Friday the 13th

I know we're not supposed to believe in things like this, but the evidence is pretty strong this time...

First, Heidi had a patient come into clinic with a spontaneously aborted pregnancy - never good news. Second, Matt had a pretty major computer error with the recording he's working on. The drums will have to be completely re-done. Big pain.

Then, the workers at the house broke a PVC water line inside the house and couldn't find the outside valve to shut it off. They quickly broke a hole in the outside wall near the leak and started routing the water outside, but we still mopped up around 15 gallons. We did find the valve, but it took about an hour and a trip to the builder's house to pull the plans for the house.

In the meantime, a freak electrical storm hit and blew out our modem and answering machine.

If it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all!!!

Thankfully, today is Saturday the 14th. No matter how bad the 13th is, it's only 24 hours long. Or so we thought.

One of our last patients today came in without a number - she had told Salvador that she was "muy mal" (very bad). She came in complaining of lower abdominal pain and acted like she was very sick. She had told Salvador that she had been to a local nurse earlier. She told us that this nurse told her she had cancer in her uterus, but hadn't really done an exam. We did a pregnancy test to rule out an ectopic pregnancy, and when we got her back on the table for a second look, she passed out. Not just a little sleepy, she went completely unresponsive.

We checked everything we could think of and she was completely fine - blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, respirations, oxygen saturation, everything. Just out to lunch. She had no family and no friends with her. We didn't even have her name yet. So we loaded her in the truck and drove to this other nurse's house. She said she knew her but hadn't seen her recently.

We dug through her purse and found nothing but a cell phone and some cash. We started calling numbers in her phone and reached a sister who came back her to our clinic to meet us. After about an hour of being unconscious, she woke up (slowly, but surely). After a few minutes of talking with her and her family (we are SO not getting the whole story), she left to go home.

So, here we sit. We'll make lunch, check our email (since we can't do that at home anymore), and help around the house. Heidi has to alter her bridesmaid dress for the wedding, since she ordered it before she knew she was pregnant (she'll be 26 weeks tomorrow - not quite the same size as before).

Tomorrow, we'll do another clinic in San Andres - hopefully a little quieter than today...