First Rotation

After arrriving to Tarija yesterday with little time to get to know the city, I was told I started to rotate on Monday so there I was this morning with my scrub, coat and tag. I followed Dr. Humberto Martinez, my respect to this man. He is busy. I arrived at around 8:30 to the hospital San Juan de Dios, to my surprise it was already crowed out side and not to mention the consultation list! We did neurology and follow up of patients that were performed surgery; along with me, there were other medical students from Tarija. We were done with follow up; and Dr. Maritinez and I headed to consultation. To my surprise and disadvantage, I found out that medical doctors have to do a lot of reading and writing and signing and checking and writing, and writing and more writing... (in the U.S. probably, typing?). They need to check history of patient and fill out worksheets.
A really interesting thing I found out today was that in Tarija, and only Tarija has a special insurance to all its residents where there is no discrimination to farmers, to homeless, to the middle class, to the rich, to the poor and to those who don't go to school or don't work. The insurance covers mostly everything! How amazing is that? There is free health care to everyone :) My dream world! Ah Love is not that scarce after all... what a relief.
Well, the most exiting and unforgettable moment of today was me going to El quirofano and watching live an operation of the gall bladder removal due to stones. To my understanding, here in Tarija; it is the most common operation performed. This is because of the excess of fat and cholesterol that is added to the diet of Tarijiences... they like to eat meat and chicken and pork a lot! and they also consume them with skin which stores much fat in it, then they fry them or add extra oil with bread and lots, lots of cheese! Yes, did we learn something today?
I removed all my clothes before surgery and changed to cleaned scurbs, a hat, shoe covers, and a mouth cover. I stood and watch the full operation for 1 and a half hours. Not gross, super interesting! The gall bladder was removed completely and the gall stones were so visible.
During consultation, most people came complaining they had a pain posterior between both the ribs; others came with the radiographies and there they were, tiny gall stones. For those, Dr. Martinez said: "we need to operate". A woman was scared when she heard this, and she wanted medicine; however, it was too late for drugs. One of my favorite part of all day today was the way patients looked at me. Yes, they looked at me in they eye and told me what they were feeling as if I was a professional. I loved they way they trusted me in telling me in detail how they felt. The doctor was busy reading their history so he wouldn't look at them thus they turned to me to tell me... ahhh, I can't believe this is real life. I want to gain more knowledge to tell them what to do to get better. To me, it is an ease to see people worrying about the physical pain they feel because this means they care about themselves; and for a foolish reason, I just love to know that.
What a day and it is just the first one, and only 3pm. OMG. I can't wait for more.