It's been a while since we've last updated our blog. Computer access is very limited and writing on the blog from either Erica or my iTouch just does not sound appealing. But here we are! We're currently in Zalau after spending 4 great days in Cluj.
The last day in Sighisoara we spent with an elderly club and a couple kids clubs. We played games like Rummikub and card matching games with the elderly club until we gave them a short presentation on exercise, hygiene, and not smoking. We had an elderly man who had been smoking 2 packs a day for the last 60 years that we attempted to give suggestions to about how to quit. He ended up offering his daughter to Ryan hoping that he would accept the marriage proposal so his daughter could come live in the States. He respectfully declined. With the kids' clubs, we again did hygiene, nutrition, exercise, and no smoking presentations. The second club had predominantly girls in it so we did an extra little session about "girl hygiene." We learned some very interesting things about Romanian superstitions. Girls who are on their period are apparently not allowed to go into the Orthodox church nor are they supposed to touch the hair of anyone else (or their hair would fall out!). It was very informative for both us and them.
We arrived in Cluj after a few hours by train from Sighisoara. The first day in Cluj we went to a cardiac hospital in Cluj. After spending a couple hours waiting for the hospital manager, we met with Dr. Simonescu and he gave us a little tour of the hospital. During our day there we ended up following around a cardiologist and a resident. We were able to see multiple patients that had very interesting murmurs, stenoses, regurgitations, prosthetics, and more. Dr. Catalina taught us how to read EKGs as well (though I'm not sure how much I would be able to remember...). It was super exciting to hear some of the malformations and heart sounds in real people when we had only previously read about them. Following that, we were able to also see a couple angiograms and echos. It was REALLY cool. We even saw the echo of one of the men that we saw earlier that had a mitral valve defect.
During this time of hanging out with the cardiologists, Leslie and Nick were able to see a surgery. (There wasn't room for all of us...:( ) They witnessed an atrial septal defect repair. They both enjoyed that opportunity immensely.
The second full day in Cluj, Annie and Lindsey were able to see a bypass of the left coronary artery. Their surgeon apparently decided to take a break to smoke half way through. Interesting that so many doctors smoke don't you think? So strange. The rest of us saw a few more cardiac patients and headed over to the pediatric hospital of Cluj. There a very eccentric, jittery doc showed us around the hospital. We were able to see a endoscopy of this 12? year old girl while we were there. It was SO crazy b/c in the States this procedure would be done under general anesthesia. Not here. She was wide awake gagging and all. It was really interesting as they pulled a few pieces of duodenal tissue and stomach tissue to biopsy.
We ended our visit to the pediatric hospital with a visit to the oncology department. There we met Patrick, an 11 month old boy that was diagnosed with leukemia in December. His mother spoke English so she was able to convey to us a little bit about her experience with him. It was very moving and very sad. We also saw a boy, briefly, that had BOTH osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle or glass bone disease) AND leukemia. He also currently had pneumonia. Rough life. :(
On Sunday, we traveled here to Zalau. We checked into our really terribly smelling hotel that had no shower curtains and walked into town for some food. In the evening we met up with our Peace Corps host, Rob, and they showed us around town. The next day after moving to a MUCH better hotel, we went to a private hospital called the Ciobanca Hospital. It was QUITE the experience. It was incredibly crowded and pretty much like a labyrinth. We were QUICKLY shown around the place. It was so interesting when we would find a CT machine in a random corner or an MRI machine in another corner. The hospital's owner (Mr. Ciobanca) sped around poking and prodding all the patients. It was almost comical. He, at one point, grabbed NIck's hand and jabbed an alcoholic patient that had pitting edema. So funny.
Later we split up and had a more in depth look at some of the departments. We went to the Ultrasound area and because of the lack of patients at that moment, I became the guinea pig for an ultrasound. I'm happy to report I was normal! And the movies are right...the gel is VERY cold. Not the most comfortable feeling.
We ended the day yesterday with a birthday party for Rob. His coworkers BBQed for him and made us the Romanian dish of "meatz." It was super yummy. We were all STUFFED!
Ok that's all for now...we're heading off to the Roman ruins right now after visiting the Prader-Willi foundation of Romania (which we'll have to write about later). La revedere!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
So much has happened since the last post! Most notably, we were invited to a real Romanian barbeque on our last night in Buteni. GREAT night! We got to help make (and eat) something like a doughnut called a gagosh (sp?). We also had mitz, a sort of sausagey/ground-meat-and-spices kind fo thing, plus steaks (since the host of the BBQ was the town butcher) and tons more. The night was finished off by some lovely karaoke-ing that surely made for some good memories of our trip (and possibly even some amazing video footage...).
We've been in Sighisoara, the birthplace of "Vlad the Impaler" (aka Dracula himself), for 3 days now. Luckily, the only thing that's been biting so far are the mosquitos :) Yesterday we got to be tourists in this cool little old town. We checked out the clock tower and a really cool old cemetery. We also got the most gorgeous view of Sighisoara and all of the hills surrounding it from the top of the hill in the oldest part of town. This place is by far the most beautiful and unique we've seen so far! We'll try to post pictures soon :)
After our two days of rest and tourism, today it was back to work. We traveled outside of Sighisoara to a nearby village called Tigmandru (pronounced more like Sigmandru). We filled the morning again with taking blood pressures, checking out patients with various health concerns, and giving short presentations on hygiene, not smoking, exercising, and eating well. Most of the people we saw here were Roma or gypsy, and didn't really have regular access to healthcare. I saw one young mom who came in with her young son and daughter, complaining that they had coughs and fevers. I listened to her daughter's lungs first and was relieved to hear that they sounded normal. Her brother on the other hand had the most raspy-sounding lungs I've ever heard and was obviously having a hard time breathing while just resting. His mom told me had been hospitalized for pneumonia a month ago, but wasn't feeling better. I had no idea what to tell her except to take him back to the hospital as soon as she can, and try to keep her daughter away from him if possible. I kind of doubt that either of my requests would be followed through with though.
The most frustrating part of this entire trip so far--even more so than the language barrier and getting along with a big group of traveling companions 24/7--has been seeing the need for healthcare yet feeling helpless to do much to provide it to our patients here. We have to keep believing that the small amount of help we can offer with a bit of Tylenol or some advice to lay off the salt to ease hypertension will leave the people of these villages at least slightly better and more healthy than before. Additionally, my experiences in Tigmandru and Buteni have inspired me to want to come back in the future once I know more and have more to give to these people.
Tomorrow should be fun. We're planning on visiting an elderly social activity group kind of thing in the morning, offering blood pressure checks and visiting with the people. The afternoon will be similar but with the local kids. We'll try to keep you updated soon on how this this all goes...otherwise, talk to you all again from Cluj (our next destination)!
We've been in Sighisoara, the birthplace of "Vlad the Impaler" (aka Dracula himself), for 3 days now. Luckily, the only thing that's been biting so far are the mosquitos :) Yesterday we got to be tourists in this cool little old town. We checked out the clock tower and a really cool old cemetery. We also got the most gorgeous view of Sighisoara and all of the hills surrounding it from the top of the hill in the oldest part of town. This place is by far the most beautiful and unique we've seen so far! We'll try to post pictures soon :)
After our two days of rest and tourism, today it was back to work. We traveled outside of Sighisoara to a nearby village called Tigmandru (pronounced more like Sigmandru). We filled the morning again with taking blood pressures, checking out patients with various health concerns, and giving short presentations on hygiene, not smoking, exercising, and eating well. Most of the people we saw here were Roma or gypsy, and didn't really have regular access to healthcare. I saw one young mom who came in with her young son and daughter, complaining that they had coughs and fevers. I listened to her daughter's lungs first and was relieved to hear that they sounded normal. Her brother on the other hand had the most raspy-sounding lungs I've ever heard and was obviously having a hard time breathing while just resting. His mom told me had been hospitalized for pneumonia a month ago, but wasn't feeling better. I had no idea what to tell her except to take him back to the hospital as soon as she can, and try to keep her daughter away from him if possible. I kind of doubt that either of my requests would be followed through with though.
The most frustrating part of this entire trip so far--even more so than the language barrier and getting along with a big group of traveling companions 24/7--has been seeing the need for healthcare yet feeling helpless to do much to provide it to our patients here. We have to keep believing that the small amount of help we can offer with a bit of Tylenol or some advice to lay off the salt to ease hypertension will leave the people of these villages at least slightly better and more healthy than before. Additionally, my experiences in Tigmandru and Buteni have inspired me to want to come back in the future once I know more and have more to give to these people.
Tomorrow should be fun. We're planning on visiting an elderly social activity group kind of thing in the morning, offering blood pressure checks and visiting with the people. The afternoon will be similar but with the local kids. We'll try to keep you updated soon on how this this all goes...otherwise, talk to you all again from Cluj (our next destination)!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Nu Inteleg.
I don't understand.
That pretty much sums up how I felt throughout our experience yesterday. The language barrier was a major obstacle. At times, I was unbelievably frustrated...
On top of that, I felt we were pretty much helpless. Our medications and knowledge base were limited, so most of the time we were unable to do anything for the patient except check vital signs. One of my patients in particular was a 3 year old boy with a large, abnormal bone growth coming from his left clavicle. The mother first noticed it when he was a year old and she said that it was giving him quite a bit of pain. She had gone to a local doctor who informed her that he needed surgery. However, they were unable to afford it. So there they were...sitting in front of me, on the verge of tears, in the hope that I would be able to help them. It was probably the worst feeling in the world to tell them (through the help of a translator, nonetheless) that there was really nothing I could do.
I think the important thing, through all of this, was the realization that we could do so much more to help this group of people in the future...hopefully someday soon.
That pretty much sums up how I felt throughout our experience yesterday. The language barrier was a major obstacle. At times, I was unbelievably frustrated...
On top of that, I felt we were pretty much helpless. Our medications and knowledge base were limited, so most of the time we were unable to do anything for the patient except check vital signs. One of my patients in particular was a 3 year old boy with a large, abnormal bone growth coming from his left clavicle. The mother first noticed it when he was a year old and she said that it was giving him quite a bit of pain. She had gone to a local doctor who informed her that he needed surgery. However, they were unable to afford it. So there they were...sitting in front of me, on the verge of tears, in the hope that I would be able to help them. It was probably the worst feeling in the world to tell them (through the help of a translator, nonetheless) that there was really nothing I could do.
I think the important thing, through all of this, was the realization that we could do so much more to help this group of people in the future...hopefully someday soon.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Bonasiva! (Hello!)
Sorry that the last post was so scatter brained! They only had wifi at our last hotel in Arad and so I had to quickly send something from my iPod only to realize that we had to catch our taxi for the bus station.
To continue...the hospital visit in Arad was a phenomenal experience. An Infectious Disease doc took us around the hospital along with our translator Marcus to visit all the different wards that the hospital had to offer. One of my favorite patients that we saw was in the pediatric ICU. Andrew is a student in the 11th grade who had to miss his Cambridge Exam (which we decided was an English profiency exam for entry into European universities) because he was hospitalized for Meckel's Diverticulitis AND Appendicitis.
Fast forward to our visit of another building of the complex...the rheum/onc building... there we were able to meet with some 3rd year med students (they have a 6 year medical training program straight out of HS). It was very interesting meeting them and comparing our two training regimens. We both decided physician shortages were problems of our countries. :(
Today we left on a 7 am bus to a little village of 3,2001 named Buten (or Buteni...seems to be a mixed opinion on that one). We were able to hold a health screening day at the town's cultural center mainly taking blood pressures and giving out some Tylenol for aches and pains. I would have to say it was super frustrating at times because while we had a translator, we would still not be able to communicate with our patients as much as we would have liked and because with our limited training we felt as though we weren't able to do as much as we would have liked for our patients. It was very rewarding to help and support the people as much as we could though and we definitely kept smiles on our faces as we attempted to learn a little Romanian. You would not believe how many people had headaches and backaches!
There we also noticed the divide between the Romanian people and the gypsy population. There is a definite dislike for the "Roma" as they are called. They have poor hygeine, are known to steal, and seem to always want more. It was a very interesting dynamic. We were able to interact with some of the children though who ended up teaching us lots of fun games! Even a Romanian version of "Ring around the Rosie!"
Tonight we then visited a hemiplegic man at his home. Listening to his family tell his story and the story of their struggles with his condition were heartwrenching and left everyone at a loss of words. At first we felt hopeless as we could do little to better his condition. After chatting for a bit though, we realized that just being there, providing the family company, and reassuring them that they were doing a great job was a tremendous gift in and of itself. We even had some lighter moments when Ryan's water exploded (they do seem to love their sparkling water here) all over the floor. :) All in all a great experience to teach us the importance of the whole family's experience of a disease or a condition. SUPER moving!
To continue...the hospital visit in Arad was a phenomenal experience. An Infectious Disease doc took us around the hospital along with our translator Marcus to visit all the different wards that the hospital had to offer. One of my favorite patients that we saw was in the pediatric ICU. Andrew is a student in the 11th grade who had to miss his Cambridge Exam (which we decided was an English profiency exam for entry into European universities) because he was hospitalized for Meckel's Diverticulitis AND Appendicitis.
Fast forward to our visit of another building of the complex...the rheum/onc building... there we were able to meet with some 3rd year med students (they have a 6 year medical training program straight out of HS). It was very interesting meeting them and comparing our two training regimens. We both decided physician shortages were problems of our countries. :(
Today we left on a 7 am bus to a little village of 3,2001 named Buten (or Buteni...seems to be a mixed opinion on that one). We were able to hold a health screening day at the town's cultural center mainly taking blood pressures and giving out some Tylenol for aches and pains. I would have to say it was super frustrating at times because while we had a translator, we would still not be able to communicate with our patients as much as we would have liked and because with our limited training we felt as though we weren't able to do as much as we would have liked for our patients. It was very rewarding to help and support the people as much as we could though and we definitely kept smiles on our faces as we attempted to learn a little Romanian. You would not believe how many people had headaches and backaches!
There we also noticed the divide between the Romanian people and the gypsy population. There is a definite dislike for the "Roma" as they are called. They have poor hygeine, are known to steal, and seem to always want more. It was a very interesting dynamic. We were able to interact with some of the children though who ended up teaching us lots of fun games! Even a Romanian version of "Ring around the Rosie!"
Tonight we then visited a hemiplegic man at his home. Listening to his family tell his story and the story of their struggles with his condition were heartwrenching and left everyone at a loss of words. At first we felt hopeless as we could do little to better his condition. After chatting for a bit though, we realized that just being there, providing the family company, and reassuring them that they were doing a great job was a tremendous gift in and of itself. We even had some lighter moments when Ryan's water exploded (they do seem to love their sparkling water here) all over the floor. :) All in all a great experience to teach us the importance of the whole family's experience of a disease or a condition. SUPER moving!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
We're here!!!
We had our first full day in arad, Romania yesterday! We had the opportunity to tour a county hospital. Our guide showed us to all the different departments where we were able to see patientsmore later
Saturday, May 30, 2009
I just wanted to add a little something to the blog...
While on the "tube" in London, a few of us noticed a girl with an interesting key-hole shaped defect in her right eye. I know all of you neuro experts out there are jumping with excitement (we sure were) and thinking "coloboma!"...you would be correct. I never thought I would see an example of that outside of class...I figured it was just an added tidbit that Nichols wanted us to memorize. It was definitely cool.
Who knew that we would actually learn something from our first year...
While on the "tube" in London, a few of us noticed a girl with an interesting key-hole shaped defect in her right eye. I know all of you neuro experts out there are jumping with excitement (we sure were) and thinking "coloboma!"...you would be correct. I never thought I would see an example of that outside of class...I figured it was just an added tidbit that Nichols wanted us to memorize. It was definitely cool.
Who knew that we would actually learn something from our first year...
Egeszsegedre!
Cheers!
In Hungarian.
We are loving Budapest and learning a few important words: thank you = koszonom (pronounced kuh-suh-nuhm), hello = jo napot (yo nah-poht) and meg egy palinkat = more palinka (a hungarian brandy).
Our first full day in Budapest started around lunch time at Kiado, a lovely little restaurant in the market area. I'm pretty pleased with the vegetarian selections here in Budapest, but I do know things will change once we reach Romania (eek!).
First on our list was visiting a Holocaust memorial along the Danube River. It was about 20-30 feet or so of shoes lined up along the edge of the walkway to represent those executed and thrown into the Danube. The most striking aspect for me was seeing a child's pair of shoes in the midst of all the adult sized shoes.
We continued along the Danube towards the Chain Bridge and climbed up a hill to the Buda Castle. After walking around the grounds we stopped for some hungarian funnel cakes covered with sugar and cinnamon, or chocolate. We took the train back across the Bridge to St. Stephen's Basilica. Luckily, we arrived when mass was scheduled so we got to hear mass in hungarian. It took Sheena and I awhile to figure out where exactly we were in the mass. The basilica was beautiful! I feel like that is still not enough to describe all the details of the statues, the ceilings, and the extravagant altar. We explored for awhile and then sat outside on the steps of the church until we were told by a guard that we weren't allowed to sit there (that's what we gathered since we don't speak or understand hungarian).
Our third time crossing the bridge was to find this lookout that promised gorgeous views of the city. It was near Hotel Gellert (a hotel famous for its thermal baths in Budapest) and involved climbing even more stairs. Ryan led the way, and we eventually made it to the top. I then realized that a statue we had seen all day, way up on a hill, was what we had actually reached. It also turned out to be the Citadel. After a much deserved rest along the benches, Annie saved the day with some granola bars, while we all took in the view and watched the sun start to set. Climbing down proved to be much easier and we stopped at a playground along the way and enjoyed going down some slides as well.
Someone decided we should stop at a market and pick up some food to make dinner back at our lovely hostel (which by the way is awesome! Home-made Hostel, if you are ever in Budapest, we highly recommend it). Iron Chef Leslie and Iron Chef Nick prepared spagetti with a hungarian red sauce (from a jar that none of us could read, but we guessed it was spagetti sauce), veggies, and bread. After dinner, a few beers and many laughs with our new Swedish friends, also staying at the hostel, we ventured out for the night to Szimpla. Szimpla is a cool, semi-outdoor bar, with good music, cheep Dreher (a beer equivalent to maybe a Miller Light), and interesting decor.
Today, we are getting ready to explore a labyrinth, a synegogue, a couple Holocaust museums, and whatever else looks cool along the way.
-Leslie
In Hungarian.
We are loving Budapest and learning a few important words: thank you = koszonom (pronounced kuh-suh-nuhm), hello = jo napot (yo nah-poht) and meg egy palinkat = more palinka (a hungarian brandy).
Our first full day in Budapest started around lunch time at Kiado, a lovely little restaurant in the market area. I'm pretty pleased with the vegetarian selections here in Budapest, but I do know things will change once we reach Romania (eek!).
First on our list was visiting a Holocaust memorial along the Danube River. It was about 20-30 feet or so of shoes lined up along the edge of the walkway to represent those executed and thrown into the Danube. The most striking aspect for me was seeing a child's pair of shoes in the midst of all the adult sized shoes.
We continued along the Danube towards the Chain Bridge and climbed up a hill to the Buda Castle. After walking around the grounds we stopped for some hungarian funnel cakes covered with sugar and cinnamon, or chocolate. We took the train back across the Bridge to St. Stephen's Basilica. Luckily, we arrived when mass was scheduled so we got to hear mass in hungarian. It took Sheena and I awhile to figure out where exactly we were in the mass. The basilica was beautiful! I feel like that is still not enough to describe all the details of the statues, the ceilings, and the extravagant altar. We explored for awhile and then sat outside on the steps of the church until we were told by a guard that we weren't allowed to sit there (that's what we gathered since we don't speak or understand hungarian).
Our third time crossing the bridge was to find this lookout that promised gorgeous views of the city. It was near Hotel Gellert (a hotel famous for its thermal baths in Budapest) and involved climbing even more stairs. Ryan led the way, and we eventually made it to the top. I then realized that a statue we had seen all day, way up on a hill, was what we had actually reached. It also turned out to be the Citadel. After a much deserved rest along the benches, Annie saved the day with some granola bars, while we all took in the view and watched the sun start to set. Climbing down proved to be much easier and we stopped at a playground along the way and enjoyed going down some slides as well.
Someone decided we should stop at a market and pick up some food to make dinner back at our lovely hostel (which by the way is awesome! Home-made Hostel, if you are ever in Budapest, we highly recommend it). Iron Chef Leslie and Iron Chef Nick prepared spagetti with a hungarian red sauce (from a jar that none of us could read, but we guessed it was spagetti sauce), veggies, and bread. After dinner, a few beers and many laughs with our new Swedish friends, also staying at the hostel, we ventured out for the night to Szimpla. Szimpla is a cool, semi-outdoor bar, with good music, cheep Dreher (a beer equivalent to maybe a Miller Light), and interesting decor.
Today, we are getting ready to explore a labyrinth, a synegogue, a couple Holocaust museums, and whatever else looks cool along the way.
-Leslie
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