In our tropical diseases class yesterday afternoon, the doctor that teaches our class started out by teaching us how to make the general assessments of the patient. They take the personal information first, and then ask about the family history and their personal health history. After that they ask the reason for their visit and the specific details of their symptoms. We learned how they go in order for the general exam starting from the top of the head to the neck and the face their eyes, and ears. Also, the specific places they listen to when the patient breathes on their stomach and back which could signify certain things or lead to a proper diagnosis without having to more than what is necessary. One interesting thing was when they examine the pupils depending on what color the eyes are could signal a potential tumor or in babies if the color is a whitish color it could signify I think i if I can remember correctly she said a congenital birth defect. It was pretty interesting but very slow. Then she had two volunteers to pretend to be the doctor and the other the patient. The last part of the class we discussed different types of tuberculosis. I feel bad sometimes for our teacher because she’s really nice and the whole class is in English which I commend her for, but sometimes the students are not patient with her because she doesn’t speak very loud. I hope one day that I can be as fluent as her with my Spanish. We went to a new bar last night called Al Saltans, which was a hooka bar too. Of course we get there and I forget my ID, but he just asked me my birthday year and he was like ok. It was mostly a bar for the locals. They had this guy start rapping a song in Spanish who knew who he was. He appeared to be a local trying to make it big in music. It was interesting to watch but we were all like ok enough of the locals. We didn’t stay out long and right after we left we were told that they had a dance off and a man with torches doing tricks. It was not my favorite place so far but it was interesting to go to a new place. Today in our morning class we were obviously way ahead with the lessons so we talked about different types of plants that could be used for medicinal purposes. This is what our next presentation is on Friday. We get to work with a partner. Kacey and I received the topic of marijuana for medicinal purposes. We have to prepare a 5 minute presentation that discusses the uses, advantages, disadvantages for the uses and give recommendations for good uses for it. It will definitely be interesting. We are going to have Emma bake us brownies for the class on Friday (without weed) in them as a little joke for our professor considering he brought that up today when we talked about it. We also had to write the summary of one of our favorite Disney movies and tell the class to practice our uses of the preterite and imperfect tenses. I chose Beauty and the Beast.
We’ve covered so many things in the past 2 and half weeks of class. For example, we have learned how to interact with Spanish speaking patients, interview them take vital signs, describe symptoms of sicknesses, investigate the symptoms presented by the patient, ask about how the illness started, describing the illness, ask about family medical history, perform a physical examination, order lab exams analyze the exams from the lab with the patient, diagnosis the patient, prescribe medications, give recommendations and suggestions, prepared a talk to give to young children about first aid skills and how to interact with the patient in a hospital situation. When I stop to think about it all, it’s kind of overwhelming considering how much we have done and haven’t finished yet. The time here is going by so fast that it’s hard to believe it is almost over, well about half way done. Alice, Ashley, and I decided to head to the mall known as the Multi Plaza on the other side of San Jose. This side was much more modern and much cleaner looking and nicer all around. The mall seemed to be relatively new and we were somewhat in aw about how much we felt like we were back home. We found this grocery store called alto mercardo and we were really excited because for the first time we found a grocery store that was as close to an American grocery store as one Spanish speaking country could possibly get. Well, I wanted to see if they had any wine that I could at least recognize to take with me for this weekend. We were in for a surprise because we turned the corner and there it was like a shiny new must have sports car on display with the yellow spot lights on it was a whole aisle of nothing but great wine, champagne, liquor and beer. We were like kids in a candy store. I think I was more excited to find good ol Jim Beam and pino grigio today than when I turned 21. We were in heaven and couldn’t contain ourselves. I’m sure that the employees watching us thought we were annoying stupid Americans but to be honest I really didn’t care. The imperial beer which is the beer of Costa Rica is just not doing it for me anymore. I cannot wait to have a really good steak and a glass of cabernet and a great homemade salad. Not having ranch dressing on hand has been very difficult to cope with. Tonight as I was getting ready for bed and writing this blog I heard this strange little noise over by my bedroom door. What I feared the most was trying to crawl around my room. A huge cockroach that was bigger than the huge palmetto bugs that we have in South Carolina. He had the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a cockroach. I threw my shoe at it and went to the kitchen calling Emma’s name to tell her about my new roommate. She brought spray and kicked it out of my room into the hall and then swept it away. I shouldn’t be surprised to find bugs in the house because they don’t have air conditioning. There really isn’t a need for one because it doesn’t get too hot so they just leave windows open. I am tired of having flies around us at the table pretty much every meal though. It’s getting pretty old. I am just not a fan of insects especially in the house. I cant complain though because our laundry has come back to us the exact same day that it is washed all of it pressed and folded neatly on our beds. I am very surprised that Emma has a dryer. I have come to the conclusion that Emma and her family must be doing pretty well since they all have a masters or PHD in their field of study. Her stove and refrigerator are all new and her house is a very good size. I also think she receives money in the form of a disability check because of her son and her grandchildren have all attended private schools. I also have to say that having every meal prepared for me has been nice. I haven’t had 3 meals cooked for me every day of the week since high school. She really has done a good job as treating us like a part of her family. Up until now, she has always had boy students live with her. I think she is really excited to have us girls, a nice change from what she has been used to. Overall, the week has been a really good week. Hasta pronto….
We’ve covered so many things in the past 2 and half weeks of class. For example, we have learned how to interact with Spanish speaking patients, interview them take vital signs, describe symptoms of sicknesses, investigate the symptoms presented by the patient, ask about how the illness started, describing the illness, ask about family medical history, perform a physical examination, order lab exams analyze the exams from the lab with the patient, diagnosis the patient, prescribe medications, give recommendations and suggestions, prepared a talk to give to young children about first aid skills and how to interact with the patient in a hospital situation. When I stop to think about it all, it’s kind of overwhelming considering how much we have done and haven’t finished yet. The time here is going by so fast that it’s hard to believe it is almost over, well about half way done. Alice, Ashley, and I decided to head to the mall known as the Multi Plaza on the other side of San Jose. This side was much more modern and much cleaner looking and nicer all around. The mall seemed to be relatively new and we were somewhat in aw about how much we felt like we were back home. We found this grocery store called alto mercardo and we were really excited because for the first time we found a grocery store that was as close to an American grocery store as one Spanish speaking country could possibly get. Well, I wanted to see if they had any wine that I could at least recognize to take with me for this weekend. We were in for a surprise because we turned the corner and there it was like a shiny new must have sports car on display with the yellow spot lights on it was a whole aisle of nothing but great wine, champagne, liquor and beer. We were like kids in a candy store. I think I was more excited to find good ol Jim Beam and pino grigio today than when I turned 21. We were in heaven and couldn’t contain ourselves. I’m sure that the employees watching us thought we were annoying stupid Americans but to be honest I really didn’t care. The imperial beer which is the beer of Costa Rica is just not doing it for me anymore. I cannot wait to have a really good steak and a glass of cabernet and a great homemade salad. Not having ranch dressing on hand has been very difficult to cope with. Tonight as I was getting ready for bed and writing this blog I heard this strange little noise over by my bedroom door. What I feared the most was trying to crawl around my room. A huge cockroach that was bigger than the huge palmetto bugs that we have in South Carolina. He had the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a cockroach. I threw my shoe at it and went to the kitchen calling Emma’s name to tell her about my new roommate. She brought spray and kicked it out of my room into the hall and then swept it away. I shouldn’t be surprised to find bugs in the house because they don’t have air conditioning. There really isn’t a need for one because it doesn’t get too hot so they just leave windows open. I am tired of having flies around us at the table pretty much every meal though. It’s getting pretty old. I am just not a fan of insects especially in the house. I cant complain though because our laundry has come back to us the exact same day that it is washed all of it pressed and folded neatly on our beds. I am very surprised that Emma has a dryer. I have come to the conclusion that Emma and her family must be doing pretty well since they all have a masters or PHD in their field of study. Her stove and refrigerator are all new and her house is a very good size. I also think she receives money in the form of a disability check because of her son and her grandchildren have all attended private schools. I also have to say that having every meal prepared for me has been nice. I haven’t had 3 meals cooked for me every day of the week since high school. She really has done a good job as treating us like a part of her family. Up until now, she has always had boy students live with her. I think she is really excited to have us girls, a nice change from what she has been used to. Overall, the week has been a really good week. Hasta pronto….
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