I’ve been rather neglectful of my blog, but the pace of things really slowed down this week so there wasn’t as much to write about.
Sunday was a delightfully slow day full of naps in hammocks, tanning by the pool, and some quality book time. It was also the day of the world cup final, so we set up the projector and watched it together where we usually have lectures. By dinner time we felt rested enough to venture outside the hotel and headed downtown for dinner at a place called Pizza Hot… yea it was absolutely a rip off of Pizza Hutt, but the food was good and it was nice to have something comfort food.
Monday was another slow day. We spent all day out by the pool again, went downtown to the market, and had a lecture in the evening. The market we went to was a smaller one, but by far one of my favorites. It’s set up basically like a covered strip mall, three sides are occupied by artisan stalls, and the middle has a small snack bar and places to sit. We’ve been there before, but I never get tired of walking through it because new things appear all the time. I’m also fond of the numerous cats and puppies roaming around. What could be better than shopping while holding adorable animals?! That evening’s lecture was done by Vance Gheller on the use of ritual in both folk and western medicine. He is a photographer who has travelled all over the Americas to observe healers at work. It was an interesting lecture in that he used comparative photography to show the similarities between western and traditional healing. His major conclusion from all his research is that the most important factor in effective treatment regimens is belief by the patient that it will work (that is where ritual comes in). Doctors from all different cultures have developed treatment rituals and follow them because their patients believe in their effectiveness. He has done/read several studies showing that upwards of 60% of all medicine has nothing to do with treatments or medicine, and everything to do with positive outlooks and the placebo effect. I haven’t decided if I find this data discouraging or not… On one hand, it suggests that my drug knowledge is completely useless because it doesn’t work 60% of the time anyways, but on the other hand, it gives me an important position as a medical professional in that I am a vital part of convincing patients that their treatments are effective.
Tuesday and Wednesday were bad days for everyone. It was ridiculously hot out, and we had just essentially had two days off so we didn’t feel like doing anything. The icing on the cake was that both days were chocked full of lectures… Lecture days are good when we’re awake, but horrible when we don’t want to do anything. All of our energy goes into staying awake and we don’t really retain anything. Also, half of the lectures were done in Spanish and translated for us; this makes them very long and tedious. On Wednesday we had a lecture in the morning, the afternoon off, and two more in the evening. During our afternoon break, a bunch of us girls wanted to do a workout before going to jump in the pool. We laid towels out on the floor and spent a good half hour doing core, butt, and legs. When we finished, Natalie, Amanda, and I laid on the floor while Sharin stood up to stretch. She bent over, as if to touch her toes, and then stood up to and reached toward the ceiling…. The last thing I saw was her stretching up out of the corner of my eye, and then I heard a WHACK!, and Natalie screamed. Amanda and I looked over to see Sharin flat on the floor, eyes open and glazed over. Natalie got Sharin to come to while I ran to get water and Amanda went to get Frank. We moved her into a sitting position and were shocked to see a rather large pool of blood on the floor where her head had just been. I grabbed one of the towels to put on her wound, and we made Sharin start talking to check her cognitive function. Frank arrived, evaluated her, and thankfully everything seemed to be fine. It seems that she was dehydrated and stood up to quickly which caused her to faint, so besides the rather LARGE cut on her scalp, she was fine. She ended up needing stitches (which involved shaving her head where the cut was… thankfully Sharin is really easy going) and now has to wear a gauze headband for the next few weeks. (again, thankfully Sharin can laugh at herself.?
Frank’s response to all of this was… “ My god guys, I try and make it so you have to do as little as possible here, and what do you go and do? Workout! Why can’t you be lazy like the rest of us?!”
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