Day One - Complete

Highlight of the day: With my IMSS (Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social) doctor's coat on, I wasn't just Maddison, I was Doctora Maddison. 
Update-- New highlight of the day: We were playing basketball outside at night, and I was tackled by 2 of the guys while running with the ball. I fell and rolled, but aside from a scraped elbow and a (slightly) tender leg, I'm just fine! 

     I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous this morning before Savannah and I left for the clinic. When we arrived at 9 am, we found Dra. Magda in her office, and she got us settled in for the day. She had been there since 7 am and had patients until 2 pm. I spent the day with Dra. Magda, and Savannah shadowed a different doctor also in family practice.

Dra. Magda's desk in her office.
Her office had a personal file
room for the files of all of her patients.

     Many patients were there for medication refills to control their hypertension or diabetes or sometimes for both. There were a few cases that stood out to me. The first was a new patient who was diabetic. She was 47 years old, and she was beginning to have some complications from her diabetes. She had been diagnosed three years ago, but now was having skin discoloration and itchiness on her thighs. Dra. Magda prescribed the patient cream and an oral medication and told the patient to return in a month for a re-check.

The examination portion of the office.

     Another patient whom I found interesting was a woman in her 60s who had breast cancer, but had current complaints of abdominal pain. It took me a little bit to figure out what type of cancer she had, because it was called cáncer de mama not cáncer de seno. The patient had been through many rounds of chemotherapy and was generally doing well, except for her recent abdominal pain. Dra. Magda ordered x-rays and a complete set of labs to help identify what was going on in the patient.

     All the doctors were excited for me and Savannah to be there, and a group of us went out to get a celebratory lunch. Dra. Magda told me that a lot of times, they do not eat lunch because there isn't time due to the amount of patients they see every day. Each doctor sees 24-26 patients a day. It's hard to have time to eat or catch up on anything when appointments are 10 minutes each. We went out to order the food at a taco place nearby, but they asked the food to be delivered so they could get back to the patients and just eat when the food was ready. I had chilaquiles, a traditional dish, that has tortillas, peppers, onions, cheese, and cream. It was delicious but huge, so now I have leftovers for a late night snack.

     The day went by so fast, all of a sudden it was time to leave. I'm excited to return tomorrow to see more patients and learn about the Mexican healthcare system. It is sure to be a week well spent!