of painkillers and moldy heads

Day 4 of clinics. We have run out of sandwich bags and vitamins but are still full of general antibiotics and children's Clartin :) We've given out so many vitamins because with the things we can't help (eye problems, heart problems, high/low blood pressure) we have to send them on their way with a handful of vitamins unfortunately. Luckily Dr.Becky brought over a lot of cough medicine and since it's been so cold out, there have been many takers!

But the best part is that I get to help! Most of it isn't rocket science but it still it fun to pretend to be a knowledgeable Doctor. Dr.Jehanna--sounds good. At the end of the patient history (aka where it hurts and how long) it usually comes down to picking between the different painkillers on the table: Tylenol Arthritis, Tylenol Sinus, Regular Tylenol, Advil Liqu-gels, Motrin. But on some level, I am able to use basic knowledge to narrow down their symptoms or know which medication to hand out. The time passes so quickly--I like seeing patients :) Who knows, maybe I'll have my own clinic in the future? Some kind of family practice where I can attend weddings of babies that I delivered.

Yesterday we had a full day of seeing over 150 patients. Unfortunately, we had to turn away a bunch of people because we don't have any worm meds. There are so many ways to get worms around here it's almost fruitless to bring deworming medicine over. Dr.Becky told me to tell the villagers how to grind up dried papaya seeds and take a spoonful or two in powder from. I guess that's supposed to help with worms and parasites. My most interesting patient though was the first boy to come to me. He looked like he had bread mold on his head. Black, green, fuzzy. It was incredible and saddening at the same time to think how far it had spread untreated. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it!


We saw 160 patients today. While most complained of sore joints (these people work so hard, it's understandable that they are in pain), there were a couple interesting cases to come through. One young boy had broken his leg about a year ago but it had never been set so it healed completely crooked. Thus whenever he runs, he's in a ton of pain. It felt so weird... Then there was the old lady with a giant hole in her tympanic membrane--Dr. Becky showed me how to work the otoscope again :) But by far the coolest thing I've seen yet (well tied with the kid with the moldy head) was a man who had a discolouration on his tongue. He had thick black streaks going over the top of it, but the coolest part was that he had NO TASTEBUDS on the first inch and a half of his tongue! It was slick and shiny like the underside looks. So weird!


I haven't been teaching as much this week because Dr.Becky goes back on Sunday to start heading home. I'm trying to get as much time and shadowing with her as I can and then it's back to the classroom, back to the short vowels (which I now rock at lol). Thus, other than clinics, I've been able to catch up on sleep, relax and get the rest of this mission experience figured out. I'll let you know what I know :)

And I'll also put up pictures when I get them from the other ladies. I've been so busy listening to symptoms that I really haven't taken a lot of pictures. I think Dr.Becky has though so I'll be sure to grab her pictures eventually.

stay healthy!
ami tomake bhalobashi