The hips don't lie but those shorts don't either. -J.Schwartz

I know those of you who know and love Justin are missing your doses of Schwartzisms by now. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, please watch this award winning video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw_82KwYu4U which Justin and I put together a few months back). I have been faithful to keep up with Schwartzisms while I was here and wanted to share one with you.
Now for the real reason you're reading...
After our time at the resident clinic at San Joaquin, we spent Thursday and Friday at the Hospital Josefina Martinez. This is an amazing facility for children with chronic respiratory diseases.

Most have a tracheostomy, some require ventilator support, and a few only need supplemental oxygen. Justin and I split up and each saw a few different patients with a resident or pulmonary fellow. We saw patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, BPD with subglottic stenosis, spinal muscular atrophy, Larsen syndrome, Beckwith–Wiedemann, amongst other things. A special shout out to Dr. Boyd for sharing your syndrome knowledge with us.

The patients were adorable with large personalities. Most of them reside at the hospital for a long time until they are able to arrange home care. On Thursday we were able to watch as some of the patients participated in an occupational therapy session which involved planting an "orchard" along with puzzles, making fruit salad, and pool time. This was a very fun part of our day as we got to play with the children. Justin had a huge fan in Jessinia, who wanted him constantly at her side.

I made friends with Francisco who was giggled with delight every time I neared his crib...because he thought it was hilarious to push me away.

I could not resist showing you this video of Justin with Jessinia and Oscar.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5267891521119374820

So anyway... we had fun and learned some stuff. We participated in nutrition rounds with the doctor who specializes in pediatric nutrition. She rounds on the patient at least once a month to determine if their nutritional needs are being met. She was a great teacher and really encouraged us to participate in the discussion.

We also got to watch the doctors perform a bronchoscopy on a a patient with upper airway obstruction secondary to Pierre Robin syndrome. Pretty cool stuff!

We met Paula and her husband Nelson on Thursday night for sushi dinner at Akbar. Paula said this was some of the best sushi in town so we were eager to try it. She did not lie...it was amazing! They frequently use palta (avocado) to wrap their sushi here, which was the interesting twist that made the sushi so delicious!

I also learned another interesting food fact from Paula. We noticed that they serve avocado with a lot of dishes down here (it's even on their hotdogs) but I hadn't actually had any until this night. The avocado down here is different from what we're used to in America... it's much creamier which made the sushi even better. I can't believe I've missed out on all this creamy avocado.  We ordered a variety of different sushi (most wrapped in palta) to share and everything was excellent! We had a really good time with Paula and Nelson and in case you can't tell...we really enjoyed the food!

Our next adventure was our beach weekend in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso so stay tuned!