Yes, Two in One Day

So sorry to post twice in one day, but somehow we feel that you'll forgive us. ;)

We just got back from an awesome meeting in Chichicastenango with many of the American missionary health care providers. Sharon Harvey (with ASELSI) hosted. She is a nurse and runs the clinic there. Besides clinic one day a week, they also do feeding programs for malnourished kids, a physical therapy program for injured or disabled kids, and they do lots of work with helping to provide surgery for people who are in desperate circumstances.

Leslie Ficker and Katie Elleiott are both nurses that we work with in Canillá and San Andrés. They also do a clinic in Chiminicijuan and are going to start doing some work in Ixcan and Zona Reina (with their new plane).

Lisa Dunham is a family practice doctor, also based in Chichicastenango. She and her husband do a lot of rural clincs, just like the two of us, but their setup is slightly different. Most of their clinics are only once a month and their organization is hiring lots of local doctors and dentists to start building some more permanent clinics in very underserved areas. They are also helping to train local volunteer health promoters, but shared with us that that is exceedingly challenging!

Tom Hoak is a general surgeon in Chichicastenango and is where most of the missionary doctors/nurses refer their surgical patients. Heidi has done some surgeries with him and there is probably going to be a need for a missionary OB/GYN at his hospital very soon. The hospital he works at is a missionary hospital and thus has a very low cost, but still has to charge patients. He has a fund that supplements what patients cannot pay. The average surgery costs $500-$700 and the average patient can contribute between $10-$50. (The people here really are poor!) He is in a bit of a tough spot financially right now and there is way more need than there is money.

You may remember the man with the back tumor that Heidi assisted on the surgery and the woman with the breast tumor that needed a biopsy. He also has a woman there whose uterus is literally between her knees. With the government hospitals being closed for non-emergency surgeries, there is a greater need now than ever. He never turns away anyone who truly needs the help but is in a bit of a funding crisis. Anyone who feels led to help some of the desperate people here can make a world of difference with just a few hundred dollars. Please let us know if you want to help.

Also very exciting is the fact that we (the American missionaries) are working very hard to ensure that we all know who has teams coming down and when. With this information, we can refer patients to each other's teams. We also have a bit of a network so if resources or services are being offered, we have a wider base of interest and need to ensure that those resources and services are being used where they are most needed.

And finally, we are in the med sharing business now, too. We have been sharing meds and equipment amongst ourselves and now have a formal way to let each other know when we have a glut of something or a need for something. Once resources are donated, they belong to God, not to us, so we don't particularly care which doctor or nurse hands them out. We will be sharing some of the diabetes strips we just received (and the response to that information was thunderous - those things are hard for everybody to get and they are desperately needed). Sharon singlehandedly restocked our pharmacy with about a dozen different meds we were running out of and she doesn't need. Leslie went home with about four armloads of stuff she needs, too. And the hospital here in Quiché will receive and entire pickup truck bed worth of stuff on Wednesday that was brought in by everybody to be shared.

Tomorrow, we are headed to San Bartolomé for another day of prenatal screening in the Centro de Salud (Center of Health) there. You may recall that this area has some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the nation. The local docs and nurses are doing a fantastic job in their new Centro and they are using our ultrasound machine as a way to draw people in so they can see what is available to them. (Acceptance of new ideas comes a little slow in some places.) With any luck, all of our patients tomorrow will be perfectly healthy, but if not, we'll do what we can to help!