Absent Clinic Workers

Hello from Haiti this beautiful sunny morning.  The title suggests something less than what the first sentence describes, I know.  Well, the absent clinic workers have been mostly the whites this time.  It started last week when dengue fever hit.  (Actually dengue fever hit a few weeks before, but didn't get clinic workers down till last week.)  

Michael came down with it first, and then on Saturday I (Anita) came down with it.  The Haitian workers, Virginia, and Breanna did an excellent job at keeping things going.  Yesterday Michael was able to head back to the clinic, and by afternoon/evening it was obvious that Breanna wasn't well.  One of our Haitian pharmacists has it too.  I'm starting to feel better, but I'm still very weak.  At least I was able to get up and out a little this morning.  

Dengue fever is spread by mosquitoes similar to malaria.  Typical symptoms are: very high fever, horrible body and bone aches, headache, pain around the eyes, stomach aches.  It's a virus so it has to run its course.  The only thing you can do is take fever reducers and of course do all the other things all good patients are to do--eat, drink, rest.  (I have to say I'm sure ready to do more than just laying around.  Five days was quite enough!)  

On my little trek out of my house this morning, I took my camera and headed to the clinic.  I didn't find any extraordinary sights, but I did find everyone doing an excellent job in spite of being 3 workers short right now.  

 Fre Direk busy making dossiers

Michael taking blood pressures since Breanna is under the weather

Mis Joselaine busy in her room

Mis Leda cheerfully filling her post

Mis Virginia filling prescriptions

Zita giving medicine to patients at the pharmacy window

One little head...

This poor little boy was brought into the clinic today by his mother and grandpa- his head was covered infected sores, full of pus and yuck.

Anita and Breanna carefully cleaned and dressed the sores and wrapping his head with bandages and anti-bacterial creme. He'll be coming back for a checkup again soon.

The sad part was that his mother seemed a bit "strange" or, not "normal". She hasn't been taking good care of the little guy (obviously) and when asked questions she always answered in a very strange way. Please pray for her and her little boy...

Some normal cases on a normal day...

Anita had a burn patient come in yesterday and today.

As she cleaned the wound, the woman convulsed with pain and jumped almost out of her chair!

Anita used some lidocaine to ease the pain... "Otherwise," she said, "She's be in my lap!"

And Breanna dealt with a man who had an accident with his sepit (a garden tool, similar to a scythe) 

It was packed with dirt and mud, so it took some cleaning out...

Once Anita got the lidocaine onto the burn patient's wound she was able to clean and wrap it.

Breanna's patient got all bandaged up too. He'll be healed up in no time!

Update on the ear surgery!

There was a somewhat nasty post we did a little while ago in which we showed a lady who's ear had been almost completely cut off.

She returned for some other ailment day before yesterday, so we snapped some pictures of her ear- it's quite amazing, because if you didn't look for it, you probably wouldn't notice the scar. Anita did a fantastic job stitching it so there's virtually no evidence of the horrible injury!

Pretty amazing, 'eh?

I had to look twice to make sure it was the same lady!

Apparently she had some problem with her head and had come in for some medicine.

Anita used her visit as an opportunity to check on the ear.

We're so thankful for God's healing touch!

Update on Obenson!

Another update on our little malnourished friend, Obenson. 

His original story is here, if you don't remember him!

Doesn't he look so much healthier?

The little guy can walk around now and, according to his caregiver, if he's given nothing to do, he wanders around making "dezod" (naughty) around their compound! :) :)

Anita has been taking special care of him when he comes in.

Obenson is doing so well- he continues to gain weight and loose excess water caused by retention.

His caregiver comes once a week to get food supplements and he himself is brought around every 2-3 weeks. Praise the Lord for continuing improvement!

Thanks for praying for the little guy!!

Alcohol swabs and gloves... and other scenes from the clinic...

Since everyone got back from the States things have been moving along at a good pace in the clinic.

In recent days, it's been reported by our nurses that we're running low on alcohol patches and gloves... seeing that those needs are present, we thought we'd take some random pictures of us using alternatives...

Here's some medicine Anita was mixing up for one of our patients...

Since we have no more alcohol patches, Anita took to cutting up some material to be soaked in rubbing alcohol for a substitute.

She needed to go give her patient his medicine, so Breanna took over her cutting job.

Here, she is giving a man medicine for malaria.

Breanna, cutting up more patches...

Yes, it was another normal day at the clinic today. 

The amount of people seen totaled over 65.

That's not counting our normal patients, such as the "ankle guy" who we've been seeing each day, rewrapping his leg with fresh bandages each time.

Another interesting, yet typical case that came in... a ganglion cyst on a woman's hand.

Michael has become very proficient at removing the fluids inside the pockets.

This one took only about 15 seconds to remove.

Thankfully someone has sent down a few gloves that should tide us over until we get another donation of gloves from the States... It's amazing how many times throughout the day gloves are used though!

With pretty much each patient we handle, there's another pair of gloves used!

A typical scenario is seen in the above picture- 

the two little girls had sores on their legs, so gloves were used during the examination process. 

The little things...

Saturday some little girls come to the clinic, asking for some bandages for a few little sores on their shins. Breanna took them into the clinic, dressed their sores and applied some ointment to them, putting a bandaid on top.

I had to think about the many serious cases that come into the clinic, how they're often severe, life threatening, amazing or disgusting. We look at them as very important, but I wondered if, in the eyes of God, these "little things" are just as important. Jesus went about healing great and small, and the compassion He had extended to the lowliest of sicknesses. We take someone into the clinic, we show them God's love and they leave with knowing that they are cared about.

May we continue to show the love of Jesus to all here- small and great.

This young girl smiles as Breanna dressed a wound on her foot.

She kept flinching because of the pain, but kept up a good attitude :)