My Medical Saga Begins...

Ok, sorry I haven´t written in a while. So much has happened in the last month and I´ve spent most of it in the capital...

Our Director leaves us
First things first. At the end of February, our awesome Peace Corps El Salvador director, Mike Wise, finally retired. He´s been the director here in El Salvador for 9 years and has been awesome to work with. So, we decided to give him a book of memories from Peace Corps and El Salvador and I volunteered to head up the project. The final book turned out beautifully and I think he really liked it. It has some really nice photos of El Salvador (and most of the scenery shots are from around my site); if you´d like to view it, click here.


The Computer Project
We have a new building. We have a new budget. And soon, I hope, I will have a link where all of you can donate $$ (tax-deductible) to rennovate the building for the cyber. (The community is providing everything for the cyber once the building is ready.) I´ll send more info about that shortly.


My Medical Saga
This is what has been taking the majority of my time here in the last month. It feels like I´ve seen a million doctors down here over the last 2 months! It all started when I got back here after the Dec trip back home. Because I felt like there were a lot of odd things going on with my body, I went to see the nurse to just tell her about them, you know, to get them documented. I figured that there should be a record of them since Peace Corps pays for all medical care relating to stuff that occurs/starts during service. The nurse ordered a lot of tests based on our conversation: urine test, stool test, gynecologist visit, and an ultrasound, which I have to say is SUPER cool.

From all of those tests, we discovered that I had a urinary tract infection, some type of parasite, and had possibly had a tumor growing in my uterus. Nice, huh? So I got to take some pills for the urinary tract infection and got to reschedule another ultrasound to be completed after my period. During this ultrasound, which, by the way, they injected a boatload of saline into my uterus which is NOT super cool, they found that I indeed did have a tumor growing which (A) could have been cancerous and (B) wouldn´t allow me to get pregnant. So, after many calls and emails back and forth between Washington and here to get approvals for surgery, we decided I would have the operation here in El Salvador. Needless to say, I was somewhat nervous about it, but it only ended up taking about 15 minutes to complete and I only had to stay in the hospital for 1 night. However, after the operation, the doctor informed me that since I have not been pregnant before or given birth, my uterus is small and it´s hard to dilate my cervix and she´s "not sure we got all of it". That´s nice to hear. Apparently, I might get to repeat this surgery in the US when I get back. Oh, and the stuff that she did remove was sent to Washington to be tested for cancer, and fijate que, they haven´t finished testing it yet even though they were supposed to be done with it 3 weeks ago. I hope it wasn´t lost in the mail.

So, after the surgery, I was all good and happy for about 3 days. Then, on day 4, I started getting sick and got a fever and SUPER weak. So, I had to do another urine test, stool test, and blood test. During these tests, they found that I still had the parasites (which were probably making me feel like crap) and additionally, had high cholesterol. So I got to take pills for 3 days to kill the parasites (and I´ve gone from NEVER being hungry to ALWAYS being hungry) and go see another doctor to figure out what to do about the cholesterol. He informed me that I shouldn´t eat eggs or foods with oil or fat and I responded with, "You know I live in El Salvador, right? You just told me not to eat Salvadoran food." He laughed and we talked a little more and he gave me a sheet with foods that I should and should not eat. Fabulous. Then, about a week later, I returned to see the gynecologist (this is now 2 weeks after the operation) so she could check me to make sure I was cool after the surgery. All good below, but, fijate que, she felt some weird lumps in my breast so I got to see yet another doctor for a sonogram, which apparently is an ultrasound for your breasts. During this fun experience, I got to see a couple potential cancerous centers scattered throughout my breasts, then go see the gyno again for her to tell me that they´re probably not cancer, but we´ll repeat the test in 6 months to check that they haven´t grown in size. Needless to say, the last month I´ve been in the capital A LOT and experienced a lot of medical stuff. What´s up with that anyway? Nothing happens to me until last August when I get dengue, and now I´m on a first-name basis with half the doctors in the country. Is this what happens when you turn 28? I´m not a fan... :) I said to my counterpart´s wife, "Every time I see a doctor, he/she finds something else wrong with me! I´m only 28! What´s going to happen when I´m 50?! I´m not going to make it!" I guess we´ll see about that...

More to come.