, I'm going to focus on this past weekend, our trip to the Pacific, and some exciting events from this most recent week.
We left Friday morning after Breakfast and arrived before lunch. We stayed in this super-ritzy resort called Villa Pacifico. We were on an all-inclusive package, which meant that we got all of our meals, snacks, and access to the nice pool and the beach for free. The 12 girls shared 2 suites, each with two bedrooms, a living room, and two bathrooms. Of course, being the short one, I got to sleep on the kids cot in the living room:
It was probably for the better, though, because when I woke up at 6:30 Sunday morning I could watch TV without disturbing anyone else.
Saturday night we got to watch the sunset over the beach. It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing ever. We also had some fun taking pictures on the beach.
All of the Pacific beaches here in Guatemala are black sand, made of mostly volcanic rocks and ash. Swimming in the ocean here is a little dangerous, but of course we did it anyway, and fortunately, no one got caught in the rip tide.
Sunday, Meg and I rode horses for a half and hour on the beach. The horse was incredibly tame, which was good, since it was my first time actually riding a horse (I don’t count the ones that walk in circles at the state fair). The only really scary part was when he decided he wanted to start running, and I was like “aaahhhh, I’m going to die!” but of course I didn’t.
We stayed until 4:00 on Sunday, swimming and tanning, and we got back to Antigua in time for dinner at Burger King. It was quite the weekend.
Sunday on the way home we stopped at a street market and I bought a really good ready-to-eat and drink coconut. But I couldn’t finish it all on Sunday, so I saved some of it for Monday. Bad idea. Monday night I started to feel really sick. I threw up all of my dinner. All day Tuesday I stayed in bed feeling really nauseous and weak, but Wednesday I was all better. Or so I thought. Wednesday afternoon we went to the clinic like we do every Wednesday and Friday, and for the first time we actually got to be with patients. I went with the dentist to observe a tooth extraction. The patient was this little boy whose tooth had broken off but the root was still in, so the dentist had to pull the root out. After he was all numbed-up and the dentist pulled out the tooth, he had me put gloves on and squeeze his gums with gauze to stop the bleeding. Fun, right? Well normally, yes, but with the fact that I had been sick the day before and hadn’t eaten much, and the fact that there was blood and the whole situation was just really unusual, I started to not feel so well. At first I was afraid I was going to throw up again. Then I started having tunnel vision and wobbling. At this point the dentist (who had had his back turned) turned around and told me to sit down. The next thing I knew I was sitting in a chair and feeling better. But then I saw Dr. Mira, who definitely hadn’t been in the room before, standing over me looking concerned. And there were some other people who hadn’t been there before. I was very confused for a second. Then I noticed that the fan was on, and I remembered that it hadn’t been on before. Oh crap, I thought; I fainted. And they were asking me if I could walk and guiding me into the other room and the whole time I was very confused, and worried about the little boy (how would you feel if the nurse taking care of you fainted?) and trying to explain in Spanish that no, I’m not afraid of blood and I’m fine trying to ask what happened and then Mira wanted to take my blood pressure and I just felt really, really, really stupid. Hannah and Crista, two of the other girls from our team, were there too, and they were telling me how some nurse came running down the stairs to get the doctor and everyone was all worried. I finally got to talk to the dentist and found out that the little boy was fine, hadn’t gotten scared or anything, and had even been trying to help revive me. So all in all it was a very exciting first clinical experience.
On a somewhat-related note, I got my e-mail from the nursing department, and as long as I complete physiology this summer I’m in the nursing program….yay! Of course if they find out that I fainted after watching a simple tooth extraction…
So that’s all for now. I’m going to go hydrate myself. I probably won’t have enough new information for another post on Sunday, but expect something early next week.
Paz,
Tanya