If I had a hundred dollars...

 

So a few posts ago I mentioned the small school that has opened in our hospital that was created to help children continue their education while hospitalized. Unfortunately, they are under funded and the teacher was easily able to give me a list of things that they could use.

 

Enter an anonymous friend and colleague of my mom's who generously donated $100 for me to buy art and school supplies for the children. Let me tell you... $100 goes a LONG way here.

 

How long?

1.  4 boxes of Legos
2. 3 story books
3. 20 boxes of crayons
4. 5 boxes of jumbo crayons
5. 12 coloring books
6. 10 word match games
7. 4 abicuses
8. 5 water color sets
9. 4 paint brush sets
10. 2 stencil kits with letters and shapes
11. 10 packages of modeling clay
12. 9 boxes of colored pencils
13. 3 reading/writing books for basic reading skills

 

 I am beyond grateful for this amazing contribution and cannot wait to get it to the hospital tomorrow!!!

If you give a kid an iPod...

He´s going to take some pictures. This is my amazingly wonderful patient who is admitted for IV antiviral medications to treat CMV - a viral infection that is common for most of us but hard for this guy because he has HIV. This infection has left him mostly deaf but we´ve been having a lot of fun anyway.

This week I`ve been teaching him to play solitaire and we´ve spent quite a lot of time on coloring books. Needless to say, the ID service has been a bit slow this week.

What has been amazing to me was how fast my patient picked up on the iPod after NEVER having seen one. It´s the total opposite of the toddlers we see in the US who are trying to swipe books to get them to act like iPads. It`s nice to see what kids are like without the technology distractions and I am giving him no more than 1 hour of `screen time`per day.

Today he has been making jewelry with his great aunt and I am the proud owner of some awesome earrings that I will never take off. 

Desfile

Not sure why but there was a huge parade outside of our door this morning. Nice way to wake up on a Sunday. We're off to breakfast down the street and then back to the beach for some serious relaxation

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Gracias

Weekend Travels and more

This is a bit delayed but my computer is still out of service. This means, however, I've been doing a lot more real things like reading books, writing postcards and traveling!

Last weekend we went to Matagalpa where a lot of the coffee plantations are. The trip was great and so was the weather... 75 degrees never felt so good. We went to the Selva Negra plantation on Saturday and took a great tour of the plantation and learned oh so much about the coffee industry. For those of you in Durham, Joe Van Gogh sells coffee from this plantation so you can buy some and think of me until I get home. We spent a lot of time at coffee shops throughout the weekend resting and getting over caffeinated while looking at the gorgeous mountain views.

The trip back was a little less pleasant and involved getting wrong bus times from our hostel, taking a bus that required a "transfer" (which means stand on the side of the highway and wait for another bus), and then a man vomiting on the floor of our refurbished school bus. Sigh. Despite all this we had a wonderful time and it was great to see another (cooler) part of the country.

This week has been pretty low key thanks to some major holidays. Tuesday was the Griteria Pequena, which celebrates the Virgin Mary for saving Leon from a volcano about 70 years ago. It's a lot like Halloween and everyone runs around asking "Que causa tanta alegria?" ("What causes such joy?") and then people give you candy. Lots and lots of fun. Today was another free day, which I happily spent at the beach.

Hoping to post more this week.

Coffee!!!!

We are off to the mountains where it is cooler and where they grow coffee. So very excited.

I leave you with the best picture of the kittens.

SCIN

This week I started working in the special care nursery. Most of the babies here are typical late preterm babies who need to feed, grow, and learn to breath a a normal rate. The patient pictured here has transient tachypnea (fast breathing) of the newborn. (Note the jar of thermometers that are the old school mercury kind and are sometimes washed between use)

Just like at Duke, this baby gets a fancy oxygen hood to help him out until he gets the hang of breathing. My attending is great and I´m learning a lot. 

These babies are not premature in any way but are getting extra cute!!!