....had to pause for dinner and devotions...continuing on Dr. Halbrooks led our devotional the first night. Then off to bed, a little difficult to sleep the first night, just too excited for the first day of clinic!
7/4/11 It was so exciting this morning when all the Haitian staff came to the compound for breakfast. It was so great seeing the Haitian staff again (Mi, Fr, Pi, Ju..), and others whom I have been talking to on facebook and now to get to see them again in person was so great!! I am on team Alpha with Dr. Merline, Pam is helping in the pharmacy with Mi (helping her translate), we have Dr. Halbrooks and his wife, and daughter Victoria, and pastor Phil, and Jeremiah. I was the only one to triage, but thankfully Pastor Phil helped me do temperatures, and Victoria took weights, so I could do blood pressures, and other vitals. We were in a cement block church today in Bon repo, we went down hwy 1 toward Port-au-prince, and veered off down a small road, past a busy market to the church. People had already gathered on the wooden boards and cement block pews of the church. We all set up and introduced ourselves, each of us shared our excitement for coming, and wanting to share God's love with the people they clapped for us. We saw 147 patients today (109 patients were seen at the other site), with many cases of diabetes (hereditary I guess, plus the diet of rice and beans maybe), many cases of bronchitis, some children had high fevers which I immediately gave them Tylenol. Many complain of dizziness, as well as pain, one lady mentioned she had recently been hit by a car, this being the second time. There were there little children (timoun) that stole my heart today, one was a little girl, so cute with bright brown eyes, and her hair in braids, her right eye was obviously infected, swollen, and oozing, she ran a high fever, yet was so sweet. She did not want to swallow her Tylenol but it did help to take her fever down somewhat. Then there was this tiny infant boy so extremely thin, emaciated, and barely hanging on to life, so weak. I gave him Tylenol into his tiny blistered mouth, and he did not fight at all. We gave him a shot in what little tissue he had in his buttock (in which he barely flinched, and barely made a cry). Dr. Merline said that he should be taken to the hospital soon, yet the mother did not think she could walk that far or afford a ride. We gave the mother the many medications we had, as well as I gave the mother formula (thanks Cynthia for the formula) so hopefully save him life. He had pale patches of some kind of rash covering his body, his head misshapen, Dr. Merline thinking he may have meningitis. Oh such a sweet little soul, I pray for him tonight, may the formula, and medications restore him and he hold on... dear Lord. Then the last little patient, a small boy (~8 years old) whose ear was totally impacted with hard wax (that had built up for who knows how long). I stood beside him holding an emesis basin by his ear for the countless times of flushing and scraping out his ear. I felt bad for the little guy, but he tolerated the regimen very well until the very end, when the pain/pressure in his ear became unbearable, yet he wanted to hear again. I tried to distract him with a dumdum, then a piece of candy, until finally Dr. Merlin and I both looked in his ear and there was some break through. When we finished I gave the boy a silly band cross and blow up ball. It was like he totally forgot the pain as he smiled and beamed all the way out the clinic.
7/4/11 It was so exciting this morning when all the Haitian staff came to the compound for breakfast. It was so great seeing the Haitian staff again (Mi, Fr, Pi, Ju..), and others whom I have been talking to on facebook and now to get to see them again in person was so great!! I am on team Alpha with Dr. Merline, Pam is helping in the pharmacy with Mi (helping her translate), we have Dr. Halbrooks and his wife, and daughter Victoria, and pastor Phil, and Jeremiah. I was the only one to triage, but thankfully Pastor Phil helped me do temperatures, and Victoria took weights, so I could do blood pressures, and other vitals. We were in a cement block church today in Bon repo, we went down hwy 1 toward Port-au-prince, and veered off down a small road, past a busy market to the church. People had already gathered on the wooden boards and cement block pews of the church. We all set up and introduced ourselves, each of us shared our excitement for coming, and wanting to share God's love with the people they clapped for us. We saw 147 patients today (109 patients were seen at the other site), with many cases of diabetes (hereditary I guess, plus the diet of rice and beans maybe), many cases of bronchitis, some children had high fevers which I immediately gave them Tylenol. Many complain of dizziness, as well as pain, one lady mentioned she had recently been hit by a car, this being the second time. There were there little children (timoun) that stole my heart today, one was a little girl, so cute with bright brown eyes, and her hair in braids, her right eye was obviously infected, swollen, and oozing, she ran a high fever, yet was so sweet. She did not want to swallow her Tylenol but it did help to take her fever down somewhat. Then there was this tiny infant boy so extremely thin, emaciated, and barely hanging on to life, so weak. I gave him Tylenol into his tiny blistered mouth, and he did not fight at all. We gave him a shot in what little tissue he had in his buttock (in which he barely flinched, and barely made a cry). Dr. Merline said that he should be taken to the hospital soon, yet the mother did not think she could walk that far or afford a ride. We gave the mother the many medications we had, as well as I gave the mother formula (thanks Cynthia for the formula) so hopefully save him life. He had pale patches of some kind of rash covering his body, his head misshapen, Dr. Merline thinking he may have meningitis. Oh such a sweet little soul, I pray for him tonight, may the formula, and medications restore him and he hold on... dear Lord. Then the last little patient, a small boy (~8 years old) whose ear was totally impacted with hard wax (that had built up for who knows how long). I stood beside him holding an emesis basin by his ear for the countless times of flushing and scraping out his ear. I felt bad for the little guy, but he tolerated the regimen very well until the very end, when the pain/pressure in his ear became unbearable, yet he wanted to hear again. I tried to distract him with a dumdum, then a piece of candy, until finally Dr. Merlin and I both looked in his ear and there was some break through. When we finished I gave the boy a silly band cross and blow up ball. It was like he totally forgot the pain as he smiled and beamed all the way out the clinic.
Whew, I think I am going to have an awesome right bicep, because my arm was pretty tired today after doing about 100 manual blood pressures. But it was awesome still, after I finished triage I helped some with “Mi” in the pharmacy, as well as sat with Dr. Halbrooks, and Dr. Merline trying to learn anything I could about diagnosing and treating the patients. It was great, yet I still wish I could do much more. The patients had to wait the longest to see the doctor, so I wish I could diagnose, and prescribe meds, but tried to help as much as I could. It was a blessing today that there was a small back room attached to the back of the church in which we ate our PB & J sandwiches as well as use a toilet, it did not flush, but was nicely secluded behind a cement corridor around from where we ate. This was nice to not eat in front of the patients. Especially since all the patients I took blood glucose checks on today, after asking, said they had not had anything to eat this day. Overall it was a blessed day, our team worked great together, and quickly picked up a good assembly line to triage, and get the patients through the clinic.
I enjoyed talking to ‘Mi’ again in person, he will be helping to translate and run the pharmacy till Wednesday. I enjoyed riding in the front of the van, beside ‘Pi’, an awesome driver. He does not speak really any English, but understands a little (piti), yet he has such a kind and servant spirit. I enjoyed today meeting two of our Haitian staff, “St” ( the translator for the American Dr.), and “Sa”, translator and pharmacy helper (who wants to be a nurse). “St”’s English was so clear, he said (on the drive back to the compound) that he learned English from watching TV, and he said it was a God given gift he was given, which I believe it! St also taught us some phrases to say in Creole (which I tried to write down on the bumpy ride home J). St tells us he is one of six children, and sadly his mother last year died of a heart attack. “St” used to live in Port-au-prince until after the earthquake he moved towards Titanyen. He lives now with his father, step-mother, and six siblings; he is 26 and finished the 11th grade. He has been working now with us (NCBM), but has also worked with Mission of Hope to translate. He hopes though to save enough money to finish his 12th grade of school and to become a nurse or doctor (which he was great today helping me poke the patients manually to check glucose) :) “St” (quite the business man) will be getting our bracelets made, which we ordered today. (He even gave me a 1$ discount, since I helped get him business, signing up others that wanted bracelets, lol :)
We all returned back safely to the compound, we took showers, had dinner, then devotions, and got ready to start another day! I think tomorrow team alpha goes to Caberet!!
I am also looking forward to Wednesday, it was such a God thing that I just happened to have friended a girl on facebook named Morgan Weinberg. I loved looking at her pictures from Haiti & was just amazing at her age of 17 she is living at an orphanage taking care of 70 children just north of Titanyen, at the Good Samaritan Orphanage. I talked with her briefly before I left for Haiti to get her contact information, just to see if by chance I would be able to visit her orphanage. Then tonight I talked to Dr. Vlad and he said they usually go to a school on Wednesday but school is out, so we needed a place for our alpha team. I was excited to tell him about the orphanage, and later we called Morgan that night. She was so excited for us to come, saying she has a few kids that really need to see a doctor; they have had fevers and diarrhea for three days. She also is in need of vitamins, and to get her children tetanus & other vaccination shots. Dr. Vlad said they have plenty of tetanus shots, and we will call tomorrow to get more information to prepare for what to bring. This was so awesome how God brought Morgan (who is from Canada) & myself together on facebook, and now we will meet on Wednesday. Thanks for facebook bringing our missions together!! Well I am off to write down more phrases in Creole to practice for tomorrow's clinic
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