Wanderlust

|| Travel blog by Maria Vera || England: May 19th-June 1st 2014 || Mexico: June 4th-June 20th 2015 || Ireland: July 5th-July 19th 2015 || Costa Rica: June 9th-August 10th 2016 || Iceland: September 17th 2016 || Europe: September 18th-December 20th 2016 || Dominican Republic: January 7th-17th 2018 || Puerto Rico: May 18th-25th 2019 || Dominican Republic: June 11th-23rd 2019 ||

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

June 22nd, 2019

Today was a very relaxed day. I woke up early, made sure everything was packed, then headed to breakfast. It was lovely to still get to see a few folks at breakfast. I’m really gonna miss them. I got to have a delicious breakfast once more too! Haha I’m gonna miss Hodelpa too. It’s beautiful. I got to get a ride to my hostel with the 9:30 bus. Carlos dropped me off! It was nice not to have to walk in the blistering heat with my luggage. I checked in and got settled in the hostel then immediately went out and explored. I ended up getting a local man to walk me around telling me all about the city. I walked a ridiculous amount today! My feet hurt. I then messaged Ildefonso and he came to see me. We walked around a bit and then he took me to Malecon. It’s a seaside walking strip with a little carnival on one part, some monuments, and places to sit and enjoy the view. It was very romantic in retrospect. Dominicans are so sweet and wow they look out for you. I then met up with Betania who was my friend from my last DR visit. She’s so beautiful, inside and out. She took me to get dinner with her friends and then we had some beers by my hostel at the colmado on the corner. This country is like fine wine, gets better and better with time. I feel like the next time I come I legitimately won’t leave. My heart is so happy here. I’m excited for my own bed in Richmond though so that’s the only plus to going home tomorrow. I’m meeting up with Ildefonso one more time tonight to say goodbye so that’s nice. Otherwise I’m ready to go home! It’s time to be back in reality. Caio! Maria

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

June 21st, 2019

Last day, wow I can’t believe this trip has flown by! We saw 557 patients total!!! I’m baffled as to how time flies like this. We only had a half day at the clinic but wow the cases were so interesting. Our first patient was a lady who told us she possibly had metastatic cancer and she was hurting all over. It was so difficult to have that feeling of helplessness because we couldn’t do much for her. We treated her stomach pains which possibly were caused by a stomach infection or her gastritis, but other than that we couldn’t do much for her. She was so lovely, I’m definitely keeping her and the people in her life in my thoughts. Then we saw a woman with three kids that was a pretty benign visit, but after her came a sixteen year old girl and her brother. This was the toughest because we weren’t sure if her answers to our sensitive questions were influenced by the fact her brother was with her. She said she had not yet had sex but she was also describing the symptoms of herpes. So we had to ask about possible sexual abuse in the home. Overall it wasn’t that difficult but the topic itself was one that was sensitive. Once clinic was over, we packed up our things and headed out. Most of the group went to Tres Ojos National Park and some when back to the hotel to freshen up and grab lunch. It was soooo hot at Tres Ojos! I was DRIPPING in sweat. I’m glad I got to see it again, it was lovely as ever. Once back at the hotel I immediately jumped in the shower. Ew. I was gross. I washed my hair and Roxanne was the absolutely loviest and put my hair in braids again. We headed to dinner early to give people time to get back and pack. We ate at this pretty fancy place called Meson de Bari. Oh wow it was the most delicious meal I’ve had in Santo Domingo to date. The chinola juice was also AMAZING. So good. After dinner we headed to Dr. Ryan’s “office hours” at the little bar near the monastery. It was so fun hanging with everyone one last time. I went back to the hotel before the group to get ready to go out dancing. I loveeee dancing here. Everyone dances so well. A huge group of us including a bunch of the Dominican volunteers came out! We took over bio. I ended up dancing with a Dominican man who wow he was beautiful and could DANCE DANCE. I may or may not be in love. He walked me back to the hotel with the people who stayed the longest at the bar and he stayed for a bit. We kissed and talked by the pool. Wow I’m in a movie I swear. I went to bed super late but it’s okay. Tomorrow is my official last day in the DR. I can’t believe it. Ciao! Maria

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

June 20th, 2019

Wow clinic was soooo slow today. Dominicans really take their holidays seriously. If they don’t have to do much they won’t! Haha. So I thought it’d be easy because there weren’t so many patients but I was wrong. Our first patient took us two hours. It was a little bit ridiculous and I felt so bad trying to communicate with the man to tell him that they had to talk to the doctor over and over again. He was so sweet and still so thankful at the end of his visit. It wasn’t anything hard either. We just continued his medications and offered PT. The visit took so long that I had Kolby come in while the girls presented because he said he couldn’t go to PT after the visit. I’m thankful for his patience. The patient after him was suffering from double vision, hallucinations, and depression. It was so difficult. Mental health is already something lacking in the Spanish vocab because of the huge stigma against mental health and disorders so it was difficult. She luckily was so open and willing to share with us. She got tearful in the visit and it was so hard to not reach out to comfort her or provide some sort of physical support. The patient did seem like she had a great support system and she was excited to try medication to help her depression and possibly help stop the hallucinations. My heart longs for her recovery. I’m so glad she had some support and she very strongly believes in God so she had that to lean on too. Our final patient was a very stubborn older man with diabetes. He was very kind, helped me with my Spanish but he was set on his ways. Luckily he was doing everything right. He told us he is a diabetic, was diagnosed three years ago and he changed his insulin on his own. His doctor had put him on 40 units midday and 20 at dinner. We took his blood sugar and it was only 147 non-fasting. So it was good he adjusted his insulin and was checking at home. Just as we’re about to leave to check with an M4 he tells us he’s had four different diabetic coma spells. Wild. So he tells me his blood sugar was 53 when he was revived and stabilized by the paramedics and they didn’t take him to the hospital. Also tells us he was driving when he had two of the four spells. Just insane. So it was cool knowing so much a about diabetes, I was able to give Katherine and pretty accurate history and know that his A1c was likely running good if his blood sugars were running 120-140s. His diabetic comas are likely from him not eating very much or very regularly. I’m proud of him for not continuing an insulin regimen that could have killed him! I’m just shocked at how well these patients know their bodies and their chronic problems. We didn’t see very many patients. That was it. We finished so early, but that’s okay. When we got back to the hotel we went straight to KahKow and Larimar shopping. I came back to the room and did some med school emails that I felt I needed to do. Wow I’m stressin, but I got this. Dinner was at Adrian Tropical which is a place we went to a few times last year! So cool to go back. My food was delish. Now I’m gonna get ice cream and maybe go dancing with the girls. Final day of clinic tomorrow! Ciao! Maria

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

June 19th, 2019

So clinic today was interesting. Tensions have gotten a bit higher so it’s just getting to people, the whole having to be around a huge group of people for so long. We saw more patients than the first day so that was good. Translating is getting easier and easier. I’m not sure how I feel about the new set up at this clinic but I’ll be glad when we’re done because wow my body is aching! This clinic feels less necessary, these patients definitely get regular check ups. I love that we get to be a part of their care, they’re still so so thankful for us being there. I don’t have much to say, I think consultorio goes by faster than a lot of the other stations. We only each see a few patients so it feels different from triage and registration who each see almost all the patients. After clinic we headed back to the hotel. We had voted on empanadas so that’s what we did for dinner. This woman hand made and fried 60 empanadas! I had a ground beef one and a cheese one. The ground beef was amazing, the cheese was okay but it was weird. I have never had a cheese empanada that used cheddar cheese and had corn with the cheese. After I got Bon with Lisa and Ashlyn, we walked and had awesome conversation. I miss someone and it was hard to talk about but we definitely needed. After ice cream and talks Lisa and I went out. It was wild how many people were out on the street before heading to bars. Tomorrow is Corpus Cristi holiday so most people have off work. The first bar we went to was a English rock and roll pub theme. Very weird but it was a cool vibe. We waited there a few then decided to hit up Bio. Wow it was awesome, the second room was open this time and it was flooded with people. We stayed for an hour but then the fatigue hit. Lisa is tooo much fun I adore her. There were so many people flooding in when we left it was awesome to see so many locals. The people know how to party here! Tomorrow is likely going to be a chill day in clinic so I’m excited. Caio! Maria

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

June 18th, 2019

Back to the grind, today was our first day of clinic in Fundación. It is so different than Paraiso. The people are much better off and most come to the clinic on a regular basis. It’s so different having people that are pretty well controlled on their meds but are also under regular care. We also had one patient that was out of work to help take care of her husband who is sick as well and it broke my heart. She was telling me she was not eating because she couldn’t afford it. She has two children who don’t work. I couldn’t imagine how difficult it is for her. Being poor and being poor in a poor country is absolutely a different experience. I loved today because I got to spend more one on one time with the patients while the group presented to a provider. It really didn’t feel like a lot of people. We saw a few over 40 patients I think. A starkly different flow from the previous clinic. It was much more comfortable being in this building. Definitely a different vibe. Dinner was awesome tonight we went to the other restaurant as half the group and it was so yummy. I had cherry juice and I get all the hype now. My burger was delish. We also had donuts back at the hotel for Erica’s birthday! We’ll be going out tomorrow night to celebrate! Wow so few days left in the DR. Oh noooooo. Caio! Maria

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

[traveling-student]

June 17th, 2019

Nos fuimos pa la playa! We went to the beach! So the day started with breakfast and gathering of the laundry. It was pretty easy but wow we had a ton of laundry. We stopped by Wash Wash to drop it off and then headed towards Juan Dolió. Carlos was kind enough to stop at a supermarket and let us buy drinks, ice, and snacks! I pulled out some extra money too so I’m set. The beach was pretty close to the supermarket so we got there by 10 am, more or less. The restaurant was right on the water. Little huts with palm tree leaves as the roofs were scattered along the front of the restaurant facing the water. You had to break your back though for how low to the ground the tables were. Once camp was set up everyone got in the water. It was a good beach, I hated that there was so much seaweed and the water wasn’t super clear either so meh. It reminded me of Alembique beach in Puerto Rico but that was slightly nicer due to the lack of seaweed. I abhor seaweed! I hate things touching me in the water. It just freaks me out, needless to say I didn’t spend much time in the water. I loved shooting pics here and there, I bought a whole coconut from these kids nearby. They also got one of my Polaroid pics! They were so sweet and helpful. Reese and Alysia totally busted their asses on this cement dock? There was seaweed on it which made it super slippery. The local kids told us to watch out and we didn’t warn them in time. Then they tried to do like the boys were doing to slide and stay standing but wow no that was a FAILURE. Haha, it was fun just relaxing and drinking on the beach. No worries truly, minus worrying about the drunk kiddos on the beach. I laid in the sun for a bit, tried to even out my tan. I don’t think I was successful. Overall it was a very relaxing day. I came to the hotel and jumped in the pool to get sand off me. We had picked up our laundry so I had to sort through that too but mine was easy. I had a good day. Dinner was pizza again and I got to walk around the city once more. I went back to the souvenir store that Jen had shown us and I got a super cheap conch stone necklace so now I have a Dominican Republic trio. Larimar, amuleta, and pink conch! Love it. I love this place. I hope it keeps calling me back. Caio! Maria

[traveling-student]