Week 7: Best Week Ever

This was not yet my last week serving at the IRMC for the summer, and next week certainly will not be my last. Serving at Indian River Medical Center has honestly been one of my most valuable and gratifying experiences of my life and will always will be. It has provided me with countless friendships and connections, directed me to a more specific career path, built my character, and brought me tremendous fulfillment.

Not yet knowing what next week will hold, I have to say that this week was the best week thus far! As I mentioned I would last week, I took advantage of the invitation I received from a surgeons to observe live surgeries. It was absolutely incredible. When I arrived at the hospital in the morning, I went up to the operating room entrance, got changed into scrubs, and immediately began watching an ongoing gastric bypass surgery. There were three probes inserted in the patient's CO2-filled abdomen (CO2 to keep the abdomen inflated for operating within). One site served as the entrance where the camera was inserted to display an enlarged image on the monitors. The other two served as sites where the surgeon entered to operate. All of the incisions were small in these cases. The surgeon sectioned off a portion of the stomach, and connected the other part of the stomach to the small intestine by creating an opening in each and sewing them together. The part of the stomach that was sectioned off will shrivel somewhat, as no food will enter it. As a result, food consumed by the patient will only enter the other part of the stomach and the patient will feel fuller much more easily. I believe that there was also some operation between the small and large intestine that I missed at the beginning, but the main goal of a gastric bypass is to "shrink" the stomach. The surgeon's work there was done. The PA (Physician's Assistant) and several others were left to the tasks of stitching up the exterior incisions, and the anesthesiologist to restore the patient to consciousness.

I then followed the same surgeon to a gallbladder removal surgery, mastectomy, and a thyroid removal surgery. The surgeon is a general surgeon, which is why he performs these multiple types of surgeries. Each one was extremely contrasting and fascinating. For the thyroid removal, I also watched the lab specialists create a slide from a section of the thyroid to ultimately identify whether the small mass within the thyroid gland was benign or malignant. The slide-creating process itself was incredible due to the various materials, substances, and methods that were used. The slide then was brought to a man in his office (I did not catch his job title) where he and I viewed the prepared thyroid cross-section through a microscope. The mass turned out to be benign and the man pointed out the microscopic characteristics that led him to make this conclusion.

What made this experience so exciting for me was the fact that I saw and felt what it was like to be in these job positions. I have been considering following the track to becoming a PA for some time now, but was bombarded with the innumerable medical career options and opinions of others. However, more than I have in shadowing or considering any other career, I felt very strongly as though I could be a surgical PA. Career searching has been a complicated and unclear process for me, but gaining the insight that I am from my experiences and conversation is leading me closet to finding what I will set the goal of becoming. And as many people do, I will probably hold several medical positions within my lifetime.

Aside from my day of viewing surgeries, I was able to do some more IC work and help in the auxiliary during the week. I am having such a wonderful time in each task that I perform and with all of the staff and volunteers. It has truly been an incredible Summer of Service for so many reasons. 

I hope that everyone else's summers have been as fulfilling as mine. I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon and continuing the education that I love!

B-love

P.S. Here's a real picture of me scrubbing up for surgical viewings!

Flagler Schools Summer Camp Week 6

Happy Friday y'all!

This week afforded us a surprise field trip to Daytona Lagoon, which was an awesome treat for our kids because it's an expensive trip and we definitely weren't expecting to go twice. Monday and Tuesday were regular camp days. I apologize for not posting more photos, but it is a public school and we've had some issues with employees being inappropriate in recent years, so I'd prefer not to show their faces rather than causing trouble :]

Daytona Lagoon was straight up wacky. We arrived and it was already lightning, so there was a chance we were just going to turn around right their. The employees were super helpful and gave us a birthday room rather than the huge tables up on the roof, but it was a lot smaller than we were used to and so cleaning up spills was pretty difficult. We waited for the rain to subside so I read the kids a long story (Zack Files, FTW). When it finally stopped, we headed outside, and the water was freezing! Within five minutes, all of their little lips were bright blue. Even though I offered to sit out with most of them, they insisted on staying in for 45 minutes. The lifeguard on the tallest kiddie water slide was a riot, and the kids loved him. He was splashing and playful, and totally polite, which is a refreshing change from the dozens of aloof lifeguards that work there. Luckily they didn't get soaking wet from the rain on the walk back to the bus like last time, and could thus take a sweet little nap on the ride home.

This week's home ec was a choice between chocolate pudding with whipped cream in an ice cream cone, or an ice pop. Not much assembly necessary but boy were they yummy. The pudding thing was using leftovers from a 4-5 home ec activity in which they created edible teacups a la Alice in Wonderland, which looked like this: it was so adorable.

The rest of the week was nice and smooth. I'm really proud of how some of my kids are improving, and I feel like the kids and I have grown together. I learn how to lead them more and more as we go along, and they are learning how to follow directions and are really improving on how they play together. I have a few new students and it makes me proud to hear them asking other kids their names and playing with a variety of kids. One of my kids, who used to be the worst member of his old group whom I mentioned became an angel upon staying with me, is regressing somewhat into his old ways. When I ask him to play in another area or not do a certain thing (like tossing toys) he's beginning to shut down and retreat, which is a behavior which used to occur when he was a member of the purple group. I'm not at all sure what has caused this, but I think I'm going to have a chat with him to find out. I take pride in seeing my kids sitting the nicest in the cafeteria, and I have to have group time-outs less and less as we go along because there's hardly ever anything I need to discipline them for. I think they have really grown and are going to make great kindergarten and first graders this year, and that alone let's me know this has been a successful summer.

Flagler Schools Summer Camp Week 5

This week was awesome!

I unfortunately was sent home Monday morning because we came back from the Fourth and only had 50 kids in K-1. State ratio is one counselor to 25 kids, and while we try to keep at most a 1:18 ratio, one of us had to go home. I was one of the only ones who has never been sent home, I volunteered to save the others some hours. I used it as time to clean our house, so it was not wasted!

Tuesday was a regular old day at camp, but Wednesday was extra fun! We told our kids we were going to practice for the movie theater field trip (pending PG movies that enter the theaters) by having a movie day at camp! Because so many of them were jazzed about the current How to Train Your Dragon II, we decided to show them the original, complete with two rounds of fresh popcorn. I think it went successfully, and all of the kids had a really fun time and were pretty well-behaved for their first "practice run" (;]).

Wednesday was officially the best field trip we've ever done, and it sent us right down to beautiful DeLand. For the first time in my past two years at Stetson, I visited the Reptile Discovery Center on International Speedway. Oh my gosh ya'll, it was awesome. It began with a half mile walking tour outside along their "Discovery Trail" and the first animal on the tour was a mother alligator, who was snapping her hungry jaws at some grub right as we walked by. It was only mildly terrifying, and the kids were really excited to see such a rarely seen animal so close up. After that we saw an iguana, some skinks, some tortoises, a water monitor (heir to the Komodo Dragon, which is my favorite animal.), various other reptiles. The indoor portion of the tour included a huge room filled with venomous snakes (and a Komodo Dragon skull!) of all different regions, which the kids had an entire five minutes to explore. Trust me, it was plenty. They had a massive blast. The final portion was the cherry on top: a live demonstration of how the center extracts venom from the most deadly snakes in Florida and then creates anti venom for Pfizer right here in DeLand Florida. My mind blew. It was so awesome!

Then after a nice lunch under a covered area and bathrooming all of the kids, we were only caught in the rain for a minute before boarding the bus and heading home. Thursday and Friday were also pretty uneventful, but Friday afternoon's home ec project were nachos. Camp doesn't really have a weekly theme this year, but the kids had a great time mixing and mating toppings for their chips. All in all, a wonderful week of camp :]

VFCCH

I am currently working with the Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless.  

For the last week I have been doing outreach, recruiting churches and helping to organize the IDignity Volusia event that will be taking place in Daytona Beach on August 7.  For those who do not know what IDignity is, it is an event that helps homeless and disadvantaged individuals get their social security number, birth certificate, state ID, and driver license, all things that would be needed for applying for jobs, or getting bank accounts. After having some complications we have a group of churches who have agreed to help with outreach, and a church to host the event.  Unfortunately we have not gotten as many volunteers as we predict will be needed, but both Mike, the outreach coordinator, and I will continue to work on recruiting volunteers. Our goal is to have most volunteers from the Daytona Beach area, so the community feels more connected and are more aware of the impact they can make in their own city.

 

 I have really enjoyed working with the staff at VFCCH and focusing on the outreach.  As most of us know, I am usually a very quiet individual, but this work has put me out of my comfort zone.  I am almost constantly working with individuals in a professional environment.  Mike has been working with me one on one, helping me build my confidence and helping me learn the administrative roles of planning a large event.  I am looking forward to continue working with VFCCH throughout my Summer and the school year.

B-LOVE

Larry Swartz

Rehoboth Children's Home

Week 6

Wazzup everybody! (Yes I really said that but it's too late to turn back now.)

Brace yourselves. More unfunny jokes are coming.

So as this week wraps up it's really starting to sink in that I'll be leaving these kids pretty soon. While I'm excited to get back to school and see everyone, I'm definitely gonna feel the void of not seeing the kids. These kids have brought so much happiness to me during my time here. It's truly inspiring considering that these kids have all experienced some kind of tragedy or abuse in their lives. That being said, this week I worked on a number of things, chief among them being writing updates to each kid's history. Having read through each case, I have a deeper understanding to everything that they have overcome and why they might act up sometimes. However, I've decided to highlight some of the funnier moments in the week.

As I mentioned in my last post, Chici left for the U.S this week, leaving Victor to fend for himself in the kitchen. As an act of kindness, the house father, Adrian, offered Victor some breakfast. Which went something like this...

Tio Adrian: Don Victor! I made some duck eggs, do you want some?
Don Victor: EW.

Which was immediately followed by uproarious laughter of all those present.

I´ve really been enjoying the kids this week and trying to take everything in. And these kids are hilarious. We´ve gotten into the habit of telling jokes and funny stories during cleaning time to make things more fun. The little ones say the funniest things without even realizing it. For example...

Noe: Tia Bella do you know the Dora the explorer theme song?
Me: Dora dora dora exploradoraaaaa!
Noe: *unintelligible screech of excitement*

Lastly, I´ve gotten to know the staff around here pretty well too and we´ve begun to understand one another´s humor.

Tio Pedro: (Rather casually) Bella did you clean this window?
Me: Don't raise your voice at me!
Tio Adrian: Stop yelling at the poor girl.

I´ll definitely miss them too.

I spent the weekend with the girls who were only slighlty less behaved..... teenagers.....
But we had some good times playing charades and scattegories.

All in all it was a good week.

B love,
Bella

Week 6: IC & Microbio

Subsequently to recovering from my jet lag (mostly), I returned to IRMC to, primarily, jump back into my infectious control work. The auxiliary (where regular tasks are sourced) was, and continues to be, extremely "slow" as the off-season continues. Also, the cancer patient navigator held two meetings while I was out of town. So, I only helped in the auxiliary here and there and with the patient navigator for a few hours this week. 

Nevertheless, I have been getting more involved with the infectious control project and was also eager for some more career insight. I spent the majority of the first day collecting and compiling data for IC. However, the second day, one of the IC staff members told me that I had permission to visit the microbiology lab! I spent the day almost entirely in the lab where I observed, discussed, and assisted with analyzing patients' lab samples. It was fascinating!

I was very excited to be familiar with many of their tools from my experience in labs at Stetson. The “media,” which I call “petri dishes” in labs at Stetson, are isolated growing surfaces for the samples. The gelatinous growing base contains 5% sheep’s blood because it’s characteristics enable an easier growing environment. Human blood has characteristics, such as more antibodies, that change organisms’ growth, making observation and identification more difficult. There are sheep that are raised for the sole purpose of extracting their blood for these “media" dishes. It is interesting to me, but maybe not to all. Anyhow, I learned details like this throughout the entire day from shadowing a woman who had worked as a microbiologist at IRMC for 35 years! She had even performed phlebotomies on sheep before her lab career. All in all, it was an exciting day for me as I experienced a working lab environment. Many labs are different, of course, depending on what is being observed or researched. Yet, in considering research as a career, it was great to spend time in a real lab environment for a day.

The rest of the week consisted of more IC data collection, making posters reminding faculty to use proper precautionary and sanitation practices, and spending time with the IC staff. I met some new staff members during this time and offered my help with anything they may need. Ideally, within my last week at IRMC, I will have some more exciting opportunities as I help serve the hospital. For one, I will be helping the cancer patient navigator with more cancer patient meetings and I expect to see a large jump in the hand hygiene compliance based on the behaviors I have seen this week. And a doctor this past week invited me to come watch surgeries any time, so I will definitely be taking advantage of that! 

Until then… B-love!


P.S. Here's a picture of me collecting data.

Rehoboth Children's Home

Week 4

Hey all:

This week I mostly helped with the girls. The house mother had time off so I stayed at the girls' house to take care of them and make sure they were doing their homework and chores. This time was a bit different than last time because I've gotten to know the girls better and we feel more comfortable around each other. When the girls finished their work, we were able to have some free time and ended up having a disney movie marathon :) .

This week I also spent some time creating a video for Chici to use when she visits the U.S next week. The video has pictures of every kid as well as their age. Chici will be meeting with current sponsors & donors as well as raising funds for the home.

On a more somber note, there is another children's home in Parramos that is specifically for kids with special needs. On Sunday one of their little ones passed away because her lungs filled up with water :'( The directors and kids at Rehoboth were very sad and we shared a moment of silence for the little girl.