Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Here's a quick snapshot of what is going on with our clinics:
TUESDAY: Working on getting a full schedule.
This past week, we had a new clinic scheduled, but it was canceled at the last minute. Today, we also did not have a clinic because it did not get arranged in time. We did a second time clinic in San Pedro Jocopilas a couple of weeks ago, but we don't plan on repeating it as not a relatively high amount of need there. A few months ago, we had started a new clinic above San Pedro Jocopilas in the mountains. This as well did not turn out to be a long-term clinic due to lack of need and relatively short foot travel proximity to the Tabil clinic. We hope to get a solid schedule for the day very soon.
WEDNESDAY: Chicabracan 2, Nueva Santa Catarina, and Tabil
All of these clinics, we do on our own (Areli and I) except when we have occasional students or teams helping us.
Chicabracan 2
This clinic is located about a half hour away. We do it every two weeks. This is one of the longest standing clinics that we have inherited and one of our favorites. There is mix of several chronic patients (diabetes, high blood pressure, and seizures), sick kids, and pregnant women.
Nueva Santa Catarina
This clinic is about a 1 1/2 hour drive and is the longest geographical distance of any of the clinics. This clinic is peculiar because there are so many "seizure" patients that we treat. It is very difficult to get a good history from the patients and some of these "seizures" are questionable, while others are more believable--such as those who show up with burns from falling in the fire during a seizure. We also have several diabetics that we treat here and lots of the usual "gastritis", sick kids, and pregnant ladies. The interesting case last week was that of a 13 year old girl that came in for lower abdominal pain and missing here period for the past three weeks. Her story was that she had seen a snake a few months back that scared her and she hadn't had a period since. When I examined here, I found that her lower abdomen was very "swollen" and the ultrasound showed a four month old baby. I don't know the rest of the story but she and her two aunts that accompanied her were informed of her "diagnosis."
Tabil
This is a clinic that we started several months back and has turned out to be a very good clinic. The unique things about this clinic is that all of our stuff has to be carried up a big hill to the church. We usually get a lot of help from the local people.
There have been a lot of new patients coming each week. There have also been a couple of bigger cases:
1) A baby with spina bifida (when the spinal column doesn't close all of the way during development)
2) A little girl with the most severe heart murmur I have ever heard.
Unfortunately, after talking with other missionaries and docs, it is probably best to leave the spina bifida alone. However, we are trying to get the little girl to get testing done when her family is ready.
THURSDAY: ASELSI General Medical Clinic
ASELSI is an organization that does both medical and equipping of pastors. We have been working with them weekly since we arrived. These clinics are a mix of sick kids, sick adults, and new pregnant women. A few weeks back, we had a man who was very sick and had a severe anemia with a hemoglobin of 3.6 (normal is 14)--this beat my previous record low of 5.0. This basically means, he had very little blood. But he was still able to make it up and down two flights of stairs twice--probably with some help. I suspect he had colon cancer. We rapidly (before he collapsed on the floor) sent him by ambulance to the hospital for a blood transfusion and further workup. However, I suspect his prognosis is very poor.
FRIDAY: ASELSI Prentatal and Chronics
Due to the large number of patients coming in for prenatal visits, in July, we moved the follow-up appointments to Fridays. This opens more spaces for the sick people on Thursdays. Typically we have 15-20 prenatals each Friday. We do not deliver babies; we just do ultrasound, prenatal vitamins, and whatever other complaints they have.
Also on Fridays, we do a chronic program that consists of about 55 patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, and seizures. They are set up on a rotating schedule and are given appointments about every two months. Unfortunately, this program is very expensive. The patients are asked to give a donation to help towards the cost of their medicines, but this still racks up a pretty big bill for ASELSI. Hopefully, it will be able to continue it. If you would like to donate, you can do so on their website. Just mark it "chronic program."
SATURDAY: Canillรก
We travel on dirt roads 1 1/2 to 2 hours by truck or motorcycle to this more remote clinic. We partner with an established ministry there: Adonai International Ministries. This clinic is a mix of chronic patients, sick kids, sick adults, and pregnant women.
Sunday we typically don't have any clinics. We continue to attend the missionary church service in the morning and help with music at the Torre Fuerte Church in the afternoon. Monday is our rest/catch-up day.