Stadium Treatments and Salty Butter

Day 1 at St. Jude Hospital! Dr. Jeff O'Brien picked us up at 7:30 am for our adventure. The hospital is gracious enough to give us free breakfast and lunch...even dinner if we want to stay later! Mr. George Lee met us at breakfast and then we began our tour of the hospital, which is a stadium that has the indoor sections converted into rooms. It has an emergency room, operating rooms, administrative offices, etc. The rooms are just like we see at stadiums back home with the beds sectioned off by wood. The previous hospital was burnt down by a devastating fire. Despite being an undeveloped country, they have made tremendous utilization of the space and materials that they have. We were blown away at how efficient the hospital ran with the challenges of operating out of a stadium and not having a facility.


We met MANY of the staff of the hospital, all whom were very nice and very appreciative of our services. One gentleman informed Becca that her name was very common in Patois and means "salty butter" hahaha! The phsyiotherapists work in the outpatient room from 8:00am-2:00pm (ish) and then spend the last two hours in the hospital ward (other side of the stadium). Around 8:30 we made it to the "physiotherapy" room where we immediately began our first evaluation. Being the first patient, the three students worked together. The patient was referred for a diagnosis dealing with the sacroiliac joint, but we concluded that the pain was secondary to weak glut (butt) muscles and poor body mechanics when lifting...yay for looking at the whole picture and not just the diagnosis (thanks Dr. Shipe)!

 After that evaluation, all of us were split up and treating patients independently! We are lucky that we graduate PT school as generalists, as it is going to be very beneficial at this hospital! This is day one and we have seen sickle cell anemia, rotator cuff injury, 7 y.o. male with a burn, previous cervical spine surgery, shoulder impingement, cervical strain, rheumatoid arthritis of hands, back strain, stroke, tibia-fibular fracture and traumatic brain injury via motor vehicle accident, ulcers, Syme's amputation secondary to type II diabetes, and chronic regional pain syndrome. Yea, we are going to get some great experience here!

Lunch was amazing! We had some chicken, rice, pinto beans, lettuce, potatoes and a delicious bread pudding cake. Fran and Steph ate lunch together and met the hospital director, named "Francois" whom, "will never forget Frances' name!" He was absolutely certain that we younger than twenty when we told him we were 25 (well almost, Steph is 25 on Friday!!). We stated, "We appear younger because we were in the sulphur springs yesterday." Francois got a big kick out of that one!!!

We used public transportation for the first time as well! We took the "bus" (van) to the supermarket after work to do some shopping so we can cook dinners throughout the week. Dr. O'Brien also had to do some shopping, so he was nice enough to give us a ride home!

Barb made a delicious pasta with olive oil, broccoli, garlic, onion and some yummy cheese. She also made a side of okras, which we have never had before. We must say, they were pretty good despite not having enough spices, according to Barb! Meanwhile, Steph was attempting to brew a cup of coffee without a coffee pot. It took 30 minutes or so, but she was able to get a full cup! (Note this was her first cup of coffee and first drink with caffeine in it for the day...impressive!)


After dinner, we went to take Dr. O'Brien a plate of our yummy dinner, but ran into Dillon (the IT person from the hospital) who just picked up his brother, Wyclef. Wyclef was hungry so we gave the plate to him.  We then made another plate up and took it to Dr. O'Brien.

We don't know what our adventures hold tomorrow, but are eager to continue to help the staff at St. Jude!