Day 11: Yo Aprendo Mucho

Today I thought about just how much I am learning while I'm in Ecuador. In the clinics I am learning so much about patient care even though I cannot always understand what the doctors are saying. Not fully knowing the language forces me to use my other skills to learn about the patient. For example I can look at a patient to see how sick they really are. Noticing how they communicate with the doctors tells me if they have a neurological disorder or not. Seeing their general disposition tells me if the patient is severely ill or if they just have a health issue that needs to be fixed.

Today I shadowed in a different hospital than last week. This hospital seems to be more advanced. It has computers, elevators, real hospital beds instead of just iron frames, televisions in the rooms, and hand sanitizer dispensers. Today was really great for me because the doctor I was shadowing took time to explain things to me. For instance he told me all about a patient who had a stroke and as a result can not speak. This patient also has chronic bronchitis and pneumonia. He showed me the x-rays and ct scans of the man's lungs, thorax, and brain and pointed out to me the abnormalities on each one. He even reviewed with me how to read an EKG and recognize abnormalities. We also went over the blood gases in his lab work and talked about why the patient's blood pH was low. He explained the man's condition when he first came to the hospital and how he had improved due to treatment with antibiotics.  This was all in Spanish by the way...and it felt so good to meet the challenge of learning medicine in another language.

I also learn a lot in my Spanish class in the evenings. The best part is that when I learn a new word or grammar rule in class I almost always have to use it at home or in the hospital or in the store or in the taxi. Today I learned Spanish adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. I think these words are just what I need to help me improve my formation of sentences. We also reviewed numbers, colors, dates, days, and months. Part of me wishes I could stay longer, because I know eventually I would become fluent...but the bigger part of me says "I'm really glad I'm going home soon. I miss it!"

Hasta Manana!