Hospital work

I finally made it to work at the hosptial! The program organizer was slightly slacking in my opinion in setting me up with what i came down here to do. so Finally! only a week late.... but definitely vale la pena (worth it). I have so much to say....
The hospital that i am working in is called El Hospital Policia Bartolome Choccomo (or something like that). It is a hospital only for the federal police and their families. I still cannot believe that the corrupt police have their own hospital - and it is definitely the nicest out of all the others. I am spending my time in the critical medicine ward, which would kind of be like our ICU. When i arrived Thursday everyone was very excited that i was from Colorado - i had two people say, oh! the grand canyon! and another person say, oh las vegas! oh well! at least they are close! :) I was really excited when they introduced me as "Megan our new resident from colorado" :) Plus, i have to wear a white coat - which makes me look very professional and like i know what i am doing! (I try to forget that i bought the white coat in a store down the street and anyone can buy one!) My first day in the hospital there was a lot of blood. We had 3 or 4 new admits all with the 5-6 hours that i am there. A lot of the people in this ward are older - some have had a stroke or organ failures. I even got to see their 'flight for life' helicopter fly in and deliver us a young man who was in a motorcycle accident. They were only transfering him from another hospital so he wasnt fresh off the pavement, but he had stitches from throat to navel and on both knees and one arm. That is why you DO NOT ride motos here unless you are asking for a death wish!
Another one of the admits was a VERY obese guy (pretty rare down here) who had some kind of infection. He had so much fat on his arms that the nurses couldnt but a good IV in, so they went for one of the main vein or artery (Teresa help me out) in the neck. They kept sticking and sticking him and there was quite a bit of blood. I cant explain everything exactly because i only understand about half that is going on in the first place!
I was SO shocked with some of their techniques/machines that they used. FOr example, in order to take a look at the patients heart theye have a machine that looks like it was from the the 70's! They wet the ankles and wrists and then put these giant clips with wires on, this is followed by wetting their chest and then they have 8 balloon things that they suction on in various spots. It is so crazy!
This is exactly what i was hoping to do down here so i am so glad that it is working out. I'm staying really busy because they actually let me help do a lot of things. I ran the cardio machine by myself, went to a lecture on dengue fever, helped give bed baths, and helped change a stoma bag (my first one - pretty intense). I was SO surprised when i saw the majority of the staff wearing sandels! In the states you cant even serve food if you are not wearing closed toe shoes!
So yes, my time at the hospital is going great. and when i was leaving the hospital on Thursday i even saw a green parrot! At first i thought it was a pet that escaped but then i saw 4 more! pretty cool.