Regular Scorpion
Whip-tailed scorpion
The view from atop the water tower. Pretty, huh?
Whiptail Lizard It is Saturday morning at 6:00 am as I write this. I find myself going to bed early (8:30-9) and waking up around 5am. It is a nice schedule actually. I have always liked the lifestyle of awaking with the morning light and going to sleep when it gets dark.
I had my first day of clinic yesterday. It went pretty well, I think. It was like any day in clinic with a new system. The hardest part was not the medicine. The hardest part was learning what medications I have available and what labs they have available (yes, they actually have a pretty extensive lab AND radiology room). My interpreter's name is Ramon. He is what they call and "islander" which means he is actually black and speaks a language that is a strange combination of Spanish, French, and English. He, of course, also speaks English and Spanish flawlessly.... so jealous. My Spanish leaves alot to be desired, but I am working hard at it and find myself able to understand most conversations but often unable to find the words I need to participate.
Many of the things I saw in clinic were problems I was familiar with which was a relief. I saw one mystery case: a young (30's) man with 2 weeks of periodic fevers, joint aches, headaches, and malaise. He looked like he felt terrible. His malaria test was negative so I thought he could have the flu or Dengue fever neither of which I am able to test for. I gave him symptomatic management and will have him RTC on Tues. We had two patients who showed up simultaneously to our emergency care center. This put both myself and the other doctor working on hold in our clinic since we were the only docs around. He ended up sewing up a child's lip who fell from a tree and bit through her lip. I was left with an older lady with a COPD exacerbation, not from smoking her whole life but from cooking over an open flame and breathing in the smoke. We admit COPD most nights at Self back home so I felt very comfortable with this. The biggest challenge was finding medications that she needed AND they had in stock. For instance, I write for Solumedrol. They come back and say they have no Solumedrol. Ok, well, what about Prednisone? No prednisone. Prednisolone? Yes. Ok. Give her that. She was pretty sick and satting 88% on maximum dose oxygen and I hope that she does not get worse. They have one ventilator that sometimes works and no ABG machine.
Some of you who are not interested in all of my medical talk but perhaps wondering how it is that these patients are learning about Jesus. Well, when I am finished seeing a patient, they go to the "consejero" which is Spanish for counselor. There they meet with a Honduran pastor who listens to the patient, counsels them, and shares with them the truth of the gospel. His other job is to figure out how much and if a family is able to pay. You see, Loma de Luz is not a free hospital. They work on a sliding scale bases. There is one fee for locals (the lowest of them all), one fee for those who live outside a certain boundary since they have other hospitals available to them, and foreigners (the highest price). They rarely turn someone away, but they have had people claiming they cannot pay but probably can. This is Oscar, the consejero's job.
J and I may be headed to the reefs to go snorkeling today if the rain did not muddy the water too much.
J here:
Seeing as how I am not a Dr., I spent yesterday somewhat differently. I helped Rimas ( one of the Dr's husbands) clean up and organize part of a bodega (warehouse). It took about 4-5 hours total i guess, but felt like longer in this humidity and heat. I know some of you are wondering why I wasn't out trudging through the jungle finding animals and taking pictures. Well it was day one and I really had no clue where to go for one and we are going to be here for quite awhile so I have plenty of time. I did however find some pretty cool stuff while cleaning out the bodega. Hopefully I can get the pics to upload for you guys to see. After we finished working I came back for a cold shower (which felt great) and laid down during the heat of the day till NH got back. Being the culinary masters that we are we cooked up a pretty tasty dinner. We then broke out the Kindles for awhile before heading to bed. It did rain a good bit last night, but I'm hoping it didn't muddy the reef too much for us to go snorkeling this morning.
First of all, you have mislabeled the pics. But don't worry, I will fill in the correct name of the creatures you have captured with your photo machine:
ReplyDeletePic 1: The South African Chicken-Snake Scorpion - notice the characteristic hen look around the eyes and the slithery feel of the underbelly
Pic 2: The North American Turtle-Seahawk Scorpion - should be obvious, no explanation of characteristics needed
Pic 4: The badger-mole-elephant-squid lizard - notice the rounded snout, squid-like tail, and the ginormous . . . yea you get the idea
N - medical jargon aside, it sounds like you have the "block on lock." I know, from talking to you, that one of your fears with this sort of thing is being presented with situations that you do not know how to deal with. I pray that God will spare you from that and if he does not, that it will be a great learning experience. If I were in a developing country and not feeling well, I would certainly let you take your time figuring it out :-}
J - Come on man, cleaning out a warehouse?!? You could have done that at home with my garage. I expect much more interesting stories from now on. Like, for instance, killing fish with dynamite . . . what's up with that?!?
Oh, dear lord that whip tailed scorpion. It sounds like you are learning a great deal, and I hope that you are continually presented with situations that help you grow and stretch your mind :) I also love that the top left cloud of your background looks like a heart and the bottom right looks like a fish. Or a turtle head poking out from his shell. I need to do better about keeping up with you guys, and I am so glad that you're keeping a blog of your adventures! Many prayers
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