I then rushed out to market to do some "power shopping" as I didn't have much time before Church (or so I thought... see below.) and lots of gifts to buy! It's always fun to see what is new, and also what never changes... I am seeing a lot more local pride here in Chichicastenango in T-shirts and things for sale with the name of the town on them, which I think is pretty positive. I then ran up to go to one of my favorite spots on the face of the planet-- the "Gringo Church" that meets up at the Hotel Casa del Rey every Sunday! Except sometimes during the summer, apparently, when too many people are gone back to the U.S. to raise funding... oooops...
Anyway, that at least meant that I got to start clinic a little earlier and I got done at a decent hour, so life is good! I saw about 14 patients today, but 5 of those were return appointments that I had made either in February or May for myself! It is so uplifting and encouraging to see people keeping these appointments. Most of the rest were ones that Dr. Hoak had sent, and the others were self-referred. Only two seem to need surgery, and they are now set up for November! So, Keith and Cyndi, get ready to operate!! Hopefully more will come in tomorrow, and still more by the time November comes around. The first picture is a lady we will operate on in November, who needs a vaginal hysterectomy for a prolapsed uterus (or for you non-gynecologic types, "her uterus is falling out"!)
The second picture is another patient, who is talking with me through one of the translators at the hospital (Quiche-to-Spanish translator) about her symptoms. She turned out to have a very treatable infection, so we hope she feels better soon. We had a few more run-of-the-mill gynecology patients (discharge, painful periods, etc...) then two interesting infertility patients. One was a young couple, married for 2 years and in seemingly good health, with unexplained infertility. I have no guess as to why they haven't conceived, but they are quite bright and educated so we went through lots of education about calendar-keeping for her cycles, the most fertile days of the cycle, basal body temperature charting to track ovulation, etc... I hope to see them back in November. There are some drugs available and affordable here to help her ovulate if it doesn't look like she is doing so on her own, so we'll see! It was nice to be able to do some real patient education on a pretty high level with this young couple. You have to keep in mind that with many of my other patients, when they complain about their "period" or menstruation coming in some abnormal way, the first question I have to ask is what color it is!! Often they mean they have a white discharge instead of bleeding... so yeah, there's a big difference here.
The other young lady was very different. Married for 8 years with no babies, but did have one on her back that she had just adopted at least! I could take one look at her and diagnose her with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, but unfortunately I could also do a fingerstick blood sugar and diagnose her with full-blown diabetes! This is going to be a tough problem for her throughout her lifetime. I did my best to start explaining to her what diabetes is and what she needs to do about it, but I pray that she seeks more ongoing treatment like I asked her to.
The other two pictures are for those of you who may not have seen the Hospital here before-- The "Good Samaritan" Hospital is really a pretty nice facility. Those of you who know anything about Chichicastenango on Sundays know that I cheated and that these pictures were NOT taken today, of course. (Market days are impossibly busy and you can barely see the Hospital for all the street vendors!) We will see what comes our way tomorrow, but for tonight I will sit and enjoy my hot tea, a hot shower, and a nice warm bed! Ah, the difficulties of missionary life, right?!
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