Flying Time

Time has flown here in New Haven. Benjamin and I have been running around trying to keep up with lectures (both), emergency department (Ben), clinical hours at the hospital (CB), labs (both), translating at the Free Haven clinic (both), study groups (CB) and random acts of entertainment. I can't say too much about Ben's experience so I'll say what I know:

• Ben's classes are really, really hard. While he prepared for o-chem well before term and has benefited from it, biology has been so much more challenging than anticipated.
  
• Working at the ED at St. Roosevelt's on Dr. Newman's research projects has been rewarding and Ben has found a mentor in primary care. He even took the time to read (on top of the mandatory school stuff) Dr. Newman's book Hippocrates Shadow. Ben has enjoyed interpreting on the daily, shadowing doctors around the hospital, and kicking it old school with our Dominican compadres and comadres when they come in for services. Claudette is totally jealous that she hasn't had even one Spanish-speaking patient at Yale-New Haven or St. Raphael's (pronounced 'Rayfield's' in New Haven, weird).
• Benja also translates at Haven's Free Clinic some Saturdays.
  
• On the personal side of things, Ben is riding the train four hours a day so that he can still live with me while I immerse myself in nursing school and still finds time to most of the shopping and cooking. Can't thank him enough! But, he did get a really sweet bike that gets lots of compliments. Too bad we can't have a dog.

I'm on the mend from the experience of the past two years and find myself less weighed down and more uplifted by the experience. I got my hair back to where it was before I left real estate in 2006 - and, yeah, it really made me feel better. It's a psychological thing - leaving behind the years of not being about to afford haircuts and clothing with no stains or tears feels good. Dominican culture is very sensitive to the fact that one will be judged on appearance in the City - and now that I live in the City, it feels good to get closer and closer to civilized manner and dress. I know my doñas allá would not have me walking around town looking like I'm about to feed chickens!

It's been really nice to connect with other RPCVs, especially María, another student at YSN who served in the DR, too. We like to drink it up some nights and reminisce and it's been invaluable in the reacculturation process.

Get ready for over-dramatic statement: I think nursing school is changing me.This is awkward because I'm not 100% rested from all the continual PCV state of ne'er subsiding sunburn, the richest person in town/ the poorest American I know, the most educated person in town/ the most out-of-the-loop American I know, the least eloquent person in town/the most literate person in town, the healthiest person in town/the most undernourished I've ever been.

But, here goes: taking care of sad, sick, and lonely or non-communicative individuals once or twice a week is bringing out a new side of me - I find myself handling intimate care giving in an official, sometimes neutral manner, while storing up these moment for later existential thought. When I get home, I decide that my whole week will be crippled if I think too long on what I've seen, and instead I write care plans, study for tests, and run. Run, like away, like on a pretend exercise mission, but more on a 'away from all that' mission. This is so different from Peace Corps, where I would see something hard and go to the capital or the beach after dealing with it and process with the other PCVs. Today, there just isn't time or energy to process.

The running is fun! I met a very nice girl in my classes who is encouraging and invites me to run with her all the time even though I stink! I go the gym with another group of girls, and we can often be found on the treadmills or exercise bikes or doing crunches while reviewing such interesting facts as how to place a Foley catheter, clean a tracheostomy, diagnose emphysema or procedural order if a chest tube falls right out of a patient's thorax in front of you.

My classes are going well. In my last post, I said that I was having a hard time paying attention and sitting for hours on end. I've acclimated, my grades improved, and now I enjoy what I'm learning without much trouble. This week is the muskuloskeletal and hepatic systems in medical-surgical nursing, temperature regulation and hepatic system in pathophysiology, and antidepressant drugs in pharmacology. But, I should review a little all that's been covered in the past 10 weeks:

• Med-Surg Nursing Seminar: nursing diagnosis, nursing assessment overall, of the lungs, heart, kidneys, pain, gas exchange, circulation, aneurysms, fluid and electrolytes, diabetes I and II, and some other stuff
• Med-Surg Nursing Skills: taking vitals, administering injections, PO meds (and I mean also by the NG or NJ tubing), hanging IVs, sterile procedure, inserting a Foley catheter- fun!
• Pathophys: this is a wild class I can't describe - suffice to say, it's like all the cool stuff, and only the cool stuff, you've ever learned in biology, physilogy, and mcd bio.
  
• Pharmacology: by far the class with the most 'bang! memorize this or kill someone' effect. We have learned endlessly how to recognize potential drug interactions, where they come from and what happens, how to treat special populations like pregnant women all while learning about: anti-hyperlipidimics (like Lipitor), anti-hypertensives (like Beta-blockers), anti-dysrhythmics (like digoxin), anti-coagulants (like Coumadin), analgesics (like Aspirin and acetaminophen), and oh so much more. Also, what adverse effects constitute an important allergy.
  

Other stuff about us and me:
Our apartment is starting to look like a home and we're having fun in there. I got a cool bike, too. My first new one and it's totally awesome! We started drinking coffee and eating butter, milk, cheese, and meat again. It's not my preference but Ben is back with a vengeance, and I like to see him so happy. I recently was Told (with a capital T) to start eating more red meat. I must comply or live in a tired anemic world. I'm still sticking to my green smoothie in the mornings and salad for lunch most days. I'm interpreting at Haven, too. The fall colors were amazing! It's over now, but we snuck out to western Mass for a weekend and had the most lovely time picking apples, foraging for raspberries, and seeing the countryside in an glorious anti-bloom. Fall in New England was the spectacular beauty it's known for being.

Simple Umbilical Cord Cutting Tool to Overcome Infection in Third World

Simple Umbilical Cord Cutting Tool to Overcome Infection in Third World

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A New Life in New Haven

Hi all! I know it's been a long time since I last posted, but isn't it always? I will try to describe my first few weeks at the Yale School of Nursing (YSN) in New Haven, CT as a graduate-entry student in nursing (a.k.a. 'GEPN') . You may remember that I am enrolled in the midwifery specialty, but this year is spent achieving an RN licensure. Then, I move to my specialty training to achieve competence an advanced practice nurse in midwifery, achieve licensure as such and complete a Masters in Nursing Science.

This evening is the night before my first big exam, in the class which haunts GEPN students - 'Medical-Surgical Nursing.' As I've done all I believe possible to prepare, at this point I chose to reflect on the past weeks since I arrived in New Haven on August 24th. I remember my first visit to Yale in June; I admit the sight of the building, in its concrete brutalism glory, on the other side of the highway from the main Yale campus, actually brought tears of disappointment. At this point, I realize that I was still in culture shock and the reaction was mainly insecurity over closing my service early.

Today, I arrive at the YSN building excited to see my colleagues, who continue to impress me with their sincerity, integrity and intellectual excellence, and proud to be learning from gifted people like Linda Pellico. YSN formally announced and welcomed Holly Kennedy to campus this week and I felt the tug of tears again-this time in relief- when I remember fully the serendipity in which I chose to come to YSN sight unseen, after meeting Angie Chambers and Jessica, a then-student, now alum of this program. I am so proud of my association with this program and appreciate New Haven every morning when I see the view from my place (also rented unseen). I know, I'm emo-Claudette.

Jessica was doing a research project on the other side of the island on Haitian women who experience pica during pregnancy. Benjamin and I were living the Peace Corps Volunteer life, 'the hardest job you'll ever love' and the hard part was over - we were acculturated and 'over' America as much as one can be. I had been cultivating a service in which my primary project, a collective of coffee farmers turned into my professional goal, and helping women be happy, healthy and valued was my joy. I think in that moment I 'got the call' to be a midwife, but I didn't know that word yet.

Jessica and I connected over email and something told me to go see her. I happened to visit on the weekend her faculty advisers came to visit her project. I won't often speak of my faith, but I would be remiss in failing to credit powers larger than I for my, having every reason not to take a bus for 14 hours, decided to do so on a hunch that it might be 'interesting.' Of course, Ben urged me to go and wandered around La Romana eating pica pollo while I ate in a restaurant.

By the time my visit with these three midwives was over, I knew I had been called home, but I was apprehensive - who stops on a dime like that anyway? I went through the rigmarole of application but I was nervous. Even up to my first day of school, I wasn't sure - and now I couldn't be more so! I am so lucky!

Orientation was boring, but there were a few notable happenings:

1. I met person after person whom for whom I have strong good instincts, many of them my colleagues in midwifery. My class size is 87 and the midwifery specialty claims 14 of those.
2. The YSN has been open since 1923 and has struggled to garner support from the University during it's down cycles. I'm sure you can imagine that nurses can't donate on par with law and medicine graduates even though nurses are entrusted with the well-being of clientele everywhere they serve. It's only through the commitment of the alumni, students, faculty, and several clever deans that it's remained open continuously. I think Yale is probably pretty happy it stood by YSN during the lean years with the current status of health care in our country.
   
3. I realized New Haven is a beautiful and special place to live. Of course, what's not to like about the grad student life? I would be some kinda jerk if I didn't admit that it's a privilege priceless to have access to hot water, food, loans, the finest education system in human history and sealed living structures with running water all at once.
4. I'm way in over my head here, academically.
   

Classes started on September 2. It's been hard. I find sitting forever impossible, I can't seem to be on time, give accurate directions or act civilized - often carelessly cutting in lines, interrupting people, expecting indirect answers to work or pay attention when people talk to me about anything more complicated than what's for lunch. But I'm working on it! Recently the sound of constant electricity stopped irritating me, so that's a step.

In addition, I went to college a long time ago and it's been 10 years plus since I took physics, biology and chemistry. I love my classes but I am a disaster trying to keep up. Meaning I often sit with all my textbooks open around me, my notes and wikipedia on the computer - and I'm still lost. I have been fortunate to be taken in by a few generous people who tutor me and (status post) I passed the first exam (that I mentioned up top of this post).

Missing Posts

DR 'duh' moment

I just got in the shower and scrubbed my underwear because my brain turned off, and my auto-pilot is still in Dominican.

Advice from Dad

Thanks, guys. In the past few months since I've left Peace Corps a few people have asked me why I stopped blogging. I thought that without the American-abroad circumstance, there wasn't a need. But, I love to write and if just one person wants to read - I'll keep it up!

I talked to my Dad this morning. He loves to chat, and he has chat 'modes.' One mode is when he tells a story about how the world is. These are often long stories, relaying his take on a broad human topic, like how good it is that doñas cook or how kind he found my DR neighbors. (True, they are pretty nice). Other times, he likes to give advice. This used to irk me, and now that I'm old enough that I give young'ns unsolicited advice, Dad's doing so seems righteous.

What's great about my Dad's advice is his uncanny ability to make statements that are good measures of most decisions. Today we were talking about my need for furniture in a new apartment. I have so much beautiful furniture in sunny California, but, alas, I am setting up an apartment in green New Haven, CT. Dad says he want to drive our furniture out! I know, he's a dear man. I say, 'Dad, just let me handle this with second-hand furniture from Craigslist and whatnot. It doesn't really matter who will win (Dad likes to debate all topics for weeks, sometimes months), but here are a few of his sage remarks.

'Claudette, the problems really start when you lack imagination. Don't forget that just 5 variables leads to a factorial of 120 solutions. All problems are limited only by your ability to imagine new potential solutions.'

'Claudette, we're not capitalists, but we do conserve capital.'

and my favorite: 'Claudette, don't be dogmatic.'

Hello, East Coast

I've been back in the States for two weeks now. The showers are great! I can't complain about a thing. I love the sky. To me, it looks thin and high. The sky in the DR was close and heavy, like wet, glistening wool. I am so lucky to be from Los Angeles. The first place I went on the way home was New York. My heart kept stumbling over all the wonders on a Park Slope boulevard: stand alone, planned trees, single elegant electric wires like jump rope up above the trees, large smooth concrete slabs to make up a sidewalk. Red brick walk-ups against a grey sky. I felt like telling people 'I'm an American, but I'm new here' because it's just fascinating how darling the city looks.

We flew to Burbank, and that was like going from fairytale to perfection. That golden light the Santa Monica mountains give off, has it always been like that? My house in Burbank, has it always been so cool and quiet inside? My parents bought a couch while I was gone, and the luxury of sitting in it made me feel like I was on vacation. One day, I turned on the shower and no hot water came out. So I'm bathing, thinking, hey, I still know how to take a cold one! As I toweled off, I realized I had just forgotten to turn the hot water on. Apparently, my brain don't remember how to do that so much unless I focus on it. I giggled, remembering Arelis. She says hot water damages your hair, and if you want shiny, you want cold. I think about my Dominican family and friends often' their voices ring like pretty wind chimes a few feet behind me in the breeze.

I stay out of stores, stay away from magazines. I think my favorite moment of the whole two weeks was when my niece fell asleep on my lap during a movie. I have always been a very family oriented person, but my service made that bigger. It's just a DR thing, family is all we thought about, planned for, worked on. (Unless you were a drunk unemployed man, but that's another story). Being around people who spent all day talking about their kids, their parents, their siblings made me wonder more than anything 'what am I doing here? My parents don't live here.' Arelis would always ask about my family. What an embarrassment if I didn't have an update. The stores and magazines send little culture shock waves through me, too, but a girl can only handle so many culture shock waves per day, so I pare it down to the amazing American skylines and cityscapes.

Like I said on Facebook, I saw the LA skyline and it brought me joy. Do I miss the DR?

I miss it a lot. I like Los Angeles for so many selfish reasons, like the city is so clean and the sad things are sectioned off, where I am in control of how much exposure to them I get. My family here is much richer than my family there. As a PCV, I lived in relative poverty and worked with the effects of poverty almost exclusively. A vacation from from that sort of problem solving is rest for my psyche.