Thursday: Mata de Caña

Our final day of clinics was held at Mata de Caña, a village that we've been to for at least the last three years.  We hold clinic in a house where the family and all their belongings have moved out for us.  It's small and it's cramped, but it's available!  This year we were a little surprised to find that we wouldn't be able to use the whole house, but only about two-thirds of it.  No worries; we'll deal!  We're good like that!

It took a few minutes to decide how to best use the available space.  While the doctors were working on that, the nurses got busy with triage since, as usual, there was already a waiting (and growing) crowd.  Within the first half-hour, Sue, one of the nurses called me over and told me our "boyfriend" was there.  He's an older gentleman from the community and Sue and I both have made a big deal over him every year.  This year we both thought that he seemed to be in better health each of the last two years.

Me and Sue with our "boyfriend".  Sue's husband doesn't even mind!

The doctors had a steady flow of patients.  The rooms were so full that there was no room to have the translators in chairs.  Thankfully, the translators took that decision in stride.

Cramped quarters

For our last day of clinics, we had two Honduran doctors, one pharmacist and one nurse working with us.  That always helps things go well.

Dr. Gerson sees a girl with severe cerebral palsy. 

What a blessing to have Hondurans help in the pharmacy.

At one point, Dr. Rick called each of the doctors out to see a patient who was treated outside.  I've never seen a worse case of chicken pox.  The boy's stomach and back were covered, I mean COVERED, with infected, puss-filled sores.  Dr. Rick wanted to make sure the other doctors saw him since it is so rare to actually see chicken pox in the United States anymore.

I'm purposely not using the picture of this boy's belly or back.  Chicken pox!

Every time it seemed that we were getting near the end of the line, I would look up again and see that several more people had "slipped" through.  That happens.  A lot.  Even when we have a finite number of people we can see in a day, it's so hard to say "no".  The problem is, then we run the risk of running out of meds.  And that happens, too.

Dr. Josh and Dr. Chad celebrate a busy day with a bag of water.

A few minutes of well-deserved rest in the shade before getting back on the bus and heading for home.

In 4 hours, the team saw 300 patients.  300 patients!  I think that was some kind of record.

Nurses Sue, Jody and Linda pose with their beloved nurses suitcase.

Tomorrow I'll post about the carpentry team and the work that they did during the week.  It really is a team effort and we are soooooo thankful for all the help.  To be able to share God's love with so many people, in so many ways is an awesome thing!