Oops

Granddad really is here... We just don't have any pictures here to prove it. We managed to leave our camera at clinic at ASELSI today, so maybe we'll get it back tomorrow.

This morning we went to clinic there. It was Heidi's dad's first chance to really watch his daughter practice medicine. We had our normal load of about 25 patients, including some very interesting new cases.

One was a man with a pretty severe case of psoriasis that he's been aggravating by getting steroid injections every month.

Another was a woman who says she's been feeling faint and weak for the last few months - just not today. She IS diabetic, so we'll try to do a little more work with her to see if we can determine what's going on.

We had two siblings, ages 8 and 11, come in. Neither of them can walk or talk. They are both alert and respond appropriately to directions and games. The parents told us that these two have three other siblings, ages 1 to 26 (you read that right) who are all normal. Our translator told us that ASELSI has a van going to Antigua for pediatric and genetic evaluations in the next few weeks, so we are trying to see if there's room on the van for these two.

The two have been in a "special school" for the last two years and reportedly are making progress. The parents tried to go to Guatemala City once for an evaluation but there was a rockslide that closed the road and they couldn't go. Let's hope we don't have the same luck with our upcoming trip.

Isaac weighed in at 9 1/2 lbs this morning - completely naked (at home, folks, don't panic!) While Matt and Eddie were visiting the Chichi market, Heidi had a 3 month old baby come in who was supposedly 9 1/2 lbs. Since people here are absolutely sure that every baby is freezing to death all the time, they weigh kids with their clothes on. Heidi assures us that this child is nowhere near Isaac's size. His mother died during childbirth and the family is doing their best to feed him, but resources are probably a little thin for that (a can of formula costs about 3 times what the average field worker makes in a day). So we'll help out with milk for this family and try to get this kid back on track.

After clinic, we made an attempt to get down to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. We got about halfway there and realized that the rainstorm we were in was going to prevent us from seeing any of the breathtaking sights, so we just turned back.

Tomorrow, Heidi will be at the Hospital Buen Samaritano, then Saturday we'll head out to Canilla.

Sorry about the lack of pics again. Hopefully we'll get our camera back tomorrow!