Thursday, the 24th, I started in the ABC clinic. I have now spent two days in the clinic, with the usual interesting variety of patients. Today, Friday, we were without power all morning. Fortunately the lab has their own generator so we were still able to do labs on patients. The generator for the rest of the clinic - for lights, computers, etc. is not working, so we were not able to find old charts on folks. And the xray department cannot do any of their xrays - even with the main clinic generator, as it takes too much power. After lunch time, though, the power was restored. My patients have included the worried well, the 'I think I have malaria' folks, the sick kids WITH malaria, and the just generally sick people. One elderly village lady with probable metastatic cancer came in - how can I diagnosis that? And what treatment is available for her here? None of those questions have good answers. As I looked into her eyes and her daughter translated my concerns, I seemed to be able to read understanding and resignation in her face. Hers is a heartbreaking case, here or in the US.
Joseph (aka Jose) had an incredibly busy day on Thursday, when he went with a group, including Becky, the American nurse helping to run the ABC clinic, to a village clinic. It is run by Ministry of Hope, the same group that has the crisis nursery. They have an organized village clinic set up, and they saw over 200 people in one day. Joseph said it was busy, busy. They had two clinical officers, 4 people taking vital signs, a pharmacy,and a lab. They even had their own generator for the lab! He didn't get home until after 5 that evening. And I had agreed to a dinner invitation!! He was totally exhausted, but went to dinner (he is such a good sport!)
Our dinner invitation was with the Browns (Gaylord, Fredna and visiting daughter Adrianne). Gaylord and Fredna are missionaries with Assembly of God and are from Texas! Their cook, Watson, prepared a wonderful southern style meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and ICE TEA!! With chocolate cake for dessert! The food and fellowship was great.
Tonight we are meeting with a mission team from Oklahoma for dinner. Jimmie May comes every year to Malawi. He has carried a bag full of medical supplies for us for the last two years, for which we are very grateful! It will be nice to meet the rest of his team.
I am going to post some photos from the village clinic. I will try to add a video that Joseph took towards the end of the day, with the people still lined up for medications, lab work and to see the clinical officers. It gives you an idea of the noise level that he endured all day long.
No comments:
Post a Comment