I was supposed to go to Limon last week for work but the plans were changed so I was in San Jose again and spent most of my time at Hospital Calderon Guardia.
On Monday I got put on some reusable scrubs to work on an anesthesia machine. It was so fun to get dressed up to do some maintenance and run some leak tests on it. On Tuesday I got to catch up with my supervisor Pablo and we talked about the internship. After I went to the hospital, our work was in the critical care area. This was a very different experience for me. The patients were in their individual rooms and hooked up to a lot of machines. I have never seen sick or injured people like that before so it was a lot to take in. I was introduced to a new device which was the HillRom pulmonary surface bed.
I did a lot more work on several pulmonary beds on Wednesday. We had to make sure every button works and that the bed moves properly. The bed can move the patient from side to side, and also change their position from laying down flat to sitting upright. We checked the error history and once everything was good to go, we cleaned it.
Wednesday night, instead of following our usual gym routine, a group of us decided to go watch Inside Out 2! We had finally found a movie theater that played it in English. The movie theater let you mix two flavors of popcorn together so Jade and I got caramel and cheese. The movie was pretty good! On Thursday we worked in a new area of the hospital that was used for diagnostics. Preventive maintenance was needed for an anesthesia machine so we followed the routine of taking it apart, cleaning it, and running tests.
Things I have learned
- In Spanish straw is papote, but in Costa Rica they say pajita
- Pulmonary surface beds can be used for therapy and to weigh patients
- The Hospital Calderon Guardia is a complete maze!!
- The first Inside Out movie was better than the second one
We had a bit of a lazy start to the weekend. After brunch on Saturday, Jade and I went to Dulce Chilena to buy some cake. I got the Torta Chilena (left) and Jade got the 4 Leches (yes it was 4 and not 3) and they were both so good! We will definitely go back again.
On Sunday we took an attempt at the public bus and it was a success! It was only $6 and it took us through Cartago and Tierra Blanca all the way up to Volcán Irazu. Initially it was super cloudy and cold but then the clouds cleared up and it was super sunny. This was a crater type of volcano but the lake that is usually there was all dried up. There wasn’t a hike this time, only a flat dirt path, but it was very relaxing and fun to just walk around and take lots of pictures!
On the way back the bus only took us to Cartago so we took the opportunity to explore the city. We walked through the ruins and also visited the Basilica Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles. They were both so pretty and it was fun to walk around the city! The only downside was that in the afternoon I realized I got very sunburnt (oops). When we got back to San Jose, Jade and I went to BBQ Chicken for Korean fried chicken and it was so good!
