Footprints

Stories from the Clinic

Posted on 28 April 2010

We arrived at the clinic today to be greeted by a mob of people from Honduras. There were about 100 people waiting for us and absolutely no room to move under the tent where people waited to register. That was pretty much how the whole day went. It was a crazy busy pace with way more complicated cases.

There are definitely a lot of sick babies that make their way to the clinic. Rehydration solutions were commonly dispensed, as well as antibiotics for urinary tract infections. Many of the patients had not eaten anything for days and had very limited urine output which made it very challenging to sometimes do an urinalysis. We diagnosed 3 new diabetes cases today as well.

At dinner today everyone got up and said something about their day. Rae, one of the nurses, told a great story of the very last patient she saw. After a long day, she met a woman, newly diagnosed with diabetes, for a private consultation. She went though her regular session and at the end, the woman was so grateful, she thanked her on behalf of herself and her 5 kids. Her shoes were tattered so Rae decided to give her a pair of shoes. In the shoe bag, she found her own pair of shoes she had bought during her honeymoon 38 years ago. They were her favourite shoes and she thought long and hard about parting with them, just because of the sentimental value. At the end she decided to give them away. She tried them on the patient’s foot and they fit!! She inserted a pair of orthotics and gifted them to the lady. The lady was so pleased, she had tears of joy, especially because unbeknownst to the team, it was her birthday. Rae then attempted to sing happy birthday to her in Spanish. It was just the perfect end to the day.

Ellen also spoke of a sweet lady at the clinic who came in with her daughter. She had difficulty moving on her own, so we decided to give her a walker. Kate, who was doing assessments alongside Ellen, helped demonstrate how to use the walker. The woman could not grasp the concept of using the walker as an aide and focus on not lifting the walker up and carrying it with you. Kate got down on all fours and put her hand on the woman’s feet so she would have to drag and not lift them. Finally, after a bit of practice, they figured it all out. It will take some getting used to, but the pain in her back and knees should soon be a thing of the past.

Max was involved in an interesting case as well. She had systematically ruled out many infections in a certain patient. She sent the patient for additional testing and he came back with a positive result for typhoid! This is something we rarely, if ever, see back home. The man presented with a fever for the better part of a month. It was such a great discovery for Max. The man received a 2 week course of antibiotics and, hopefully, will be on the mend soon.

We have a little girl returning to the clinic tomorrow. She had a massive eye infection. Her eyeball was bulging out, her eye was closed and pus was oozing from the eye. She received topical antibiotics and was told to return. If it does not get any better during this time, then she will be placed on IV antibiotics. Possible cause of infection is E.Cole or pseudomonas. This is where education on proper hygiene is stressed by the team.

Quite often we have families coming in sharing the same towel. So it is very easy for infections to travel from one family member to another. This is especially true in families suffering from scabies. This is why many people have scabies that last for years. We provide towels for some people attending the clinic but we are limited in what we can bring and distribute. However, every patient with a contagious condition is provided with hand and face towels.

So tomorrow is our last full day. SO hard to believe that the 2 weeks have gone by so fast. The team dynamics are amazing. We truly are a family here and are enjoying one another.