Last Day in Chicacao

Thursday, July 29, 2010
It’s late Thursday night, my last night here in Chicacao. It’s strange that it is actually almost over. I gave my host mom Angelica a sunflower plate set and my host grandpa, Papa Pedro, an OU shirt. He looked so cute in it! He said someday he’s gonna come to the U.S., wearing his shirt, and ask people where OU is, so he can find me. :)

Today was my last day to go out to the mobile clinics. I went with Dr. David Lux to his mobile clinics all week, and I got to see a lot! I saw patients with a thyroid nodule, a rectal hemorrhoid, an incisional hernia, “caspa” (dandruff), conjunctivitis of the eye, a diabetic ulcer on a leg, sinusitis, a prolapsed uterus, and warts. I saw a preemie baby with “ictericia” (jaundice). There were lots of little kids with scabies (from playing in dirt and dirty things), and lots of adult women with urinary tract infections (from not drinking enough water).

I got to palpate a woman’s abdomen and feel a huge mass in her uterus! I also got to palpate an alcoholic woman who had cirrhosis of the liver… her liver felt huge and hard! I got to measure the belly of a pregnant woman with my hands and a tape measurer and tell her how far along she was… so neat! I learned to look for specific symptoms to distinguish parasites from a bacterial infection from amoebas. I saw a woman with yellowish eyes because of hepatitis. I met a man with one brown eye and one beautifully blue eye. However, his one eye had turned blue because of super high pressure behind the eyeball, and he had lost vision in that eye.

A woman came in with “pica.” I had heard about this disorder before, but didn’t believe it was real. Pica is an intense craving for non-edible objects, such as dirt, paint chips, ice, etc. It occurs mostly in pregnant women, and the cause is unknown. This woman said that she craved ice and salt a lot. She fit the description because she had recently had a spontaneous abortion and was anemic.

The saddest thing I saw today was a 6-month old baby girl named Ama, who had been born with spina bifida. She weighed only 9 pounds (17 pounds underweight!), and the lower half of her body was completely limp. She had an operation in Guatemala City soon after she was born, where they had put in a shunt underneath her skin from her brain to her stomach, to drain excess fluid that accumulated on the brain. I know her mom was doing everything she could for little Ama, but I just wanted to take her back with me to the U.S. and get her all the help she needed.

One woman came in, saying she hadn’t had any of her labs done because she didn’t have money for it. She said she didn’t have the 10 quetzales (US $1.25) for the consult. I looked at her and what she was wearing, and I was skeptical. She needed even more labs done, the doctor said, but she said she didn’t have money to get them done. When she left, I told Dr. Lux, “I think she was lying.” Rather than agreeing with me, Dr. Lux told me, “Maybe she was lying, but that’s not for us to decide. It’s our job to help and treat people with a GOOD HEART. That is what God wants from us… nothing else.” That really hit me, and I was grateful that Dr. Lux corrected me.

Today, our last patient was a house visit. A 40-year-old woman was lying in bed, complaining of painful menorrhea (excessive vaginal bleeding). Dr. Lux felt around on her stomach and decided to do a pregnancy test on her. Her other 7 kids nervously tried to peer into the bedroom to see their mommy. The test was positive for pregnancy. In other words, the excessive bleeding and positive pregnancy test meant that she was having “un aborto en curso.” She didn’t even know she was pregnant, but currently she was having a spontaneous abortion of her baby. It was shocking to watch Dr. Lux deliver that news to her.

In our down time, I watched “telenovelas” (soap operas) with the neighbor kids. I learned how to make balloon animals - tigers, dogs, cats - and even an umbrella! My host brother Manuel, who works out at the mobile clinics too, taught me. The little kids absolutely loved the balloons we made them!

The neatest thing though, was that after each consult, we got to pray for each patient. Only a couple said ‘no thanks,’ but the most patients were grateful as we put our hands on their shoulders and bowed to pray over them. Guatemalans always pray out loud while we are praying out loud for them. It always sound like we’re interrupting each other, but it was also neat to hear both prayers being sent to God at the same time. Some people were very touched and cried with us, and several gave me a kiss on the cheek saying, “Gracias, Doctora.”

Tomorrow is my last day to work at the clinic. After work, Macie and I head to Guatemala City, where we will spend the night, so that we can catch our early morning flight home on Saturday. Thanks so much for your continued prayers, and I look forward to being home SOON!