Friday was a fantastic day for clinics. We saw 100 people in medical, 80 in dental, and 100 in vision, though vision’s numbers were substantially low and due to lack of patients.
In the medical clinic, Adair recalls an elderly lady with a large gaping wound on her leg. When I say large, it was 10 inches long and two inches wide, the size of her leg. She had the wound for two months. The only course of action was to dress the wound, instruct her on how to keep it clean, and give her antibiotics. This woman showed it to every white person who walked by hoping they were the doctor! (I was grossed out by it a number of times...)
There was a boy who arrived on his mother’s back. He must have been 14 years old and had a serious mental and physical handicap. He was groaning loudly as he arrived, and was sent up to dental at his mother’s request. After realizing he didn’t need a tooth pulled, Nancy Allen sent him down to medical and we were able to give him a wheelchair so he didn’t have to be carried on his mother’s back. They were also referred to the APDK clinics in March that are a now monthly occasion.
The vision team has been newly coined “The Nakematt” team as they were lucky enough to stop at our local ‘walmart’ on Thursday on the way back from Kangetta when the rest of us stayed in Mikinduri. The name has stuck, and we laugh every time we say it.
I have been working the registration desk, which has interesting challenges. There are so many people trying to come in for medical to see the doctor, but only 100 can be seen per day, so the people employ many sneaky tricks to get in and be seen. For example, they say they want to come for vision, then once they’re there and have perfect vision, they request a referral to medical. They then return to the registration tent and I have to decide whether or not they really need to be seen. Weighing the load of the doctors and the possible hidden emergency in front of me can be quite difficult. As a result, I ask what is wrong with them, and for most of the people, it’s a joint complaint or headache, but in some cases it is more serious: a man showed me this golf sized bump on his head that I’m told was removed later that day in surgery! I suppose someone has to be the gatekeeper to keep everyone sane, but I just pray that God gives me the wisdom to know who to say no to, because I have to say no 300 times a day. If we had a team of 30 doctors, we wouldn’t be able to see everyone that arrives!
After the clinics ended – a long yet exhilarating week, we had a nice dinner and headed out for a night in Mikinduri! We went to the local bar to say goodbye to Cheri and Jack. They are a great part of the team as much for their hard work as for their fantastic spirit and kindheartedness, and will be sorely missed. We went to the hot spot on the Mikinduri streets. The poor locals were shocked to see all 30 of us arrive and boy were we surprised to know everyone in the bar. There was no dancing or music as it would create too much dust on the clay floor. The bar had a tin roof, was very dim, and had no posters on the wall. You wouldn’t even know it was a bar as there was no bartender or bar to walk up to, and you just had to know which guy to ask for a drink and pay. They brought around goat on a skewer for everyone to sample. We were soon in bed but all enjoyed a bite of goat meat and one drink each, some getting back later than others.
No comments:
Post a Comment