We were on our vacation two weeks ago and had postponed this particular clinic, so it was no real surprise to have 50 patients when we're used to about 35. Many were first-timers, so it was great to have some fresh ears to hear Juan Diego's lesson. His lesson today was about the woman who had ten coins, lost one, and searched the whole house until she found it. The folks here really understand that concept. We have such a throw-away culture in the United States that we probably don't really feel the panic that these folks do when they lose a coin. The point of the message is that no matter how many followers Jesus has, He's always so excited when one more comes to the fold.
Our first patient, the one we brought with us, was our friend Gregorio Zapeta. He is probably our most confusing diabetic. He always looks like he's knocking on death's door - and he's not very old - maybe in his 30s or 40s. Sometimes he's almost completely blind from his diabetes. For a while, his blood sugars were in the 300-400 range, no matter what meds he was on. We were about to start him on insulin one week when he came in completely normal. For the next six months, he was absolutely normal. Then one day he came back in at around 300. He swears up and down that nothing in his diet has changed. Last time, he couldn't come to clinic because he was sick (more on that in a second). So he's now been without meds for two weeks. We expected his blood sugar to be sky high. But no, completely normal. We have no idea what's going on with his body, so we prayed with him. He is a Christian, which is great because with his blood sugar, he could fall into a diabetic coma and die just about any time.
We've often laughed to ourselves when patients tell us that they couldn't come to clinic because they were sick. Seriously, where else would you go when you're sick??? But think about it, sometimes our patients have to walk a couple miles up a mountain to the nearest road, then hitchhike to clinic. If you're truly sick, can you walk up a mountain? I sure can't. So with our American mindset, it's completely ridiculous to not go to the doctor when you're sick. But things are different here...
As we mentioned, Paul and Lindsey helped with clinic again today. It's so nice to have four extra hands. It makes handling Isaac easier, it makes gathering meds go faster, it helps to have native Spanish speakers, etc. Plus it's nice for the patients to see us working together. It gives us both credibility in different ways.
Another thing that's different between the American "immediate gratification" culture and here - we had a woman come in today who we could barely examine because she was hurting so badly. Her gallbladder has been bothering her for five months. And she has a seven month old baby! How miserable to be suffering with an infected gall bladder for five months - and caring for a newborn the whole time! She lives a long way away, but her sisters are regular patients of ours and they told her to come to us, so she's now staying with them for a few days so she could come to our clinic. We referred her to Dr. Hoak who can take her gall bladder out without giving her any kind of run-around.
Anyway, there were lots of stories and only a limited space here... so onto the pictures. The first is of Paul and Lindsey with a patient. The second is a little boy who had worms. He looked so sad while he was chewing his albendazol tablet! In fact, this picture was taken about 5 seconds before he threw it up all over himself...
The third pic is of Isaac and his daddy. (We had to prove that they actually came to clinic!) The fourth is of Heidi ultrasounding a pregnant patient. Note that the patient is laying on top of one of our medicine boxes - we don't have an exam table in this clinic. Lindsey is holding the patient's 19 month old baby, who screamed from the time she realized her mommy didn't have her until Mommy got her back.
And the last pic is Heidi and Isaac, Paul, one of our patients, and Lindsey.
Tomorrow and Wednesday are our days off. Hopefully, Matt will get some much needed recording time. And Paul will probably come over with some local musicians to talk about another recording session. We only have a few weeks when Paul is on vacation and Matt is in town, so we'll try to get some more work done...
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