Haitian Adventure

Today was a super laid back kinda day. Lots of wounds ( all returners) and rashes and lots of gen med screens. I have been learning a TON about stomach aches, acid reflux as well as all kinds of vaginal infections. I can test for UTIs and pregnancy and I have gotten pretty good at spotting ear infections using an otoscope. I have also learned a lot about pelvic floor pain and exercises. The bench next to me in the pelvic floor table ( we call ourselves the stinky corner) so I overh we a lot of what is going on. So much learning. Amazing! After clinic we had market day and then a dance lesson. The dance instructor was like a drill sergeant . He kept yelling at us! It reminded me of my ballet days 😜

Today was a more stressful day than usual . I saw two people today who I could not do anything to help. The first is a 16 year old kid who got a big bite on his ankle which led to osteomyelitis of his entire ankle and tibia ( we sent him to get x rays to confirm this). His best option is probably amputation. We are currently looking for a reliable doctor who can help us out. The second case was similar except the person was 22 and had had an ankle surgery that never healed. He has a large open wound on his shin and I can see his bone.  I did see a few wounds in between which were healing so that was good to see. My last patient of the day was interesting case. She clearly has some psychiatric condition, and has been to the hospital to get some” foolish” pills. I nor she has any idea what these pills are. I saw her yesterday for machete wounds. Today I wanted to do more of a medical check. Her BP was crazy high (240/120), she had a UTI and all kinds of infections in her wounds. If I wer

First day treating with thme new crew! Today was nuts. I was literally running around like a chicken with my head cut off ( but I loved it !). I think I saw about 12 people before lunch. Two of them were the people that we had sent to be seen by American doctors at a mission nearby. Unfortunately those doctors had taken their money and done nothing to help them. I was very annoyed and angry. Luckily one of the new NPs can do stitching , so we were able to do some minor surgery on one and we just fixed the steri strips on another. We had another kid come in who had s fresh cut that needed stitches so we did that. I had a lady who had been attacked by a bunch of people. They had put a machete in a fire and burned her leg and in hen punched her in the head and cut her hand with the machete. There were several happier cases I saw today as well. A lot of the wounds I saw last week are finally looking good with a healthy clean base which is always good to see! After clinic we all went for a

This weekend was a nice relaxing weekend. After the week 1 crew left the people who were staying two weeks headed over to Tortuga for some relaxing weekend fun. We took a speed boat over ( super fast!) and then zipped up to the top of the mountains in a tap tap. We unpacked all our stuff and then went on a hike. The hike was really cool. We walked down to some caves and saw all kinds of cool formations and then we walked around the island. It was nice and toasty while we were walking and it felt great to get in real exercise ! I then proceeded to nap for a few hours. After we all napped we hung out on the porch for a few hours and ate dinner . One of the girls brought a hammock so I hung out in that for a bit.  Sunday morning we headed back down the island, took a boat back to the main island , picked up the new crew and then headed back to Tortuga ( the other side) for some fun in the sun at the beach! The new crew seems great. There are a lot of people who like wound care and there a

Today was far less crazy than yesterday ! Normal day in terms of who I saw. The guy who had the foot injury cam back , and while his foot inners stayed in , his skin was no longer approximated. We convinced doctors a few towns away that he needed stitches, so we send him about an hour away. We will follow up with him next week to make sure it is healing well. I also saw my first case ever of bugs burrowing in the skin ( grossssss!), I saw a 1 month old who had a pressure jury on his ankle (club foot casting) and more rashes than I can count! After clinic we all hang out , said goodbye to our interpreters and had a delish dinner!

WHAT A DAY! Started off with the normal wounds in the morning. After lunch it got crazy. Right after I had come into thwork clinic after lunch an interpreter told me that I had go see someone outside. The guy that I was seeing had been hit by a moto and had a large bleeding wound on his foot. Needless to see there were defiantly things on the outside the should have been on the inside . I cleaned it up and then we sent him to the hospital in town. Well... they did nothing for him except take x rays of his foot and shoulder. They did not stitch him up. So he came back to us around 7 at night. We set up a little surgical suit , pushed all his foot inners back in and Steri stripped him up. He had at least 5 broken bones in his foot and maybe some in his shoulder / clavicle , but he will have to wait for an American team for the ortho surgeries. We are going to see him again tomorrow to make sure his foot dressing is still intact . After all that drama we went dancing at a local salsa club