Clinic at ASELSI

Today was our first day back at ASELSI since before we left for Christmas. It was good to be back. In case you're new or had forgotten, ASELSI is an American-run clinic in Chichicastenango. You can learn more about them on their new blog which is linked to on the right hand side of this page.

We saw a pretty fair number of patients today, including a bunch of prenatal patients and all seven of our cleft lip and palate kids!

It's more fun doing prenatal visits now than it was before. We can compare our progress to the patients we're seeing...

We did have one very interesting patient today. She told us she was 50, but she was being quite generous with that. Based on the fact that she only comes about halfway up on Matt's abs, we're guessing her height to be around 4'0". She weighs 78 lbs completely dressed (and it's cold out today - so she's probably in the low 70s for weight). She wasn't really sure why she was there, but she had an appointment. We called Sharon and Dr. Hoak, since Sharon's writing was on her appointment card and she was clutching a prescription for estrogen and vitamins from Dr. Hoak.

Her main complaint was gastritis. But that didn't jive with the appointment card or the prescription, so we asked a dozen more questions through our interpreter, who was equally baffled. At least we knew it wasn't a language barrier! Heidi did an abdominal exam on this woman who has a perfectly flat stomach at probably more than 60 years of age... and we guessed from that (and it was confirmed) that she's never had any children.

She said she had been told by a jornada (a medical team from the US) that she needed surgery, but had no idea why. We repeatedly asked if her uterus was falling out and she answered "no" every time. So we sent her home with some vitamins and some gastritis meds.

Shortly after that, Dr. Hoak called back. He had pulled her chart and she has a complete prolapse of her uterus! Go figure.

Anyway, the rest of our patients went much more smoothly. It was very nice to see everybody there again.

Now, for the pictures. The first picture is of Franco post op. He's crying, but he no longer has a big hole in his face. The second picture is of Maria. That grin on her mom is about the biggest we've ever seen on her. Maria has milk in her mouth, which seems to be completely normal for her. Look at those big chubby cheeks!!!!

The third picture is of Carlos Santos (sleeping) and the fourth is of Carolina (also sleeping). Keep in mind that the rest of these kids are a week and two days post-op and Carolina is only six days. All of the parents are doing great work with keeping the incisions clean and not bottle feeding their kids. They have one week to go on syringes, then they can go back to the bottle.

We'll post some more pre-op vs. post-op pictures some other time, probably, and each of you who sponsored a child will get a complete set of pics for your child (both pre- and post-op). We'll see the kids again in a month and will post some more pictures then. ALL of the parents are so happy with the results of the surgeries, as are we!

Tomorrow, we go down to the hospital and meet with the staff there to start planning for the teams who are coming in 2007.