Anyway, Monday was our monthly clinic in our friend Regina's village of Chujuyub. We told them to give out 30 numbers, so we ended up seeing between 35 and 40 patients.
As usual, many were non-specific pain complaints, headaches, gastritis, etc. In the US, these people wouldn't go to a doctor, they'd go to a Walgreens. Those aren't too plentiful here, though, so they come to us.
We did see a man who broke his leg a year ago and is still walking around with about six pins and a rod sticking out of it. He seems to be doing all the right things as far as getting to his doctor's appointments. We gave him some medicine for pain and some confirmation that he's doing everything he can do. It's just that people who aren't as nourished as they should be don't heal that fast.
We saw a young man who told us that he works at a computer all day and by the end of the day his eyes get dry and itchy. He says it happens when he watches TV a lot, too. (Not your typical Indian patient, huh?) We gave him some eye wetting drops and the advice to take some eye breaks every now and then to make sure he's blinking. (Matt informed him that back when he used to play a lot of video games, sometimes his eyes would dry out because he was focusing so hard he wouldn't blink!)
We also saw two cleft lip patients. Both of these are patients Regina brought to us. One we've been following for some time now. His name is Tomas. He's the one who we give milk to, but also gave Mom a breast pump. She says she's breast feeding the baby as best as she can, plus pumping about 4 ounces each time and giving that in a bottle. Plus, they're using the formula we give them to supplement. We're willing to bet that they aren't purchasing any and the baby is still growing. He should be plenty big enough for his surgery in January. (Picture 1).
The other one is named Angelica. We actually saw her at our house a while back but they haven't been back to see us since. It looks like they should have. She is a year and a half old and only weighs 14 lbs. For comparison, Isaac is 11 months and weighs 23 lbs. They don't live too far from San Andres, so we're referring them into Leslie's nutrition program in San Andres. It's a lot easier for them to make that trip than into Chichi. Regina offered to come with them so she could know where the clinic is in San Andres, too. (Picture 2).
Just in case you were feeling good about yourself today, here's a little more of Regina's story. Many of you know that she is a widowed mother of seven. She was pregnant with her seventh child when her husband was killed in an accident. (There's no insurance or social security here, so she's basically on her own.) Her baby was born with a pretty severe cleft lip - as were three of her previous six kids.
Regina didn't really speak Spanish at the time, doesn't have a job or a skill to make money, and basically has very little to fall back on. She knocked on our door one Friday afternoon and said that she heard there was a team here who could fix her little girl's face. Unfortunately, there wasn't, but we promised to help her. That's when we started finding out about cleft palate kids and what resources there are here to help them.
In partnership with ASELSI, we got Carolina her surgery, along with her brother Otto. Regina has learned how to speak Spanish and navigate the transportation system here - from Chicken Buses to hitchhiking in the back of pick-up trucks passing by, she can get anywhere.
Since she learned about us and what we can do to help people, she has brought us nearly a dozen cleft kids, maybe two spina bifida babies, a baby who was becoming malnourished because her mother had the worst case of mastitis we've ever seen, and a couple other pretty hard luck stories. All of this is done of her own initiative and willingness to help families in her village. Often, the travel is done on her own dime. (We almost always give her some money to help with her "pasaje", but she had to come up with it on her own to begin with.)
Nearly a year after we met, we found out that her oldest son also had a cleft lip and palate. His lip was repaired but his palate wasn't. He speaks with a severe impediment. We've been working to try to find some help for him, too. The speech therapy place here in Quiche basically said that he needs a plastic insert for his palate before therapy will do him any good.
Anyway, with nearly NOTHING to work with, this woman has become a lifeline for so many people in her area. And with us leaving at the end of next month, we're working to get her tied in to the other missions that we partner with so that she can continue to help people. She also has the number of our funding group in Houston so she can call them if she needs more assistance than what she's getting here.
Okay, the other pictures. The third pic is of Heidi handing some medicine to a patient in clinic. You can see her bins sitting next to her on the floor. When we do clinic, we put four of those trunks in the 4Runner, along with our ultrasound and Isaac's playpen.
And the last pic is of Isaac in the back of the 4Runner, shouting at a stray dog that's walking by. He loves animals! Just behind the truck is the local school. During recess, all the girls come out, press their faces against the fence, and ooh and aah at the little gringito. Isaac just hates all that attention, you know...
Today, David, Craig, and Juanito are coming over to do some more work on the addition. They'll probably spend the night and work tomorrow, too. Then Thursday night, we all head to Canilla for a Friday morning flight into Zona Reina for another day of clinic there. Saturday and Sunday will be business as usual in Canilla and San Andres. Monday we'll be back in Chicabracan where we'll probably be flooded because we only saw patients with chronic care cards last time (the team was here and Heidi wanted to be around to help them).
1 comment:
Matt,
Is that first picture showing the mother of seven children? She doesn't look old enough for that ... but then, what do I know.
John
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