First day at the General Clinic

What an unusually exciting day. We got to the clinic earlier than usual this morning so we got a head start on the almost 100 patients waiting to see us outside the door. After we got set up, me and the new nurse made a quick trip around triage to make sure we didn't have anyone critical outside that needed to be seen inside. We found 2 and the others took a number and waited.

I started off with my few five patients being pretty serious cases. The first lady had an open sore on her right ankle that, once I got eye level with it, it was oozing puss and had a terrible odor to it. You could track her like a deer around the clinic. I got her in to see the doctor first and they sent her on to a hospital. There is a good chance she will loose that foot I think. I had a nice infected spider bite that got lanced open and drained. A lady that was 5 months pregnant had fall, 6 days ago and was bleeding. We had her sent out too because we are not equiped to handle anything like that. I got to talk to an earthquack victim that was just now coming in to have her ankle looked at... 18 months later! She had an amazing story.

The highlight of my day was making a child cry. Now I know that sounds bad but what the mom told me made it hilarious. The little girl, around 2 or so, kept watching me. I walked over and put a sticker on her shirt and talked to her. The little girl took off screaming and crying. The mom told me and the medical director that the girl was scared of the white man. We lost it!!

The low point of the day was working with a true HIV patient. Not that it bothered me working with her, it was seeing how truley bad this dieseas really is. She was 39 years old and the size of a 14 year old. We talked for a few minutes and she left. She was a diabetic and of course I checked her blood sugar. My interperatur was very hesitant about me drawing blood on her, but I insured him that everything was ok. He had never been around anyone with HIV before and wasn't educated enough about it to know what to do around those that have it.

We had what they think is a record number of patients come through, 167. I seen an even 50 myself and the 2 nurses got the rest. The Chaplain was working the crowd of patients behind me and it was a joy being part of that. There were 9 saved and 19 rededicated just at our clinic alone. I hope to get to witness a little more tomorrow because it is slow the rest of the week they said.