Busiest week yet! 9 hour volunteer days

This week we got an email that there would be another medical campaign like the one that we did the first week so we of course jumped at the opportunity to help out, but we also still had to help around our clinic, so in the mornings from 8-1 we would do the campaign and then in the afternoon from 1-5 we worked in our clinic. we have been exhausted but its been completely worth it. The first day we saw 120 patients in the morning alone, and we did abdominal checkups. Ash and I caught a few causes of digestive parasites that cause kids stomachs to look bloated because the parasites thins the intestinal walls allow water to flow out of the intestines and collect in the abdominal area. A woman also came through and had pain in her super pelvic area so I asked her if she has been have problems urinating and from my experience at the clinic I was able to inform her that her anti contraceptive injection was causing these problems and because of it she had developed a vaginal infection. The next day we took respiratory rate, temperature, and heart rate and man did that get interesting. One of the first kids to come through though the thermometer was a vaccination so he started screaming and crying and once one kid cries it becomes a ripple affect. For the next 2 hours every single darn kid that came to us saw the other kids crying so they started to cry. Michelle and Robby we now feel your pain. That was brutal! Luckily the next day was a lot more interesting.

Thursday we met at 7 am and hopped on a bus for 2 hours to a small town called Urubamba where we did checkups for people that haven't been able to see a doctor in years. Ashlee and I did Blood Pressure and a few head checkups. We spotted tons of cases of Infected tonsils, and inflamed lymph nodes, and I had one man come through who was hit in the head with a rocked and his frontal bone was dented, he had a lazy eye because of it, and he was loosing vision in his left eye. We checked for nerve damage and luckily he didn't have any, but sadly there was nothing we could do for him cause he needed to see a surgeon. I also caught a few kids with lice. We didn't see quite as many patients this day but it was still amazing to be able to help these people. The last day we went to a school close by our clinic in Independencia and Ashlee did extremity check ups with I did check ups on the lungs and heart. The first kid that came through, I was listening to his heart, not expecting to hear anything abnormal. Lub-Dub are the korotkoff sounds that you should hear; anything else is abnormal, but when I was listen I heard Lub Dub Lub Dub Lub Lub dub... a double contraction. I showed the doctor and she said it wasn't normal but (this was what I at least understood from her spanish) that some kids hearts contract twice when they are young because their is a problem between their two ventricles and that there wasn't anything that we could do. Ill have to do some more research on it. Luckily we didn't find anymore heart problems that day, but periodically I did catch a case of bronchitis, and my parter caught a case of Pneumonia. One of the last kids that we checked and  a heavy wheeze which is a sign of bronchitis, but also had a raspy sound. When I showed the doctor she diagnosed the boy with a parasite that causes problems all throughout the body, and that being one of them. The woman that brought him told me that his family lives in a house with dirt floors which is really bad because dirt floors are a breeding ground for bacteria. This was our last day of the campaign and conveniently the first day of the olympics so we went and relaxed and watched the olympics after. Every other day we had been spending the afternoons in the clinic because they were understaffed and needed us but we gave ourselves a break because we were absolutely exhausted. This week was definitely the most rewarding week of the trip and we learned so much. I wish that everyone studying pre medicine could have this experience.