Mission in La Mision: Rainbows in Jacume

Well…we haven’t blogged much this past month… so just thought I (Erin) would give a quick update. Last Sunday I went to Jacume, a small town outside Tecate, to serve with PA Sarah, Nurse Miriam, and another visiting PA Maria Elena. The clinic I work with, Siloe Clinic, occasionally goes with a group called Students without Borders from Fullerton to see patients for a day. It is always a long day. Lots of driving and lots of patients. Its hard when its just Sarah seeing the patients, but with Maria Elena this time it seemed to be much slower and less chaotic. Here is the typical schedule when I drive:

Wake up and leave house. 7:45am
Pick up Sarah. 8am
Pick up Miriam in Primo Tapio. 8:15am
Drive to Tecate and meet Bobby and his group. 9:30am
Follow Bobby to Jacume and arrive. 11am
The student group sets up the pharmacy, triage station, and examination room, and starts getting patient charting going. In the mean time, I make sure Sarah has all she needs, ie nasal speculums, gloves, tongue depressors etc. and we usually start seeing patients by 11:30am
Sarah sees 20-30 patients; Miriam gets patient history and reason for visit, and I do random tasks like ear lavages, entertaining kids/keep them from crying, discovering what medication we have available to give patients, or measuring blood sugar. 11:30-3:30pm
Leave Jacume. 3:30pm
Stop for ice cream or coffee depending on weather in Tecate. 4:30pm
Drop off Miriam. 6:30pm
Drop off Sarah. 7:00pm
Arrive back at home. 7:15pm