Hello and welcome back to another one of my weekly blog posts! Let’s jump straight into business shall we?
Jade Museum and La TortillerĂa
Over the weekend, Haruto and Vanessa ubered down to San Jose, and then as an entire group we visited the Museum of Jade in downtown. The museum was definitely not what I had expected; there was a lot more artifacts and historical nuggests rather than just jade. On the first floor, we saw many pieces by Dali, and as we trekked up the floors (1-5), we got to learn about the ancient history of Costa Rica in pre-Colombian times. What was most interesting to me was how the museum was so interactive for many groups of people; there were mini-games and even a sand pit for children to pretend to be an archeologist in, but there was also Braille under many exhibit signs so that even the blind could have a chance to experinece the museum. Most of all, beyond jade stones, there was a lot of pottery, ancient stone benches, clothing pieces, and much more. I was shocked to see that there even was a very progressive floor solely dedicated to women in this museum! Unfortunately, since I could not understand most of the Spanish, I was not able to fully appreciate the exhibit. However, I was able to get a really funny photo of Jhalak in this exhibit as we sat down in this one chamber filled with warped mirrors. To save her the embarassment, I’m not attaching it to this post.
After our tour in the jade museum, our group decided to meander around the gift shop. We found a large pile of pebble-like pillows, and we all decided to sit on it to grab a photo. They were super comfy! Moments later, a lady had scolded us not to sit there. At least we got the photo!
Later in the evening, we ventured to La TortillerĂa to munch on a marvelous dinner – I got a torticasado, which was like a regular casado except it was served on a giant corn tortilla. Vanessa and I were so shocked that they were able to combine both a casado AND a tortilla. It was such a brain explosion moment. My dish was a bit on the salty side for me, but overall, I really enjoyed it!
Molecular Biology to Radiology!
Before we begin: On the way to work this week, Raniyah and I spotted a really cool wings sculpture (see below)!
This week, Raniyah and I finished our rotation in molecular biology diagnostics and we moved on to our next rotation in radiology. We got to shadow a radiologist and radiology technicians perform various CT, fluoroscopy, and X-ray scans on patients. This rotation has been super dynamic so far, and it has actually surprised me on how interesting the field can be in terms of helping patients to begin to figure out what may be going wrong in their bodies.
The first patient we saw with the radiologist was a super young girl who went in to get a fluoroscopy with her mother. Fluoroscopies can see moving mechanisms in real time. According to the mother, the girl had become super picky with eating and had problems with fluid/mucus building up in her bronchal pathways. As the girl approached the machine, she glanced at Raniyah and I, all the nurses in the room, and then tighted her grip on her mother’s hand. Needless to say, she was scared of the procedure. The nurses had prepared different concotions of food and drink (with contrast dye) so that they could detect if the girl’s swallowing mechanisms were working properly, or if she had some sort of abnormality with swallowing and keeping her food down. In one cup with mashed up graham crackers with contrast dye, and another one was a cup filled with a juice. The varying levels of granualrity were specifically selected by the radiologist so that she could see if texture and shape played a role in the child’s ability to ingest the substances. Raniyah and I were super awestruck to see (finally) a pediatric patient and how diagnostics were adjusted for pediatric populations. Previously, in Santa Ana, we onyl saw old and middle-aged people get screened, but here, we were able to see an actual child recieve care!
Fluoroscopy machine, which scans real-time movements in the body
It was interesting to see the compassion that the radiologist had to calm down the child throughout the process of the scans, and her quick decision-making skills used to adjust the procedure (e.g. radiation dosage, length of procedure, which foods to give the child) based on the comfort and status of the patient. At one point in time, the child stopped chewing the mushy food for the test because she hated the texture and taste of it. However, seeing the radiologist patiently try to convince her to “take one more bite” or quickly switch the procedure so that the child could drink a high volume of water, was definitely inspiring.
Food At Selina Has Been Great!
Selina breakfast always hits the spot. This is ranchero eggs with tortillas on the side.
I just wanted this space here to showcase my ranchero eggs that I ordered for breakfast today at Selina đŸ™‚ That is all.
Internship Highlights and Detected Needs-Finding Problems
- Highlight: I went to Spoon for lunch across from Clinica Biblica and got to try their chifrijo! It was really good
- Highlight: Got to watch the staining process in real-time!
Gram stain process- Problem: The hospital has trouble with releasing medical data (images) to patients immediately. Current workaround is giving a USB for each patient with their images. They don’t seem to have a system like Epic or MyChart in the US. It’s interesting to see how they have to physically buy USBs, download photos, and then give this to the patient so that the patients can have a digital copy of their data.
That is all for now folks! I’m about to go cook dinner now, but I’ll catch you on the next blog post!