Clinic Day Thursday

Thursday was clinic at ASELSI. The truck still didn't want to start, but it acts like it has glow-plug issues. (When it's cold, good luck - but once the truck is warm, it'll start easily.)

After FINALLY getting the truck started, we got down to ASELSI for clinic. It looked like they were giving away free...well, medical care. A team from Dallas, Texas was there to help out for the day and apparently the word was out. There were people EVERYWHERE!!!

Heidi and I saw about 30 (mostly) prenatal patients while some of the other Texans (we still count) saw kids and non-prenatal adults. They also brought an ultrasound tech who coached Matt through his first ultrasound exam. Heidi makes it look so easy! If only those babies would stop moving for just a second!

We didn't get done with clinic until nearly 2pm, by which time we were starving. Luckily, the kind folks at ASELSI had made a spaghetti dinner for the health care workers. Yes, we know our patients go much longer without food than we can - they are clearly much tougher than we are!

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up diapers, formula, and assorted other goodies for the cleft-palate kids' trip to Antigua in January. We won't be here when they leave, but we'll fly in just in time to meet them there in Antigua. Sharon at ASELSI will be getting them on the bus and we want to make sure they're well supplied when they leave.

We also picked up some beans, rice, formula, and vitamins at the grocery store for our good friend, Regina, the mother of Carolina (one of our cleft palate babies). Remember that she is a widowed mother of seven kids, three of whom have cleft palates. We also told her to go ahead and bring her three year old with them, in the hopes that he might get seen, too. But not to worry, we assured her, we will not give up if this is not the solution. We will continue to work until your kids are helped. She is the sweetest lady. We only wish you could all meet her. She really reminds us how lucky we are and how we can let little things get in the way of a good attitude sometimes.

This woman has seven kids, three with pretty significant birth defects, no husband, and no job. She is ALWAYS smiling, ALWAYS friendly, and ALWAYS so incredibly thankful. Shame on us for not being at least that positive.

Anyway, a short update on a few of the other kids:

Osny came in yesterday with his grandmother. Apparently, Mom was sick and couldn't bring him, but rather than just giving up, the family sent him with his grandmother to be weighed and to get some more milk and vitamins. He is still so tiny (less than 8 lbs) but is growing a little and looks much, much better than last week. Better color, more alert, etc. Please continue to pray for him. He needs all the help he can get.

Maria Buchan Chitic also came in yesterday. She is up over 12 lbs and looks great! She has the cutest little chubby cheeks, which are SO wonderful to see on a baby who has a hard time eating.

And Ricardo, the double cleft baby (who was abandoned by his mother at birth so she could keep his "good" twin) came in and looks better, too. His caretaker, Marcelina Zapeta Lopez, is the sweetest lady. She has one baby of her own at home and is doing a great job taking care of Ricardo. We have asked her a dozen times if there's anything we can do for her and she just tells us that, no, they're all doing fine!

Sorry we didn't get any new pictures of these kids yesterday - it was an absolute madhouse in clinic and Heidi is still feeling like hammered crud. We didn't have to set an alarm this morning, since we're obviously not flying into Zona Reyna, and she is going on 11 hours of sleep as I write this. Please pray for her to feel better soon, too.

We have some work around the house to do today before we head out to Canillá for the weekend. A few light sockets to replace, some work in the garden, and preparations for a month away starting in less than a week now.

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Oops. Two more updates on patients we've told you about:

Baby Lesly's mom called us during clinic yesterday to tell us that she had died during the night. We offered to help with whatever we can and they may come by today to ask for some help buying a casket. They generally run around $60 for infants. I wish I didn't know that.

And Maria, the pregnant woman with a suspected case of aggressive breast cancer, came in yesterday for her regular prenatal visit. We are still awaiting a second opinion on her biopsy. If it comes back positive (a weird term, since you're praying for a negative result), Dr. Hoak will do her mastectomy ASAP. If not, he will perform a lumpectomy to remove the rest of the mass in her breast and pray that the pathologists got it right.