Well today was our first official
treatment day. We were up and breakfast
by 0700, then rolled out at 0800. We
split all of us into two groups. I was
in a group with Gary Austin, Alicia Spiro, Jen Crane (resident), Steve
Fiorenza, Olivia Durning, Carissa Brailsford, and Rachel Tarini. For translators we had Sabina (petite little
mayan gal), Omar (Guatemalan with glasses), Isai, Addison (17 year old gal from
the states that her family moved down here), and Suzy (a gal down here from
Germany). I worked a little bit with
Isai and Suzy as translator, but mostly Addison. She was really quite amazing. Her parents moved down here two years ago,
they have a large family and she’s the oldest down here. They are all home schooled and she helps with
the missionary work. She has a great
control of the language and was very helpful to work with…I am really just
amazed cuz I know at seventeen (even though I wasn’t a real hooligan) I would
definitely not have that same poise and ability. The clinic we set up was in the village of
Pastores. It is about thirty minutes
north and west of Antigua. The clinic we
set up was in a large open building with a stage…similar to an LDS cultural
hall. We had an in-take table then four
treatment tables. We were kind of paired
up early on, I was with Jen to start out with then I kind of ended up on my own
with just a translator and the patient.
That was actually quite intimidating and I really realized how far I
still have to go in becoming a good clinician.
Throughout the day I can’t remember exactly how many patients that I saw
but I think it was about six or seven.
We saw a lot of patients who had diabetes and so we had to do a good
sensory screening of their distal extremities, especially their feet. All of the patients that I saw were in their
60’s or older, and all women except one older gentleman who was about to turn
90. They are a very strong and labored
population. Many of them are of Mayan
descent and small in stature. I was
amazed at just how incredibly strong they were as I would examine them. There was a lot of overall muscular pain,
some osteoarthritis, diabetes, neck and shoulder pain, back pain, etc.
I
think one of the crazier things that I experienced today was a lady that had
ALL the red flags for active cancer (previous history, had lost 20 pounds in
one month, pain at night keeping her up, point tenderness in vertebrae and
ribs, etc). She also had a lot of
musculoskeletal pain as well; she told me that she has to do all of the work
around the home while her husband is at work (chop and haul wood, clean, cook,
repair, etc). With her it was very hard
to send her on her way because I don’t know that she will get an opportunity to
go see a physician and get things checked out.
As
part of our work here we are providing some quality footwear to the people. We did a shoe drive and brought down like
fifteen suitcases (not sure how many but I would say between 100-200 pairs of
shoes). We also brought a bunch of socks
and shoe laces. These people walk
everywhere and quality footwear is not always very available. As part of fitting them with shoes and socks
we also washed their feet; not to be degrading but their feet are not in the
best and cleanest condition. It was an
incredible blessing to be able to serve them in such an intimate way, I can say
this, performing that symbolic act definitely makes the experience that much
more poignant. I truly hope that in some
small way I was able to give back what I have been so abundantly blessed with,
especially to give back and follow the Master healer.
Following
our day we packed up and headed back around 1645, we got back to the hotel and
helped unload all the gear at the church.
We had about thirty minutes to settle in then had dinner at 1800. Following dinner we came back to the little
courtyard and had a debriefing between the two groups. The other group went to a local hospital for
children with developmental problems and also to the wheelchair manufacturing
plant. That is what I will be doing
tomorrow.
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