Welcome back!
This past week at the hospital was another one of the inpatient weeks where Dr. Bogantes checks up on admitted patients in the children’s hospital. Most notably, we visited a patient in the epilepsy monitoring unit. This specialized unit monitors brain activity around the clock via an EEG covered with bandages around the patient’s head and an explosive powder to preserve the conduction cream for 5 consecutive days. There is only one room like this in the whole hospital. Due to the scarcity of the room availability, the admission criteria is very stringent: patients must have tried at least 2-3 different anti-epileptic drugs at optimal dosage with no effect/control and suffer from refractory epilepsy. This patient had 20 daily seizures on average and none of the medications seemed to have worked. Throughout the week, we shadowed Dr. Bogantes and saw the consultation between numerous different neurologists, neurosurgeons, and pediatricians in attempt to identify a way to control the seizures: different medications, literature consultations, and result interpretations. At the end of the week, it was decided that this will be a case that will be shared with other neurologists in Latin America for further analysis.
As for this weekend’s adventure, we went to Monteverde. On Saturday, we started off the day at Selvatura Park and enjoyed a 4 hour adventure consisted of 13 ziplines, a Tarzan swing (where we got dropped from a 100m platform and swung until we reached a natural stop), and 8 hanging bridges ranging from 60m to 180m in altitude. Time definitely flies when you are having fun because 4 hours flew by! Right after all the physical activities, Rei and I got to satiate our Caribbean chicken rice and beans craving at a local restaurant (Tico y Rico). This will definitely be my most missed dish from the country.
In the evening, we checked out a local bar, tried a Mexican beer (sol), and played pool. On Sunday, we went to check out the Cloud Forest Reserve and it was one of the most pleasant hikes we did because the weather was perfect; no precipitation and just cold enough where we were not sweating but not cold enough where we would need long sleeves or a hoodie either. This was definitely the most activity packed weekend we had so far in Costa Rica!
That’s a wrap for this week! See you all next week.