LOOOONG Clinic Day

Today was our second "solo" clinic. We were in Chicabracan, a small village just outside Santa Cruz, where we live. There hasn't been a clinic there in some time, so we were not surprisingly swamped. We went straight from 8am to 6pm with no more than about a five minute break at one point to inhale a sandwich and maintain some semblance of sanity. We saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 patients.

Heidi, always a surgeon, got to cut someone, which makes it a successful day in her book. A nine year old boy came in with his parents, who showed us a small stab wound on the front of his leg, just above the ankle. His dad was kinda funny. He kept pointing out how small the wound was and wondering why he couldn't walk. Well, the whole front of his leg was red and the cut was pretty infected looking. So Heidi shot him up with some lidocaine, which he did NOT enjoy, and proceeded to "liberate pus" - one of her favorite activities.

We saw three month old twins, both with colds. They were SOOO cute! We saw a boy and his mother, who were both really sick with the crud. The son had a 103 degree temperature. We saw lots of high blood pressure and diabetes. We saw a girl who had headaches, probably due to a lazy eye (we referred her to an eye team that comes through every two weeks). And lots, lots more.

One funny thing about local custom is that they refer to a week from today as "ocho dias" or "eight days". Two weeks from today is "quince dias" or "fifteen days". They apparently count today as day 1. So forgive us if we mention that we're doing something in eight or fifteen days. Sometimes it's hard to keep our languages straight!

Anyway, the pictures. The first picture is a dozen roses Matt bought for Heidi in the market yesterday. Don't tell Heidi, but they cost Q10 (at an exchange rate of Q7.5 = $1). Matt suggests coming to Guatemala just before Valentine's Day!!!

The second picture is Dra. Heidi (Dra. = Doctora, the feminine version of Doctor) in the door of our clinic room in Chicabracan, surrounded by about 1/6 of the patients we saw today.

The third picture is Heidi again (in Guatemala, her name is pronounced HAY-dee. Just go with it, it's easier) with a baby who is less than a month old. Her mother came in complaining that she was very tranquil during the day but cried a lot at night. We told her that the good news is that she's normal. The bad news is that she's normal. So there you go. Kids are pretty much the same, all over the world. Except here they wear the cutest little trajes. (A traje is the traditional Mayan dress that the women wear. This baby had one that was SOOOO small!)

Anyway, tomorrow we're back at ASELSI in Chichicastenango. Always a very nice experience. Please keep us and our patients in your prayers. And pray for us to be able to get some insulin soon! We're out and it's not very easy to get here....