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Medical Elective

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    Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Guimaras day 5

    27 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Up at 7am for breakfast at 7.30am. Papa Doy took us one last time to the clinic. This morning’s clinic was prenatal checks. Initially they got us to measure the weight and height of the women, calculate their estimated due date and weeks of gestation and measure their blood pressure. We then went in with the midwife where we got to do abdominal palpation and I was able to teach Lisa about how to feel for the position of baby and measure symphysiofundal height. The midwife told us that they don’t have a sonicaid or pinard in the clinic so they listen for baby’s heart beat with a stethoscope. She kept trying to show me where it was but I couldn’t hear anything. We finished at 10.30, got picked up and taken back to the house. We had lunch at around 12 and then had some time to chill so I had a nap.
    At 2pm Papa Doy took us to the gift shop in the nearby town of Jordan. This is run by monks and so all of the money made there goes back into the local community which is great. Here I was able to buy lots of souvenirs and even treated myself to a new bag! Outside there were also some stalls, one of which was run by family members from the Ati people who were selling wallets and purses similar to those that we made in the weaving classes. Here we also got a mango shake which was delicious. We went to go and have a look in the church next door which was very modern and looked similar in style to some in America. Outside we lit a candle for Margie who was one of the chefs in the house who sadly passed away last week. She was only 28 and has a young daughter and it’s so so sad. There is a fundraiser happening online to raise money for a trust fund for her daughter and so I’m definitely going to give some money to that when I get home. On the way back to the village we called at a local store so I could pick up some banana ketchup. We have it here in the house all the time and I love it so i decided to get some. It only cost 23 pesos which is about 30p!
    We went straight to the new village where we first went to see how the men do carving. They use coconut shells which they polish and carve into the shape of mangoes and then carved our names into them so we have personalised keyrings. Here we met Jezyl who is 9 and very sweet. I think she wanted to practice her English and so was asking us lots of questions. After this we went to the plaza in the village where we played volleyball (badly) with the children. The game started with only a few of us but more and more came and joined in as time went on. We also played a game of dodgeball with the kids. After this Sherilyn got out a massive vat of rice soup which she had made for the children. They promptly all ran to their houses to grab a cup and spoon and came back to form an orderly line to wait to get their soup. I was given the job of handing out biscuits to each child after they had been given their soup. It was so nice to see the community all coming together. We were also given some soup of our own to have. After this we sat and chilled for a while before one of the elders came over to visit us. She didn’t speak any English and kept apologising to us. We said she shouldn’t be sorry and that it’s us who should be sorry as we don’t speak her language well enough. She also told us she loves to dance and showed us some of her moves (I’m pretty sure she was a bit manic but she was sweet so I went along with it). Sherilyn then told her I’m a dancer and so I ended up teaching her and some of the girls how to salsa. They seemed to really enjoy themselves which was nice.
    Next we sat in the plaza and chatted with some of the kids. They were all interested to know about our lives and so I showed them some photos. They were particularly interested in snow and dancing. After seeing my pictures and plaiting my hair, they wanted a dance lesson too and so I did some salsa in the plaza with loads of the children. They all absolutely loved it and were fighting over the opportunity to dance with me, it was super cute.
    After this we had a bonfire. All of the kids sat around it and we were sat on a bench. Firstly they all sang us a welcome song including dance moves. Next we got personal thank yous from individuals in the village. They were all saying how lucky they were that we chose to visit them and how we inspire them to work hard. It was quite overwhelming and I cried at a couple of moments, particularly when Sherilyn spoke as she described us as her sisters and said that they don’t say goodbye here, they say see you later. The kids then did another song and showed us their tribal dance. The dances are inspired by animals and so the first one was a bird like movement and the second a monitor lizard. Some of the kids then came and grabbed Lisa and I and we joined in the dancing which was hilarious.
    After this we were presented with gifts from the village. The weavers had made us about 6 different things including a bracelet, phone case, pencil case, wallet and coin purse. They’re all so beautiful and I just hope that I can get them home in one piece!
    Lastly the kids all came over to us one by one and gave us a cuddle which was so sweet. We had pictures with a few of them and the said our goodbyes. As we were walking away a few of the slightly older boys came running over wanting another hug. They were then all giggling together afterwards so we think they were probably quite pleased with themselves that they got to hug 2 blonde older white girls!
    Eventually we got in the trike and headed back to the house where dinner was waiting for us, although we were both still full from the rice soup. After dinner we showered, packed some of our things up and went to bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Guimaras village day 4

    26 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Woke up at 7am and had breakfast. Back to the hospital today and it was a bit of a slow day unfortunately. We thought we were going to get the opportunity to see a chest drain insertion but after a lengthy discussion the patient’s parents refused to consent. Having seen the X-ray, I’m not sure the patient will do very well without a drain but there’s nothing you can do if a patient says no. Unfortunately their reason for declining was a financial one which is really sad to see. We went to the delivery room in the hope of seeing a baby but the woman was only 8cm and we were leaving soon. We got picked up at 11.45am and found Joy outside waiting for us. She had come over to do my debrief with me as she won’t be there on Saturday when I leave. Had to answer a few questions about how I had found my experience and what I had learnt and it was all recorded so that they can use snippets of what you say for their advertisements. After this we waited around for a while as one of the cousins who has a trike hadn’t arrived and we needed them to take everyone to the afternoon activity.
    At around 3pm we headed off for the wind farm. It was about an hour away by trike and was a bit of a bumpy ride. Eventually we got to the wind farm to find that that’s all it was. We think the locals must be more excited by it than us because it’s cool and new whereas we see wind turbines all the time at home. Even though we weren’t that interested in the wind farm itself, the views around it were stunning. The girls from the family were all busy taking lots of perspective pictures while Lisa and I just wandered around looking at the scenery. We got a bit bored after a while and wondered why we weren’t leaving yet but were told that Papa Doy’s trike had a puncture and so they had to go into the nearest village to try and get it fixed. This meant we had to wait around for a while for them to pick us up again but we had data and so didn’t mind too much as we could catch up after a few days of limited contact with the outside world.
    We eventually got picked up and went back to the house in the repaired trike. Made it back just before dark. We then had to wait a while for dinner as Sherilyn and Leslie had been out with us and so hadn’t started the cooking. We offered to help them but they were having non of it! Sat and ate with most of the family and 2 of Mama Lucy’s work colleagues who were very interested to hear everything about where we were from. We had mango float for dessert which is definitely my new favourite thing. We sometimes had it at the Iloilo house too on bbq night. It’s graham crackers with layers of mango between them, with a combination of cream and evaporated milk poured over it. Soooo tasty! Lisa and I were both very tired by this point and so excused ourselves when we could and had showers then went to bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Guimaras village day 3

    25 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Woke up at 7am for breakfast and ready to go to a clinic. Papa Doy took us on his trike to a clinic centre out in the middle of nowhere where we were told we would be assisting in a child immunisation clinic. Here there were lots of mums and babies all waiting for their vaccines. The babies were first weighed in a hammock type thing that hung off some scales which didn’t really seem that safe. Then they had their observations taken before being given the vaccine. We were basically helping to do the observations which was a challenge on wriggly babies who don’t like to be touched by doctors. I eventually got my stethoscope out as trying to take a wrist pulse from a baby is basically impossible. The lady we were helping seemed to really like this as it also made her life easier. We did this until about 10.15am when the clinic finished. We then had to wait around a bit for Papa Doy to come and pick us up. From here we went back to the house and had an early lunch ready for island hopping.
    At 12 ish we waited outside until a jeepney came to pick us up. It turned out to be a private jeepney seemingly owned by someone in the family. At this point about 15 other family members also joined us so it seemed like this was a full family day trip out! We drove for about 20 minutes to get to a place called Raymen beach resort. Here we headed down to the beach and straight onto a boat which also seemed to be basically private too. The boat took us to a cave called sun cave where we stopped for a while. We glanced into the water and saw loads of jellyfish. We were reassured that those ones weren’t dangerous, only the ones with long tentacles were bad. I didn’t initially believe them but then they fished one out of sea and were holding it, even it’s tentacles didn’t sting. Feeling slightly less in peril, we decided to go for a swim. I jumped off the side of the boat and into the water and immediately lost one of my contact lenses, good job I’m not too blind! Kept seeing jellies all around us and couldn’t help but be frightened of them. Every now and again one would touch you and it kept making me jump. Eventually we plucked up the courage to swim into the cave (where there are more jellies because they like the cooler water). Inside was really cool with bats flying around and a ray of light coming in to light up one of the walls (hence why it is called sun cave). We took Lisa’s go pro so hopefully we should have some pictures from that at some point. After swimming through the cave and round to it’s other entrance we went back to the boat. No jellyfish stings so we survived. Once back on the boat we sailed over to a floating restaurant where we had fresh coconuts, coffee and halo halo. The kids were all playing on a rope swing which went into the ocean. We also got to see a massive star fish and hold it which was pretty cool. We then got back on the boat and headed back to the resort. From here we swam in the sea for about an hour. Thankfully there were no jellyfish here as there were nets around each resort’s swimming area. Once we got cold we got out and dried off ready to head back.
    Got to the jeepney to be told that we were going to ride on the roof like the locals do. I felt slightly apprehensive as I had seen a girl in ITU with a head injury from falling off the back of one. Climbed up on top and got comfy ready for the journey home. One of the girls called Angel gave us a running commentary of what we were going past which was cool. One of the sights was the largest mango plantation in Guimaras (which this place is famous for). We stopped here for some photos and had a team picture of us all standing on top of the jeepney. Then headed back to the village, still on top of the jeepney. At the junction where we turn off for our village there was a police checkpoint. Apparently it’s the local elections around now and so there is extra security. The policeman also didn’t seem to like us sitting on top and so we were made to get down although I can’t help but feel that the same fuss wouldn’t have been made if we weren’t there as people ride on top of them all the time. We made it back to the village and sat and had some mango juice.
    As it was still quite early we asked Sherilyn if she could show us around the rest of the village. We walked for about half an hour to the end of the village and saw some lovely scenery. Also loads of trees with different fruits and vegetables in them. So far we’ve seen mango, cashew nuts, papaya, jack fruit, guava and banana. On the way back we walked past a house which Sherilyn told us was that of one of the midwives from the clinic we were in earlier. She knocked on the door and the lady promptly invited us in to her house. We sat and chatted for a while, although most of it was in Hiligaynon and so we couldn’t understand. Eventually we left and walked the rest of the way home in the dark. We got back to the house and had dinner, showered and got in bed feeling especially knackered as we didn’t nap today!    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Guimaras village day 2

    24 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    Up at 7am to have breakfast of fried egg, chips and rice which was a bit strange. Papa Doy took us to hospital in his trike and we went to the emergency room. Here we saw a patient come in acutely unwell with alcohol intoxication. He looked very poorly. Saw their initial management and within a few mins he was sat up and smiling so they had done well. There was a lady in labour there too who was 7cm dilated so when she was ready to go to delivery room we went with her. Here there was also a procedure going on which Lisa had never seen so I lent her my spare scrubs so that she could go and watch. I was then allowed to do a vaginal examination on the lady in labour which was really exciting as I had never examined someone with a dilated cervix before. She was 9cm now and I could feel the membranes which was cool. Sat around and waited for a while after that, but in an air con room so I didn’t mind so much! We went back to the emergency room and sat for a bit, one of the nurses suggested we go into the trauma room where one of the doctors was doing some suturing. Before we could do anything else, there was a woman holding a child and screaming. Went to see the child and he was having a seizure. We found out after that he had fallen over and had a head injury and had vomited, non of which are a good sign as he likely has a brain bleed. The nearest CT scanner and neurosurgery is back at western Visayas in Iloilo and so he was going to have to be rushed over there but that could take 2 hours! I’m really not sure if he will make it but I have asked one of the girls from the house who is on paeds to have a look out for him tomorrow and keep us updated with his condition, poor thing.
    Mama Lucy came to pick us up at 11.30am and so we got to leave a bit early. Came back to the house and had lunch. All the meals here are massive, feel like I’m going to put back on all the weight I’ve lost so far! Had another afternoon nap, the heat here really takes it out of you.
    Up at 2.30pm to go to our next activity. Today we were doing more weaving but this time with vines instead of the rattan type thing. This one was probably even more difficult than yesterday’s one. Sat playing with the cat in between times which is super cute. All the cats here have really stubby tails and apparently that’s just how they’re born, not that they’ve lost them in accidents which is what I initially thought. Our last activity of the day was learning about herbal medicine. It is a big thing here and the elders teach all of the children while they’re growing up so that they all know about it. It was really interesting but I can’t help but think that giving them some teaching about western medicine would be really useful, even if it was just about basic first aid or something as some of it sounds like it would possibly just make things worse!
    After this we took the trike half way home but then got out and walked the rest of the way with Sherilyn so that we could take in some of the countryside. It was all really beautiful and we got to see the sun setting as we walked along. We stopped off at a little shop and got some soft drinks. They recycle all of their bottles here and so if you want to take the drink away they pour it into a small plastic bag and give you a straw, felt like a proper local. Saw a few enormous spiders on the way which were pretty gross. Sherilyn also picked us some fresh Guava to try, but both me and Lisa had to spit it out as it was not very nice. Got back to the house and had dinner of fried chicken (KFC style), a weird sweet potato leaves omelette thing, spring rolls and macaroni soup, bit of a random mixture. After this I showered and got into bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Guimaras village day 1

    23 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Up at 6am ready to leave at 7am after finishing packing my bags. Met our guide Sherilyn who took us in a taxi to the boat port in Iloilo city. We then got on a boat for about 15 mins to take us over to Guimaras island which is most famous for its mangoes (even supplies the queen apparently). We then took a jeepney followed by a trike to get to Kati kati village. The translation of this is apparently to go hunting for chickens! It’s a village with 101 families in it, where everyone knows everyone. We were introduced to our host family - Mama Lucy, Papa Doy, Sherilyn (our tour guide and Mama Lucy’s daughter) and Leslie their other daughter. They have 2 sons but they were around for us to meet them at this point. We were shown round the house which was basic but maybe not quite as much as I expected. Our room has 2 beds and luckily a fan, with lots of photos of the daughters and cute posters saying I love you Mama, happy Father’s Day etc. We were given a bread snack thing which had ube paste in it and was actually really nice.
    We then changed into scrubs and were taken by trike to the local provincial hospital by Papa Doy. Here we were introduced to one of the head doctors and asked which area we would like to work in. We decided that we would stick together and try out the emergency room. Got there and were taken on a tour of the hospital. Only got as far as the operating room before being asked if we wanted to observe some surgery. We decided to stay there and saw 2 circumcisions and a hernioplasty which was really interesting. Got picked up by Papa Doy at 12 and taken back to the house for lunch. Had a pretty similar meal to what we would have in the house to be honest, plenty of rice though, seemingly for every meal!
    After lunch we had some chill time so we both decided to have a nap as we were very tired. Slept for about 90 mins and then got up to go to our afternoon activities. We were taken to the “new village” which from what I gather is where they are doing lots of new building projects to expand their village. Our host family have a house there too so we get the impression that they are reasonably wealthy compared to most of the rest of the tribe. We sat and waited for while and eventually were introduced to Marilyn who taught us how to make anklets. I made one and she made one for me as a gift which was very pretty. We were then taught how to weave baskets. The material we were using is apparently related to coconut but it reminded me lots of rattan (Indonesia). It was actually much harder than they make it look but I got the hang of it eventually. We made some beautiful looking little purse type things which apparently we can finish later in the week.
    After this we were taken to the main plaza where it seems most of the village hang out in the evenings. The older boys were all playing basketball and most of then were actually very good! We were given a pork lumpia which is a spring roll that was being cooked in the plaza and was super tasty. We saw the sunset and just hung out and chilled for a while before heading back to the house by trike. Here we had yet more food! This time chicken adobo and baked aubergine with rice which was really nice. I have a feeling I won’t ever want to see rice again after this week though!
    After dinner we chatted with Sherilyn and showed her pictures of our cats as they have some pet cats here. They also have a really cute puppy called Sparkey. I then had a bucket shower and got ready for bed. Watched some episodes of top gear and then bedtime.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Cebu day 3

    22 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Woke up at 11.30am ready to check out of the hostel at 12. Decided to just have a chill day before our flight and so we went to SM city mall which is the biggest one in the Philippines. Here we got another McDonalds, Starbucks and did a bit of souvenir shopping. We then headed to the airport at about 2.30pm. Our flight was actually on time and so we arrived at Iloilo in time for dinner which was my last one in the house!
    After dinner I did some washing and packed my bag ready for the village. Then got an early ish night as I was knackered.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Cebu day 2

    21 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    Up at 4.30am ready to be picked up at 5am. Got in the van to take us on our tour. Realised that we had the whole van to ourselves so we could spread out, although I ended up on the rubbish seat that meant I couldn’t lie down when everyone else could. We had 3 hours of very bumpy roads and ridiculously nuts driving which left us all feeling car sick but we made it to Oslob for 8am. Here we met our guide and paid for our tour. We then spoke to the guide about our diving experience so that he knew what to tell the dive master about how much help we would need. It was only me and Emma doing it as the other girls opted for snorkelling. Emma had never dived before and I haven’t done it for 10 years so both were going to need help. We met our dive master Bryan and shown to our diving gear and got into our wetsuits. At this point we could see into the bay and see all of the hundreds of people waiting for snorkelling so we were very glad we opted for diving. We were given a demo on how to use the equipment and then taken into the shallows to put on our tanks and flippers. I found it quite difficult at first and found the breathing a bit hard work but once I got used to it I was fine. We ventured out to about 10m down, passing corals and fish on the way. Got to the main site where we could see some boats above us. Then I saw my first one! Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely enormous and so majestic. I was in awe! It must have been at least 6m long but was difficult to estimate as it was so big. It was feeding directly above us so you could see it’s cute massive mouth sucking in all the water. So incredible, I don’t really have words to describe it. We saw about 7 in total and it was just completely amazing, I feel so lucky. One swam past my shoulder so close to me! We spent about an hour down there which was way longer than we thought we were getting. Came out of the water absolutely buzzing, both of us were so happy. Went to get changed and then meet the other girls who had been snorkelling who also loved it. Had a free breakfast of pancakes, banana and syrup with a coffee and then headed back to the van.
    We drove up a hill from there to get to Tumalog falls. We were dropped off and then had to get motorbikes to do the last bit of the journey. Arrived at the falls to see beautiful creamy waters in several layers cascading down from the main falls which were like a scene from avatar. Water falling of rocks from all angles created a sort of general rain shower over the main pool. We went for a dip which was absolutely freezing but very refreshing. Relaxed here for about an hour before heading back to the van.
    We then made a short trip to a heritage site which has some ruins and things which we didn’t actually really know what they were. Then got the 3 hour bus back to Cebu. Once at the hostel we decided we wanted some nugs as we hadn’t really eaten all day. Found a McDonalds not too far away in a mall. Came back to the hostel and chilled for a bit after that.
    We then all showered and got ready for a night out. We weren’t sure where was safe and so we decided to start by drinking at the hostel and take it from there. We were given 1 free welcome beer each anyway so started off with those. The hostel only had beer available so we just had to deal with it. Next door was a bbq place that had alcopops and so I went and got one of those at one point. Decided that we needed to make some friends and so beer pong seemed a good option. It worked as we almost immediately made about 5 new friends. Played drinking games for a while until we wanted to go out. Asked behind reception where was good and they suggested a place called Hype. We got taxis to take us there and when we arrived, realised it was right near the area where we nearly got mugged by the kids. The place next door to hype was offering free entry and so we decided to go in there at least for a bit. In here we got a mojito tower to share and did lots of dancing right through til about 2.30am. It was EDM vibe music so right up my street. At one point I requested a song and basically got told to go up and have photos with the DJ! Emma and Lisa were very drunk! Such a good night though.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Cebu day 1

    20 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Up at 4am ready for our flight to Cebu. This trip was with Emma, Hannah and Lisa (who I’m going to the village with next week). We got our taxi to the airport and checked in. I was feeling quite sick again so I had a nap while the others got food. Got to the plane to find another propeller plane. Slept the whole way there so it was completely fine. Landed in Cebu and got a taxi to our hostel which is called Le Village guesthouse. When we arrived it was only about 8am and check in wasn’t until 2pm. We got changed into our bikinis and left our bags behind reception.
    Got a Grab taxi (kind of like uber) and went to a place up in the mountains just outside the city called Mountain View Nature’s Park. The taxi dropped us off and told us we had to walk the rest of the way up a very steep looking hill. We started hiking and it was really hard work! Eventually we reached the first part of the resort which was the swimming pool. It looked a bit like everything needed a paint job but it had amazing views over the city. I needed to grab a pot noodle type of thing as I hadn’t eaten yet and was starting to feel light headed. Whilst we were waiting for that a bunch of kittens appeared with their momma so that kept us entertained for a while.
    Once I had eaten we went to the pool. Half of it was similar to the outside, in need of some renovation, but the other half had recently been done up and was an infinity pool with an incredible view from the mountaintop down to the city. It was a bit cloudy at this point and so the pool was pretty cold. We took a few photos and then did a bit of sunbathing, although we had to lie on the floor as there were no sun loungers. I think we all must have fallen asleep for a while as we all ended up quite burnt even though it was cloudy!
    After this we walked up the dreaded hill some more to try and find some lunch. The restaurant at the top had an even more impressive view. We were pretty sure that no westerners really go to this place as all the staff in the restaurant seemed fascinated by us. I had Thai sizzling squid and a mojito which was delicious. After this we tried to figure out how to get back to the hostel. We managed to get hold of the taxi driver that brought us here and he came to pick us up from where he had left us, although we had to wait a fair while for him to get there. Got back to the hostel and checked in. We had a 4 bed dorm room to ourselves which actually had air-con which we weren’t expecting for £6 each a night! Had showers and got ready and then went into town. Walking down the roads in Cebu was pretty scary. There was a big group of kids who I think were basically trying to rob us who all mobbed around us but we all kept hold of our bags and walked as quickly as we could away from them. After that experience we decided we didn’t really feel safe here and that we would get taxis everywhere. We made it to the centre unharmed though! We went to a hotel where there is an edge coaster that goes around the top of it on the 38th floor. I was very unsure about it as it tipped up to 55 degrees so you basically had no choice but to look down. I eventually decided that I should just go for it with everyone else and so we all went to the top floor platform. Emma and Hannah went first and so me and Lisa took their bags and things and walked round the edge to take pictures of them. At this point it was sunset and so the views were spectacular. Emma seemed pretty terrified and so this put me off even more. It was then our turn. Got into the carriage and was strapped in. The guy told us that it tips automatically to 50 degrees around the first corner and then after that you can control it so I only had to deal with the first corner. I did it and I survived and I didn’t cry so overall I was quite proud of myself. Wouldn’t go as far as to say I enjoyed it but the views were nice. Got off and went to view the professional photos. They were pretty cool and so we got a usb stick with them on to take home. After this we went to Robinson’s mall to get aftersun for our burns and grab some dinner. I had sweet and sour pork and rice which was nice. We then got a taxi back to the hostel and went to bed ready for an early start the next day.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Obs and gynae day 6

    19 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Last day in hospital today! Woke up feeling much better than last night and so decided I would brace it in. Went in for the usual time and headed to delivery. Here I met Catherine who is a midwife. Spent most of the morning just chatting as nothing much was going on. There was also lots of local nursing students milling around wearing weird yellow and green scrubs. They were doing loads of obs and things on the women so we didn’t want to be even more in the way! Eventually we saw an emergency c section for a foetal bradycardia which was interesting. I waited around until about 12.30 to try and see one more delivery but nothing looked imminent and I felt quite light headed again so I decided to head back to the house.
    I felt hungry enough to eat and so tried to have a bit of lunch which went down ok. We then headed to SM city to pick up a few bits ready for the weekend/next week. Got a few bits and bobs for the children at the village like notebooks and pencils and crayons. 3 of the girls had been asked to sing in a music shop so we went to see them for a little bit. Then headed back to the house, packed my bag ready for Cebu and then got ready for bbq night.
    Had some food and did a song at bbq night but was still feeling a bit ropey so I went to bed quite early. Said my goodbyes to some of the Australian girls as it was the last time we would see them. Then headed for bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Obs and gynae day 5

    18 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Up slightly earlier today ready to go to PYP clinic - pregnancy in young parents. Went to the outpatient department to find that there was 3 of us assigned to the clinic which seemed a bit much. We spoke to Ma’am Eden about it but she assured us that it would be fine. Got to the clinic to find a tiny clinic room and some seating outside. First of all the girls were given a ticket number and had to be weighed, the midwife got to do all of this while we just sat there so I was a bit annoyed. The girls were then given a lecture about family planning and HIV but all in Hilagynon so we couldn’t really understand. We had to introduce ourselves to them and then the clinic started. The girls ranged from 14-19 and some of them had partners with them. One girl was 15 with a 29 year old partner which we were all pretty disgusted about. In the clinic we were told that we would shadow the doctors and that the midwife would shadow the nurse. We quickly realised that this meant we would be ignored and not get to do anything so we asked if we could take it in turns to do the midwife bits - abdominal palpation and listening to the babies heart beats with a sonicaid. The 3 of us took it in turns through the clinic and by the end I felt quite confident in my technique so it was useful.
    After this we headed back to the office where I went really light headed and had to lay on the floor. I had some water and then felt ok. Came back to the house and ate lunch but then I started to feel really sick. Went to have a nap but basically ended up staying in bed all evening as I felt so rubbish. Attempted 1 mouthful of dinner but it didn’t go down well so I retreated back to my bed and watched Harry Potter for the rest of the evening.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Obs and gynae day 4

    17 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Woke up at 7.30am feeling very groggy. So much so that I got off the jeepney in the wrong place and had to walk for about 10 mins to get to the hospital. Was meant to be on a pm shift but needed to go in to speak to Ma’am Eden about signing my end of elective forms early as she is on holiday and I am away at the village for the last week. Had to wait in the office for about half an hour while she sorted out various things but eventually she came and found me. She agreed to sign the forms as long as I filled in some feedback for her which seems fair enough. After that I went to the delivery room where I met Nadine who is a midwifery student who arrived on Sunday so I hadn’t met her yet. I told her about how stuff worked in the unit and explained to her some of the cultural differences so that she would be less shocked when she saw her first delivery. Nothing much was happening for a while so we went and cuddled some of the babies. I also popped my head into NICU as there was a baby with congenital hydrocephalus which was really interesting but sad. Eventually there were 2 deliveries for us to see, one of which had a retained placenta as the doctor managed to snap the cord and membranes off it by pulling too hard!
    I then went back the office and found Kasia who wanted to go grab some lunch. We went to the supermart down the road from the hospital which has a fast food place in it that sells rice and noodley dishes which are actually really nice. We also wanted to try halo halo which is the local special dessert which is essentially coconut milk ice with all sorts of random toppings on it like jelly, ubo ice cream, banana, beans etc. It was actually really tasty. After this I went back to the delivery room but nothing was really happening and I was feeling very sleepy. I left at 3pm.
    Once I was back at the house I chilled in my room and watched the formula 1 that I had missed from the weekend. Took my massive bag of washing to the laundry and then had dinner. Went to collect my laundry and pretty much got into bed feeling knackered.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    El nido day 5

    16 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Woke up at 9am and packed my stuff ready to check out. Had some breakfast at the hostel but managed to accidentally order a 6 egg omelette by mistake so felt very full! Headed on a trike over to the zipline which is only a couple of beaches along the coast. Had to climb up an insanely steep hill to get up to the top. Once there I got harnessed in and given a helmet and was good to go. The line went from the hilltop, across the sea to an island on the other side. It was super fun although a bit scary cuz I went down the whole way backwards! Landed at the other side safely and bought a souvenir photo of me on the line. Then had to try and find my way back round to the road and trikes. Walked along the beach quite a way which was very pretty. Stopped off to get a drink at a bar on the way. Eventually found some stairs up to the road. Got the trike back to the hostel and then chilled there for a bit. At about 2.30pm I headed into town to get some cash out and then got a trike to the airport. Arrived really early but the airport had free snacks, drinks and decent WiFi so I didn’t mind too much. The first flight left half an hour early so I was less worried about missing the second one.
    Got to Manila early to find out that my second flight was late, classic. Eventually got my second flight an hour later than scheduled and got back to Iloilo at about 10.30pm. Got a taxi back to the house, showered and went to bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    El nido day 4

    15 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Didn’t wake up til about 11.30am after my late night. Prachi was going on a boat tour today but it set off super early so I hung out with Beth. They were moving to a different hostel which was on a beach about 40 mins away and so they packed up their stuff and then we got trikes over there. It’s called Nacpan beach and is very beautiful. We chilled there at the hostel on the beach all afternoon. At one point some people came over with tiny tiny puppies that they had found on the beach and so we had cuddles with them which was cute. We watched the sunset on the beach and then at 7pm I said my goodbyes and got the long solo trike back to my hostel. Here I met up with Prachi after her tour and she showed me some pictures. At this point I was feeling knackered and so went to bed!En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    El nido day 3

    14 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Up at 9am to grab some breakfast ready for our booze cruise - tour Z. Got trikes into town and met the rest of the party that were coming on the boat. We were given lanyards and led towards the boat. It was a warm walk to the port. Got there to find a massive bright yellow boat with loads of side decks and equipment on it like kayaks, paddle boards, snorkels etc. We paid 500 peso each which got us unlimited alcohol while we were on the boat. Started out slow and sedate but could tell it was going to end up messy!
    The first stop was about 15 mins away. Here I decided to go snorkelling which was great! Loads of fish everywhere. I dove down to get better views and was able to get right in amongst them all! Spent about 40 mins here then back onto the boat for more drinks. Next island was a bit further away. Here I just went onto the beach with Beth, Vicky and Ben and we took a few photos. Back on the boat we had a delicious lunch with a mixture of all sorts of stuff. The next island was a sandbar island which we took a paddle board over to. Here everyone played volleyball. A few people also got stung by jellyfish! The last island I decided to snorkel again, less fish here and a jellyfish got me this time. It wasn’t too painful though. We wanted to make the most of the free drinks for the last bit and so got quite a few drinks from the bar before we headed back to the port.
    By this point we were all pretty smashed and hungry so we went to get some dinner. I had a really gross chicken burger which I literally couldn’t eat. I refused to pay for it it was that bad! After dinner we headed back to the hostel. Here I met Prachi, one of the work the world girls. She had made friends with a couple of English lads who wanted to go out - Harry and Jack. We headed into town and went to a bar called Sava which was pretty chilled sat on beanbags outside. We then went to Pukka bar which is more like a club. We had a really fun time and danced the night away.
    When we got back to the hostel we noticed something wasn’t right with Jack. He disappeared off to the toilets and was gone for ages. Harry went to find him and found him in an absolute state in the toilets. I think he had been spiked as he had only had the same amount of drinks we had and I’ve never seen anyone that bad. I ended up looking after him for a few hours until he came back round. Then I went to bed, knackered!    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    El nido day 2

    13 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Woke up at around 9am to get breakfast. I was feeling a bit worse for wear! We hired motorbikes and headed off for a tour of the northern most part of the island. I was sharing one with Beth and I decided that she would be best driving as she has ridden bikes in every country she’s been to in Asia so far. A few Kms down the road, the road stopped being tarmac and became gravel road. Beth didn’t like this and so we were driving extremely slowly which was completely fine with me! We made it to the first stop in one piece. At the stop we hiked 25 mins to a waterfall. It was blisteringly hot and so by the time we got to it we were all very sweaty. We had to cross a few rivers and so the boys had to carry some people across as they didn’t want to get their trainers wet. I had my sandals on so I was ok. The waterfall was pretty, nothing overly spectacular but it was really nice to get in the cool water and relax for a bit. Ben and Alex decided to jump in which we all found a bit scary as we didn’t really know how deep it was. Hiked back down from the waterfall and got back on the bikes. It was back to the gravel track again for about 30 mins. Eventually we made it to tarmac and so Beth was much happier. There were a few picturesque viewpoints along the way that we stopped at. Some stunning views! We decided that we needed to stop for lunch and found a place in the middle of nowhere. It was really cute little treehouse style thing up on a hillside with views over to the sea at the top of the hill. There seemed to just be this one Dutch lady doing everything for us and so it took a while to get our food. I had a watermelon shake and vegetable tempura with satay sauce which was delicious. Back on the bikes again and by this point we realised how far we had left to go with not very long left of daylight. We decided to make less stops and just try and crack on with some distance. Plenty more stunning views on the way and a few nice looking beaches. Just before sunset we decided that we should try and find somewhere to stop to watch it. Found a gorgeous beach called Lio beach which was quite quiet and had stunning views. The water was a really nice temperature and so I stood in the water while I was watching the sunset. It was very pretty. Once the sun was down it was just the small matter of getting back in the dark! It actually wasn’t too bad and it didn’t take too long. Once we were back we grabbed some food. It was James’ last night and so we let him decide what he wanted to do. He decided that chilling at the beach with rum again would be fine. We got shouted at for being too loud and so we moved down the beach a bit to outside the cottages that James and Alex were staying in. Stayed up chatting until about 2am with music. Then we said our goodbyes and went to bed.En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    El nido day 1

    12 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Up at 3am to finish packing and grab some breakfast. Had a taxi booked for 3.45 which showed up about 10 mins late. Took about 30 mins to get to the airport and checked in very quickly. Managed to catch the last of the Real Madrid v Juventus champions league match which was quite exciting. The flight was very quick and got in to Manila 20 mins early! Back round to departures in the domestic terminal for the next leg of the flight to El Nido.
    The next flight was on a tiny propeller plane which on the whole was fine but the landing was quite dodgy. Lovely views but felt like we were going to end up in the sea! The airport was tiny and I think Air Swift are the only company that flies there. Had to get a trike to get from the airport to the hostel and it was actually quite far away!
    Got to the hostel to find a beautiful landscape view. The hostel front was right on the beach and had seats with a great view across the bay. I checked in but couldn’t go to my room until 2pm so I sat and chilled for a bit and tried to get hold of Beth. She was still in town as she had been staying at a different hostel for the last 2 nights. Went to meet her and the gang in town and went to get some breakfast. Met 2 new people who had joined them travelling here - Alex and James. We also went to book onto a tour for Saturday called tour Z which is basically a booze cruise! After eating we all headed to the hostel and got checked in. My room was nice, 4 bed mixed dorm which had air con. Met Matt in there who is from Hawaii and seemed nice. We spent the afternoon chilling on the beach and taking in the views.
    The hostel was quite far from town so we stayed there for the rest of the night. We had food at the hostel which was really nice. Also had lots of rum and cokes and played lots of drinking games. The bar closed at 10 so we bought and bottle of rum and carried on the drinks on the beach. Did a bit of star gazing while we were at it. Headed to bed at around 1am feeling quite tipsy!    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Obs and gynae day 3

    11 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ 🌙 30 °C

    Up at the usual time and in hospital for 8am. Had agreed to show one of the new girls how to get on the jeepney seeing as I am now one of the expert and oldest remaining housemates! Went to the delivery room and walked in to find a lady just about to deliver so got to see one straight away. Then had a long wait before the next one. Was on with Tegan this morning and she was reading a book so I didn’t really get to talk much. It was super hot on the ward today so I kept going in to the newborn observation area as this has air con next to it so I could cuddle babies and be cool. In total we saw 4 deliveries in the morning, 2 of which came pretty rapidly after one another and so it was all hands on deck. One of them also had what looked to be a reasonably severe post partum haemorrhage but the doctor didn’t seem particularly concerned.
    Went to go get some lunch with some of the new girls. Went to the mall down the road from the hospital and had pork sisig and spring rolls. Then headed back to the delivery room to get a few more hours in to make up for missing days this week. Nothing was happening and so I was just about to leave when everything kicked off. A 32 weeker c section was brought in for resus, meanwhile a girl was rushed in from A&E already fully dilated and just about to go. Then quite soon after a 31 week lady who had been on tocolysis and steroids ended up delivering and the baby came out in a bad way, covered in meconium and floppy. They managed to resuscitate it but it’s APGARs we’re still pretty rubbish so I don’t know how well it will do, poor thing!
    Left hospital at about 3:30pm and headed back to the house. Felt pretty exhausted so had a nap. Just about surfaced for dinner and then headed back to my room to pack as I am going to Palawan tomorrow! Have to be up at 3am so an early night for me.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Obs and gynae day 2

    10 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Had an afternoon shift today so was able to have a lie in until 10.30am! Got up and had some breakfast then chilled out for a while until I had to go in. Was on delivery room again but with Cristina today who is a midwife. Saw 3 deliveries today, 1 of which was actually completely normal and quite nice, no episiotomy! One of them Cristina spotted in the holding area and could see the head so tried to tell the doctors to come in. They eventually tried to get the woman into the delivery room by which time the baby was half way out! Bit of a shambles really. Cuddled a few babies and finished at around 5.30pm. Then headed back to the house for dinner. We then went out as a group to get massages. It was at a place called Spa Riviera which was a jeepney ride away. There was an overwhelming smell of lemon as I went in which actually made me feel quite sick! We were given robes and slippers and got changed ready to go. We decided to have hot stone massages which actually felt really nice. The main issue I had was that my masseuse kept burping and coughing throughout and so it wasn’t really very relaxing. It did last an hour though and only cost about £7, not bad really. Got given some peppermint tea after but mine was far too hot to drink. We then got in a taxi back to the house and I went to bed.En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Obs and gynae day 1

    9 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Up at 7am to have breakfast. French toast, bacon and syrup, my favourite! Excited to see some babies being delivered. Was on shift with Prachi who has been on O&G for ages so she was going to show me the ropes. Had to get changed into fresh scrubs and then made our way onto the ward.
    Here there is a private room for paying patients and a delivery room with 2 beds in it for those that can’t afford to pay. Next to the delivery room is basically a holding room for women to labour in. There are 3 “beds” but usually at least 5 women in there, some of which have to stand up. They are shouted at and told to be quiet if they make too much noise!
    They are assessed intermittently for cervical dilation and only when they get to 10cm are they moved into the delivery room. There are no partners allowed and so these poor women have to go through it all by themselves. Saw 2 deliveries both of which had episiotomies, both seemingly unnecessarily. Once baby is delivered it is taken into a room next door and assessed then put in a little crib away from Mum. There are posters everywhere about the importance of early skin to skin contact and breastfeeding but this just doesn’t happen. Some of the babies are in this room for hours before they get given back to their Mum and so don’t get fed. We spend our time in between deliveries cuddling the babies and trying to comfort them.
    One delivery happened in the holding room as the baby basically just fell out! There was no sense of urgency to help the poor woman.
    Stayed in the delivery room until midday and then headed back to the house. Had some lunch and then went to my room to relax for a bit. After this I sat and made plans with Hannah, Emma and Lisa to go to Cebu weekend after next. We booked our flights and hostel so now all of my weekend plans are sorted until I come home. I also did a bit of laundry from the weekend.
    We had dinner and then decided we wanted to go out for a glass of wine. Went to a place 10 mins walk from our house in a hotel. It was a rooftop bar but unfortunately there was a thunderstorm and so it was raining heavily. We sat inside and had wine and cocktails which was really nice. Headed back at around 10pm and video called Roger which was really nice. Had a good catch up for over an hour and then headed to bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Antique day 2

    8 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Woke up at 7am to have some breakfast. There was a bit of tension in the group as half had decided that they didn’t want to come on today’s tour but had basically booked the same thing through someone else without telling us. Their bus didn’t turn up though and so they ended up sharing our transport anyway! We got a bus 22km down the road to the boat port. From here 6 of us got on our boat to go to Mararison island which only took about 15 mins. We arrived there to find beautiful crystal clear turquoise sea, white sand and big rolling hills in the background. We were shown to a little cabin thing where we could leave our stuff and given some drinks and snacks. Then we went to see the Mararison island children’s choir. This was set up after a cyclone hit the island badly in 2013 and was a way for the kids to socialise and get involved in music. They ranged in age from 7-16 and were all incredibly cute. They sang us 5 songs and at the end came running over to us all and gave us big hugs. They were thanking us because money from our tour goes towards buying them school equipment or shoes or whatever they need. They were very good too, my favourite song was a cover of Flashlight by Jessie J!
    After this we went to get our trainers on to prepare for a hike. This was 2km each way up onto one of the peaks of the island. It was a very warm day and so this was hot hard work. The views at the top were stunning though so totally worth it. It was very windy at the top, so much so that I was a bit scared of getting blown off the top! The view was over towards the sand bar beach, but you could also see out over the rest of the island too. We stayed for a while to soak up the views and so a bit of a photoshoot and then headed down to see a different part of the island. This part was a peaceful little bay where we sat and rested for a bit. We then headed back over to the main beach to get our lunch. The girls on the other tour came and met us at this point as their tour guide hadn’t been able to get them any food! We ate and then had some time to swim in the sea. Our guide Toto warned us that there are sometimes stone fish in the shallows, so we had to shuffle our feet in so as not to step on them! The water was a beautiful temperature and it was really relaxing to just chill out in the sea. At about 2pm we had to head back to the boat back to the mainland. Here we met the other girls again and then all got the van back to where we had stayed the night to pick up our bags. It was then a very bumpy 4 hour journey back to the house! Once we got back we all pretty much ate dinner and went to bed. I felt a bit bad as 7 new people had arrived but we were all too tired to really talk to them properly! I spent the rest of the evening booking my flights to Palawan for next weekend to go and see Beth, then went to bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Antique day 1

    7 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Up at 4.30am to get the bus for our trip. 12 of us just about managed to fit into the van although it was pretty uncomfortable. I sat at the back and basically tried to sleep for as much of it as possible. It took about 3 1/2 hours so we arrived at Tibiao in Antique at around 8.30am with breakfast waiting for us. Once we had eaten we got changed ready to set off on our tour. To begin we were told we would need to take a motorbike ride and we’re each given a driver to take us, no helmets though as they wanted us to “feel the breeze in our hair” ummmm... We were driven to a ”museum” which was essentially a room with some giant clam pearls in it. Apparently worth lots of money but they don’t need any security guards there because God will protect them! We then were taken to the oldest bakery in the province which uses a proper brick oven. It was from 1953, so not that old to us. Here he bought us some snacks to take on our hike. We then got back on the motorbikes and headed to the foot of the hill where we were doing our hike. We were introduced to our guide Maralyn who was about 60, less than 5 foot tall and does the hike 3 times a day every day. It wasn’t too strenuous a walk, definitely not compared to the one at gigantes. Took about half an hour with some lovely views of rice padis and a few water buffalo here and there. Got to the top and saw the lovely waterfall. We were given time to go swim in the water and take some pictures which was very relaxing.
    It was then back on the motorbikes to take us to Calawag mountain resort. Here we were told that our lunch table was waiting for us, in the river! We sat with our feet in the water and were served an incredible platter of pork, chicken, rice, noodles and vegetables which was designed to be shared and eaten using your hands. Such a wonderful experience. We were also serenaded by some locals playing us some songs on guitars which was cute.
    Once we had finished eating we got ourselves set up for extreme tubing. Each of us was given a life jacket and helmet and sat in a rubber ring with some netting under it. We also sat on top of an extra life jacket which was mainly there to stop you from scratching your bum on rocks as the water was pretty shallow in parts. We set off down the river with some guides to help us get past tricky parts. There were some sections which were properly white water and it was quite difficult to stay on. I came off once but it was fine and I didn’t hurt myself at all luckily. All in all it was really fun! After tubing there was the option to jump off a rock. I didn’t fancy this so just sat and watched some of the others have a go. We then went back to the mountain resort where there was a “rain swing” and 4 hammocks stacked above one another. Perfect opportunity for some picture taking.
    Next was the main event, the hot pots! These are basically basins which they put hot water in and fire under to make it extra hot. They add various leaves and salts to make it a kind of aromatherapy type of thing. We got to chill out in these for quite a while which was super relaxing. I shared one with Emma so we had a good chat while we were there. They also gave us salt scrubs so we could exfoliate!
    We then went back to the huts that we were staying in. These were located at the Tibiao fish spa and so while we were there we got unlimited fish spa time! I had some dinner and then made the most of the spa. Opted for the medium sized fish as the big ones were a bit terrifying! After feeling that my feet were properly exfoliated, I headed to bed, absolutely exhausted!    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Rest day

    6 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Decided not to go in today and had a lie in until about 10am. I then needed to go get my visa extension from the immigration office. Emma came with me as she needed hers too. We had been told to wear smart covered clothes and so we dressed appropriately. We got there to find that they wouldn’t let Emma in the room as she didn’t have covered shoes on! This caused a bit of a fuss as we needed to get them today. Eventually a woman came out and said that if she was paid 500 pesos she could do it for Emma and she wouldn’t even have to go in the room. We weren’t entirely sure if this was legitimate but she came out of the office so we kind of had to go with it. Had to also pay 1000 extra to get it done same day, otherwise they were going to keep our passports until next week! We had to wait an hour for it to be done so we went to a cute coffee shop to get a frappe and some brunch. I had banana Nutella waffles that were delicious. We eventually collected our passports and headed over to SM city shopping mall to get a few bits ready for the weekend. We headed back to the house and I sat and did a bit of planning for my Palawan trip next weekend. We then had dinner and went out for desserts as it was some of the girls last nights. Had so much cake that we could hardly move! Then headed home to pack and go to bed as we had an early start the next day.En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Family medicine

    5 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Woke up a bit earlier today, excited to try out a day of family medicine. This is basically providing community healthcare to people in rural places and covering GP types of things. We met Joy at the work the world office at 8am and went to the family medicine office with her to meet the doctor we would be with. He wasn’t there so she told us to wait there. Got to about 9am and still no sign of him. We were given a booklet about animal bites management to read by one of the other doctors in there so we looked at that to pass some time. Eventually at about 9.20am he showed up. We then followed him out to a taxi to take us to the bus terminal. We then got on a bus to take us to another town. This bus was a lot less fancy than the ones we had been using for Boracay, no aircon or WiFi sadly. We arrived at a town (of which I don’t know the name) and then picked up some snacks before getting on a trike to take us to the actually community place. The trike had very little space and Emma and I had to really squeeze in together. After struggling up a few hills we finally got to our destination. Here we found a tiny church with a clinic room attached to the back of it. We were properly out in the middle of nowhere. We were introduced to the person who runs the clinics and then told there weren’t actually any patients to be seen today, classic. We sat around for a while and then eventually headed off to another clinic further up the road. Also no patients here, apparently because of the “festival” that’s going on. From here we were taken to a view point which overlooked a river and was very pretty. However the doctor then told us that the reason students haven’t been allowed to do family medicine for the last couple of years is because rebels kept coming down into the towns and trying to kidnap people, great! We were told that they didn’t do that anymore so not to worry, too late!
    Thankfully we left reasonably soon and headed back on a trike, this time to go to the festival.
    Arrived at a town called Guimbal which is on the coast. Here we found boards of people all here to watch some boat racing. At this point we were told we were the only doctors here and that we were going to be the first aiders for the event! We were taken to a table and given some food and drinks, which the doctor wouldn’t let us pay for. We were then taken to sit with the other first aiders, a very surreal experience. We went to explore a bit and look around the festival. We were even more of a novelty here than at other places! Lots of waving children and people staring. After a while we were told to come sit on the beach with the other first aiders to watch the main event - the championship final boat race. It was all very exciting, some of the boats stalled and people would overtake, going round corners looked particularly tricky as they had to put their hands into the water to change the boat’s direction quickly. The race was won by the yellow boat and everyone seemed very happy!
    We were then told to go and take a seat in the arena looking area ready to watch the show. We were given free chocolate ice creams and sat waiting excitedly. At this point they were watering the floor in the arena area and we weren’t really sure why. For some reason we were moved over to the other side of the arena which later became apparent that it was because we were moved to sit on the “celebrity” side along with various mayors and Secretaries of State! We then sat for a long time while various prizes were handed out, for the racing and some body and canvas paintings that had been done. We thought the show would then start... no! 2 guys came out with what looked like massive rakes and spent about 20 mins raking the pre watered sand, also have no idea why. Once this was done we thought surely the show would start. No, now it was time for the guest speaker. This was some secretary of state person who was first introduced for about 20 mins, then spoke himself for about 45 then someone else joined in. All in all they were talking for about 2 hours and it was basically all propaganda about what a good job they’d done! We were getting very fed up and wanted to leave at this point but this wasn’t an option as we weren’t even sure where we were. There was an odd moment of excitement when I felt something on my face, went to move it and realised it was a gecko crawling over me. It completely freaked me out and I may have screamed a bit and disturbed the speeches, oops!
    Eventually the performance started. It was a reenactment of the Moro Raids (whatever they are). It was an award winning tribal dance from some competition last year. They were actually very good! Very dramatic, lots of crying and fake blood. This eventually finished at around 6 and so we were then able to start heading back. We had to get a trike to the main town, then a bus for 1 hour, then a taxi back to the house. Made it back at around 7.30 which was an hour late for dinner on bbq and karaoke night! We grabbed some food and then went to go shower and get ready because we had decided it was “extra night” where you had to dress up fancy. I wore my sequin dress and so did Aussie Emma so we were twinnies. We drank sangria, did karaoke and stayed up til midnight having fun playing cards and drinking games.    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Bearland

    4 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Woke up at the usual time, feeling extra tired though as I woke up wide awake for a while at 4.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep for a bit.
    Rather than a handover today there was a presentation on neuro examination. This should probably have been reasonably interesting but the doctor presenting didn’t seem to really know what she was talking about. After about 45 mins there was a power cut across the whole hospital and so the residents all just seemed to decide that that meant the end of the presentation and headed off to the wards. We weren’t sure where to go and so we contacted Grace (the work the world internal medicine contact). She didn’t want us with her in outpatients and so sent us back to ICU. We explained that we had seen all the patients in there and so she sent us to male medical ward 1. The doctor for that ward wasn’t there and so she rang them, to which they said can we come back in an hour. At this point we were getting quite fed up and so we decided to go for a coffee and ice cream and to go buy some more data top ups for our phones - 300 pesos (£4 ish) for 2GB! We sat and chatted for a while and then headed back in. There still wasn’t particularly much going on so we read through a few patients notes and wandered around the ward. We tested each other a bit on the stuff we were reading which was quite useful. We then decided to go home and get lunch.
    At around 1pm the housemates all met up and we took taxis over to a resort called Bearland. It’s about a 30-40 min drive away but has an infinity pool and pool bar! This place was lovely. We chilled there all afternoon drinking cocktails and taking lots of fun photos. There was also a jacuzzi which was great! It started to rain at one point and so we all hid our bags under an umbrella but carried on hanging out in the water. We ended up having to wait quite a long time for taxis back which got a bit annoying but got there in the end. We came back and grabbed food and then I headed to bed as I was super tired and maybe a bit tipsy from the cocktails! 🙊    En savoir plus

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  • Alice RidgewayMedical ElectiveVoyageur

    Medical ICU day 4/ER

    3 avril 2018, Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    Woke up at the usual time. Headed in with Emma this time as she has been assigned to internal medicine with me so I don’t have to be on my own! We went to handover and then headed to medical ICU for a bit. Lots of the patients were the same as previously although one of the previous ones now had a tracheostomy in rather than being intubated. There was also a young guy on there who had had some sort of brain bleed. He has really interesting eye signs and so we did a brief cranial nerve exam on him to see where the deficits were. We then sat and discussed his case after which actually made for some interesting learning. We then went to a case presentation on bacterial endocarditis which was interesting and informative but once again highlighted serious gaps in the knowledge of the residents as we seemed to know answers to lots of things they couldn’t answer.
    After that we headed home for lunch and a nap as we planned to come back in later to do an emergency room shift. Slept for about 2 1/2 hours and felt much better for it, think I was still trying to recover from the weekend!
    Spent a bit of time after that getting a bit stressed out as I was trying to plan the weekends trip away for 12 people and it was quite difficult to come to a consensus on what we wanted to do. Eventually got it sorted and everyone seemed happy enough.
    Me and Emma then got a jeepney back into hospital for our evening shift at about 7pm. We headed to the emergency room which was noticeably busier than in the day time. There were patients everywhere including in chairs and on the floor and all of them had a bantay (relative/carer) with them so it was hectic. We approached the internal medicine desk but they weren’t particularly forthcoming or talkative (no surprise there). Quite soon after we arrived, we noticed a few of them rush to a patient to do CPR. We were really shocked at how poor their CPR was! We definitely would have done a better job ourselves. They then decided the patient was breathing on their own (although already intubated) and so stopped. We thought that it was probably an inappropriate attempt at CPR rather than a successful revival. We also got to watch an NG tube insertion and talk to a patients relative about their condition. After this not much was happening so we headed home around 9.30pm and went to bed.    En savoir plus

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