Oops

It's been a few days since our last post - sorry about that. We had our surprise day off last Monday, then followed it up with scheduled time off (our normal "weekend") on Tuesday and Wednesday. We got to spend some very nice Mommy and Daddy time with Isaac, as well as get some things done around the house.

Thursday was our clinic day at ASELSI. They had a team in from New Jersey who did some really beautiful work on the entrance of the building. They laid about 4,000 pavers in only three days!

Clinic itself was relatively routine. The patient load was a little less than normal because we were hit with a blast of cold weather. For this particular clinic, it's usually necessary for the patients to show up around 3-4am to get a number. It was near freezing at that time on Thursday. Since none of our patients have heat in their homes, it's pretty easy to understand why many people just stayed in bed. So instead of 30-35 patients and a few dozen turned away, we saw about 25 patients - pretty much everyone who came.

Rosio, our hydrocephalic patient from ASELSI, was brought by her parents to the hospital in Quiche and entered into the system here. She was given an appointment the next day in Guatemala City and the parents said they would take her. So we're waiting to hear from them what we can do to help.

Friday, Heidi was at the Hospital Buen Samaritano. Again, some relatively routine patients.

Roy came up on Friday night and then we headed to Canilla Saturday morning. They have been hosting a husband and wife who came down to install some more equipment in the plane that will allow Duane and the boys to fly IFR (which to the non-aviation people means that he can fly after dark and in the rain, etc., which was previously not possible).

Today was clinic in San Andres. One patient we're a little concerned about came in with a very large abscess in her throat. Since draining abscesses inside peoples' mouths is a little outside the scope of an OB/GYN's training, we treated her with oral antibiotics, gave her a list of symptoms that would constitute an emergency (with a resultant trip to the emergency room), and told her to come back next week for a follow-up.

Tonight was a Super Bowl party at Toby and Britney's house here in town. The commentary was in Spanish (and Spanish-speaking commentators tend to know a whole lot less about the game than their English-speaking counterparts) and we got only local Central American commercials, but at least we got to watch the game.

Tomorrow is clinic in Chicabracan. After clinic, we'll drive down to Guatemala City, spend the night, then do some shopping, go to Isaac's pediatrician's appointment, drop off the Mazda at the dealership to get the heater coil replaced (the one they put in it in October ruptured in November, remember?), and then pick up a medical student who is going to spend the month with us here. Her name is Annie and you'll probably be hearing a lot about her in the next several weeks.