June 4th:

We all woke up at 6:30am to get ready for work, dressed in scrubs and many layers of clothing underneath. Our host mom set out bread and tea for breakfast. We left the house around 7:30am and took a taxi to the El Carmen Hospital-which is mostly a hospital for maternity, infants & children. John and I were placed in Pediatrics and the other three volunteers who came with us were placed in ob/gyn.

While in Peds we saw many children with pneumonia because of the cold season. After about 45 minutes of John and I aimlessly walking around the small department we were able to talk to a doctor regarding one of his cases. The doctor let us look at the young girls chest x-rays and taught us how to determine if the patient has tuberculosis or pneumonia. We also got to listen to the girls breathing using his stethoscope.

It was only about 9:15am when I started feeling lightheaded, so John walked me home to rest for the remainder of the day. Thinking a little rest was all I needed, I unfortunately came down with a fever, nausea and pain in my esophagus later in the afternoon. John later convinced me that I needed to go to the hospital. The main host mom, Elli and John took me to a nearby hospital. I was little nervous being treated in a Peruvian hospital, but everyone there was very nice. I mostly laid on the bed and looked like death, while John dealt with all the nurses and doctors and made sure that I was being treated appropriately. When I went in I had a fever 38.8C (John and I being the nerds we are entered this into a calculation and determined it was 101.8F). In the end, it was decided that I damaged my esophagus with the malaria pills (Doxycycline). They gave me two shots in the butt, one to lower my fever and the other for pain relief. These shots hurt a ton, but made me feel almost instantly better. I was also given Azithromycin, an antibiotic, and Milpax, an antacid for my esophagus.

After this I came home and slept the next three days away!!!