Exciting Weekend

After a nice evening with Jim and Carolyn on Friday, we got up early Saturday morning and headed to clinic in Canilla. The day started normally enough with the standard patients - prenatals, diabetics, a machete wound - you know, normal.

Then a woman came in who had a tumor in her "parte" (you can figure that one out). It didn't SOUND like a classic presentation of cervical cancer until Heidi examined it. Then it started to act like one (read: bleeding). And not just a little - a lot - a WHOLE lot!

At one point, we had the patient on the exam table, Leslie was comforting the patient, Katie was handing Heidi supplies, Heidi was working very hard to stop the bleeding, and Matt was holding a phone to Heidi's ear so she could consult with one of her professors in Houston to make sure we hadn't missed anything. The good news is that Heidi was doing a great job - everything she possibly could.

The bad news was that she really needed to go to the hospital. We took the woman's daughter home to get the husband. He's a lot more concerned about his money than he is his wife's health, but at least he agreed to bring her to the hospital. Heidi went down to the hospital today to check on her and the patient is being given the "Guatemalan Runaround". The hospital is telling them they need to give blood, but are also telling them they need to send her to Guatemala City for chemo. Chemo is not free and they probably can't afford it - though they're in better position than most. Please pray for her husband to have a change of heart - to believe that his wife's health is really the most important thing in the world - and also for her health.

We didn't end clinic until mid-afternoon. We had sold a pretty fair amount of numbers and this one patient took well over an hour. Luckily, there wasn't a terrible amount of work to get done in the afternoon, so we were able to rest after clinic.

We did get a chance to watch part of the Michigan State - University of North Carolina basketball game, at least until our internet connection took a dive. The Spartans put up a valiant effort, but were eventually overpowered by sheer numbers of talented players on the Tarheel side. Next year...

Today was a very smooth clinic - probably a payback from yesterday! We were able to finish up before 1:00 and get back home where we are here waiting for our students to arrive.

Tomorrow we'll go to clinic with the students in Chinique - at Roy Espinosa's church. Tuesday, Heidi has two surgeries scheduled. Wednesday and Friday are Buen Samaritano days and Thursday is ASELSI. Sometime in there, we have to inventory and sort all of the medical equipment that came down on the container so it can be donated to whoever has the most need.

It'll be a busy week, but that's why we're here!