I learned today not to ask to many questions. Every time I asked where something hurt they were very quick to whip something out and show me! There is no modesty here at all in Haiti. I noticed it some the last time here, but now, boy I am getting shocked every time I turn around.
We seen a total of 153 patients at the clinic today, I seen 55 myself. I had the best compliment today from a Haitian. He said "you must be a Preacher" I answered yes I am why? He said "I could see it in your smile when you talk to people". I was on cloud nine after that. He said that while the Billy Graham Chaplain and I was working on a woman that kept saying she would accept Christ next Thursday. She had I daughter I will tell you about later in this post. She finally accepted him and her friend as well.
So I have seen 105 patients in two days and given out about 90 mebendazol pills. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is an anti-worm medication. About 80% of the people I have seen have worms. The other thing that most have are the same problems. They all have a headache, epegastric pain (yes they use that word here), fever and abdominal pain. We have been told that the patients spread the word around once they are released and say that such and such is a good way to get so and so medication. Much like the crack heads in the States do. We really don't give out anything that can harm anyone though, so we just play along.
I had a patient whose last name was Jn (like Jean-Claude Van Damme) Baptiste or as I called him, John the Baptist. I thought that was neat and was about the only name I could understand. I got to help the doctor drain and infected finger this afternoon. The patient wasn't sure what she had done, but we squeezed the finger till she passed out to get the infection out. By far the coolest thing I have done here!
I had an 18 month old come in that had burned her left hand in a fire 5 months ago. She was there to be seen for a fever, but I was more concerned about the hand than anything. I got as much info as I could on her so when I get back I am going to try to find an organization that will take her to the States to have it repaired. Right now the fist is clinched and she is unable to open it. Her mom is the one that accepted Christ today instead of next Thursday.
As we were finishing up today a mom came running in to my station holding her 2 year old son. I could tell he wasn't well and when she passed by me I could feel the heat off of him. I checked his temperature twice and got 102.7 each time. We quickly striped him down and packed him in ice. Not really sure what his deal was, but he wasn't doing good at all. The malaria test came back negative so the NP gave him some meds to take home.
Improvise 101: When your butter knife is dirty and you need something to spread peanut butter with in a clinic, use a tongue depressor.
I have the day off from the clinic tomorrow. I was asked to help put a small ambulance together that can be used by the SP staff here to transport trauma patients to hospitals. There are no real ambulances around here and SP is staffed with several nurses that have helped in the past. We are going to turn a Toyota Land Cruiser into a make shift ambulance. The guy doing it has been waiting on me to get here to help because of my back ground in EMS. I thought that was nice of him. We are going to stock a few jump bags to keep on hand and when I get back to the States I am going to try and find an AED that someone would donated to go in it.
Well I am going to find the new doc that got here today and see what he thinks about the tooth I broke earlier today eating chicken wings. Here I was worried I would lose a contact or something and I got a break a tooth. Only me!!
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