I'm Back!

Welcome back in 2010 for my blog. I'll be a lot busier this spring so it may not be updated as often, sorry!

This past week was busy, exhausting, but absolutely AMAZING! We spent the week with a team from Manchester Community College, Team XiMedica, and some individuals doing health clinics. We were stationed at the orphanage in Jaibon but worked out in communities about 20-30 minutes away where they had little to no access to healthcare.

The week was successful to say the least, we saw 1011+ patients in 4 days with only 4 practioners!

Each day we were in a different area. Day 1 we were in Jicome, Day 2 we were in Esperanza (where I used to go to the other orphanage that no longer is open), Day 3 we were in Batey Libertad (the poorest of the week) and Day 4 we were at the orphanage serving people from the local community there.

Patients would wait in line for sometimes up to 4 hours to be seen by a physician. It is common here that patients aren't really sick but want to have some medicine for headaches, or colds when they do get them. Tylenol is something we obviously take for granted. These people don't just have Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Vitamins sitting in their house ready to take whenever, so for them receive only 30 pills for free is a blessing for them.

We saw all kinds of interesting thing. We saw multiple abscesses/infections, lots of colds, stomach pain (heartburn), high blood pressure, diabetes, and lots of skin fungus especially in Batey Libertad.

Some memorable patients/sights: Day 1 I opened the door after lunch to start seeing patients again and about 50 people came thru 2 doors at once shoving to get into line. It was pure chaos and I quickly learned my lesson not to open 2 doors again, instead one at a time to contain them! We saw tons of cute kids and babies of course! I saw a kid with fetal alcohol syndrome that the physician had typical features for that. She was so cute, and it is sad to think a mother could be so selfish and do that to their child but I guess without the education and living in the poverty here, sometimes alcohol may be their only escape from reality (unfortunately).

Day 2 we were at a local school working in the town of Esperanza. We could have seen probably 500 patients that day if we would have taken everyone that was there. We stopped handing out tickets to be seen at 10:45 am and worked until 5pm if that tells you how many people were there! A 100 year old lady with huge dark glasses and ankles the size of my thighs from swelling was seen and the physician that saw her said he was her most memorable patient all week. To see the wrinkles on her face and know how hard she had worked her entire life, he said it was just amazing that she still had a smile and loved life! There was a baby with pneumonia and one of the volunteers created a breathing mask, to cover his face and nose, so he could get an albuterol treatment from an inhaler. The best part is, it was made out of a gatorade bottle and some tape!

Day 3 we were in Batey Libertad, my favorite of the week. This is a very poor village with very little and several Haitans living there! They were all so grateful and there were soooo many children. Our first patient was actually a Dominican guy from Day 2 that wasn't able to be seen and he said he was going to come first thing in the morning to be seen. Well, here they had to get a ticket from the community leader to be seen but since he didn't live there he didn't know who that was so he asked Bryson and I how he was supposed to get a ticket. We pulled him aside and made him the first patient of the day since he had come from the day before. He had a huge cast from an accident and was in lots of pain. He was grateful to be seen and left happy with his Tylenol!

We had a little boy with horrible swimmer's ear but didn't have drops until later in the afternoon so I was determined to find him. I went on a wild goose chase with 2 little 8 year old boys around the batey, going down muddy alley ways until I happened to look inside one of the homes and recognize the little boy's sister. I asked the Mom if her son had a bad ear and she brought him over to me. I gave her the drops and she was pleased!

Little boy with tops on and no pants or underwear were peeing everyone, all over themselves. Babies had scabies, and nasty fungal infections on their heads, and skin. Families of 4-5 kids with mothers younger than 20 probably. Mud everywhere. BUT ALWAYS, HUGE SMILES EVERYWHERE!

Day 4 was a little crazy. It was slow in the morning, the 23 orphanage boys got full physical exams, and some other people from the community were seen. By afternoon, the word was out and tons of people came. Before we knew it we had over 160 people waiting to be seen and we had to stop taking patients. It was a long day, physicans working until 6:15pm, already exhausted from 3 long days before that! An elderly lady came after we had finished handing out tickets but she had a huge infection on her hip from her underwear cutting into her and we accepted her and pulled her to the front of the line. One lady was so grateful that she said a prayer in the pharmacy for about 5 minutes, thanking God for all of us and what we were doing. All throughout her prayer, the other 4-5 men waiting in the pharmacy had their heads bowed and eyes closed! May be one of my favorite memories all week!

All in all, it was an awesome week! Tuesday was crazy with the earthquake. We were loading the bus and as I stared at it I noticed it was moving (looked like someone was pushing from behind) and I turned around because I thought the motion of the bus was making me dizzy. Little did I know the ground was rocking and that was what was making me dizzy! I turned around, still felt dizzy and looked at everyone else as we realized it was an earthquake! It lasted a good 20-30 seconds and we were all kind of in shock. It took several hours to realize that it was such a terrible sight in Haiti and had done so much damage! It really breaks my heart to see pictures and hear stories of what is happening over there! We had no damage here where we are living so we were very lucky!

Now I am back in Monte Cristi. We came Friday morning and all the kids were excited to see me. It was awesome to give them big hugs and see them all again. Saturday we cleaned up and put stuff away in Jaibon because no one will be there until the end of Feb. We headed back to Monte Cristi after lunch and now I'm back home! I got to see the kids and hang out with them some but I also had to rest because I was worn out from the long week. I'm excited to be back in Monte Cristi, in my room, with my roomies, and with my kids! Can't wait for what's to come!