It seemed like we would never finish saying "who's next?" yesterday. The patients were plentiful and clinic was bustling as we had rheumatology and general medical consults. But things went relatively smoothly and people were patient, wainting all day to be seen in some cases. We finished around 7:00pm. It is humbling to know that people will wait that long to get help from us. We pray that God used us to touch hearts and relieve some suffering.
One of Kemmel's happy patients showing off his new glasses
Standing room only
Are we finished yet? Martina (left) and Mauri (right) waiting as we lock up on the way out.
We saw one 7-year old boy, Santos Elias, back today who is a patient of Sheri. He has neumonia and probably a pleural effusion with very distant breath sounds in one lung. Sheri had tried to convince the family to take him to the hospital but they were not willing. Yesterday he came back, "improved" but still breathing quickly and not strong enough to play. He still had distant sounds in that lung and looked pretty weak. We laid out the situation for them and (hopefully) convinced them that he would not improve with out surgical intervention with a chest tube. The little boy started crying, but the dad agreed to take him to the ER. We prayed with them and sent them on their way with a referral note. It's so hard to convince people that they will get good attention at the National Hospital, but we trust God to be with them and always pray for the medical professionals to have wisdom and compassion.
Today we are doing catch up administrative work as our Xejox clinic got cancelled. Monday we make a run to the city for another nudging of the old medical diploma along the beaurocracy trail and turn in our paperwork for our sanitation license for the clinic (and maybe a sushi run!).
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