Clinic at ASELSI

Since we last wrote, our friends, Jim and Carolyn, have left for Antigua, then for the United States. They were a real joy to have with us for two weeks and we wish them a very safe journey home. They'll be back later this year - probably just to see our new baby - at least that's what we're telling ourselves!

Tuesday, our "day off", we left home at 4:30am to meet a patient in Chichi at 5am. This little girl is 13 months old and weighs 13 lbs. We (and some folks from ASELSI) took her to UNICAR, the cardiac hospital in Guatemala City for an evaluation. The doctor there took one look at her and guessed Turner's Syndrome (a genetic syndrome in which she's missing one of her X chromosomes). They also did an echo and discovered an atrial septal defect (a large hole in her heart) and a pulmonary stenosis (a restriction in blood flow coming from her heart). She will need two surgeries at a cost of about $12,000.

Clearly, we don't have that type of money to spend on any single patient, but luckily the hospital will do the work for her at a very deep discount (whatever donation we can afford to give). We'll be working with ASELSI to see what we can come up with. We certainly don't want to tell her mom that her daughter is going to die for lack of a few thousand dollars.

Also, we had to extend our 90 day visa that comes automatically with a passport stamp. We're coming back the US for a wedding in April, but our 90 days will run out next week. If you think dealing with government bureaucracy in the US is bad, try it here. We had to walk down the street to make a copy of a form that came from a pad that made triplicate carbon copies! We only had to wait in the exact same line about six times, though (four of those after the woman told us we only needed one more thing!).

And we had our own prenatal visit with our doctor in Guatemala City. Everything seems to be going according to plan. Keep praying for Heidi and Baby Boy Bell.

Yesterday, Heidi had another clinic at the Hospital Buen Samaritano and a surgery just after lunch. In case any of you are eating lunch right now, we'll leave out the description, but it was a female-type surgery. Two of her patients from clinic yesterday will need a surgery, as well.

Today we were in clinic at ASELSI in Chichicastenango. One of our patients, who you may remember from before, came back in for another prenatal visit. This particular patient is the one who is pregnant for the 8th time but only has four living children due to some spousal abuse. She had actually left her husband for a time during this pregnancy but is back at home again. This time, the problem is with her sister-in-law. Apparently, this woman got mad at her last week and told her that she's not pregnant with a baby, but with an evil toad. Must run on her husband's side of the family.

Luckily, our translator (the patient only speaks K'iche) was able to get the patient laughing about it, but she still wanted to see the screen on the ultrasound when we confirmed that there is definitely a HUMAN baby in there, not a toad. Very round head - dead giveaway.

In another happy moment, we got to see our little baby, Osni, again. If you'll remember, Osni was one of the cleft palate babies we were very worried about. He was SO tiny and we were afraid that Mom was not feeding him enough. Osni now looks fabulous! He weighs more than double what he did when we saw him first (over 11 lbs now), has good strength, color, and everything. His evaluation for surgery will be in April and, hopefully, his surgery will be in May.

The bad news is that Osni's mother did not bring him. Their neighbor did. Osni's mom was "muy mal" (very bad) for a week and then they brought her to the hospital a few days ago when she was "grave". Here, that could mean anything from a simple cold to having body parts falling off. The descriptive words very seldom have any real concrete meaning. We'll check on her at the hospital this afternoon.

We also saw a 13-year-old who we were afraid was pregnant last time (nope), our friend with the bad rash on her lip (getting better), and several other patients we've started to form nice relationships with.

One guy knocked on our door (without a number) and wanted to know what we could do for his friend who cut himself on the wrist with a machete two months ago and still can't use his hand. Apparently, he was told he cut some tendons (quite possible), but has not even attempted to use the hand since the accident. Luckily, our translator has been trained in some basic physical therapy and was able to explain the "use it or lose it" concept in K'iche.

Tomorrow is another Buen Samaritano day for Heidi and Matt will either go back go Guatemala City to get our passports from the government office, or will spend the day recording. He has a meeting with a local church band tonight to discuss a live recording session with them sometime soon.

Below are two pictures. One is of Osni when we first met him and the other is of him today. Guess which is which...