Day 6

Although I have been working at the Clinic for sometime, it was not until Day 6 that I really got to learn about the Clinic. The more I learned about the Clinic, the more fortunate I felt to be a part of it!
The San Jose Clinic has been in Houston for over 85 years. It is currently the oldest continuously operating charity clinic in the country!! I had no idea! It was in 2006 that the clinic developed a plan to construct a new 55,000 square-foot facility in Downtown Houston by 2010. It is weird to think that a couple of weeks before I started volunteering, the San Jose clinic was somewhere else!
I also learned that the clinic has an annual expense of about 4. 3 million dollars - most of which is earned via contributions. Every year, the clinic has about 30,000 logged visits which include dental, primary and specialty care visits. The clinic distributes almost 1 million dollars worth of pharmaceuticals.
It's amazing to think that this Clinic in Houston is doing so much for our community. I am so glad that we got the opportunity to get involved with this Clinic this semester!

Day 5

So it's Friday and I am sitting in my second class where all of a sudden, I feel really weird. No tummy ache, no head ache, nothing aches..but I can tell that something is not right in my body. As soon as Father Ted lets us out, I almost run to my car, turn on the ignition and head home. As soon as I walk through my doors, I tell my parents I do not feel well and I go and just fall on the bed. For the next seven hours, I do not move an inch. I lay in bed feeling quite helpless. I feel so queasy but nothing I am doing is making me feel any better. I continue to feel the exact same way for another 72 hours. It's Monday evening - I finally eat my first real meal in 4 days.

But this blog is not merely to rant about Rachel Chacko catching some weird virus. Getting sick like that and feeling completely helpless really made me think about all those people that come to the San Jose Clinic. The patients at the Clinic are not nearly as fortunate as I am. At the very least, I have a mom who is an R.N., who is ready to do anything do for me at a moments notice. Many of the patients who come to the clnic have no education about how their body operates and do not even know the most basic of steps to do when sick. And even if they did, many of them simply cannot afford it. In many ways, they are so helpless, much worse than I was laying on my comfortable bed, in the comfort of my own home.

Everytime I see a patient come towards me at the clinic and begin speaking in Spanish, I all of a sudden feel so sad. I am not sure if its the language barrier that adds to this feeling. But I always feel like without that clinic, many of these people would feel absoutely alone and would simply suffer in pain. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a few hours at this clinic every week. I know that it is not really a big deal to volunteer for a couple of hours. But I like to tell myself that no matter what I am doing, in some small way, my time at the clniic will help touch the life of someone who really needs a helping hand.

And that is all the things I learned from catching a stupid virus that destroyed my entire weekend :)

Day 4

Unlike all the other times I had volunteered, I helped out with medical records during my 4th trip to the clinic. I had heard a lot of horror stories of what actually went down at medical records but I figured I should experience it for myself. To my surprise..I actually liked it! I worked with Kyley. Our main responisbility was to file the folders that were taken out during the patients' appointment.
The sad part is that most of the medical records are stored in boxes. The clinic does not have enough cabinets. And this makes it difficult for the older volunteers to pick up several boxes stacked together and get on the floor to look through and find the folder that they need. So it was nice that we could help them out during our brief time there.
There's an older volunteer by the name of Jack who who works in medical records. He is probably close to 80. He has a thick Brooklyn accent and is a hoot! He says the funniest things and it definitely makes the experience interesting. to say the least. I had heard a lot of stories about Jack so it was good to finally meet him. It's motivating to see someone that well into their years being proactive in the community. Although Jack is stuck in his ways and wants everything done the "Jack way", I think it is very admirable that he takes time out of his day to come to the clinic and help out! It was deinitely inspiring:)