Moses Brown Dominican Republic Service Trip 2010

Chris and Rebecca: 3/25

Today, we went to our fourth batey called La Jina. I did the scribe job while Rebecca took the patient's blood pressure. The scribe job entails me to write the symptoms the patient is feeling, the diagnosis from the doctor, and finally, the prescriptions that the doctor then gives to the suffering patient. Throughout the day, there were two stories that really caught my attention and will stay with me for a long time. The first story contains a 22 year-old man with scars up and down his arms. These scars tell different stories about the hard times in the sugar cane fields and the machete incidents that understandably come with them. This time, however, there was an open wound on the man's upper left palm. It was about 1 centimeter deep and was extremely infected. The accident occurred 15 days ago and, if the treatment was delayed any longer, the hand would have had to be amputated. The second story was about a 53 year old man who we diagnosed with congestive heart failure. His legs were extremely swollen and filled with fluid so when you touched them or squeezed them, the imprint that you made remains there for a few seconds. This was a very hard sight to see as he had two little children that he had to look after. We gave him a diarrhetic to make him urinate more in hopes of having some of this fluid to leave his legs. Both of these stories were very difficult to hear as they truly touched me.

It's Rebecca now. Today, I took blood pressure. At first, I was worried it would be a little repetitive, but once I got into the rhythm it was fun. Blood pressure is the first thing that patients experience when we visit the bateys. So, I got to make the first impression. It is the greatest feeling in the world to give a patient a big smile and watch them immediately relax. I got to chat with people about there names (there were a lot of Luisa's) and adorable children. Once the hard work was done, Chris and I went out to play with the kids. When we first got out there about six kids asked us if we were married and how many children we had. After answering those questions, amused, we played baseball and raced the kids. Hanging out with them in the bateys is my favorite, because, I love the simplicity of their fun. Back home, we need a PS3 or a flat screen to be amused. In the bateys, running up and down the field and watching Chris loose his hat to the kids is the most fun I've had in a while. Back to Chris.

Tonight we went to the resort, Casa de Campo, for dinner. The resort was beautiful as it was right by the water and had gorgeous scenery all around. We took many pictures throughout the resort of both us and the scenery before we finally reached the restaurant for dinner. The food at the resort was exquisite and the conversations around the dinner table were hilarious. The food that we had tonight was such a good change to the normal food we have been having this trip and that alone brought smiles upon all of our faces. Soon after dinner, a few of us lied on the outside couches and gazed upon the stars looking for the various constellations. All in all, the day was a very joyful day and tomorrow will be a truly bittersweet ending to this incredible trip.