Haitian Adventure

Today was a crazy day. I think I only saw about 6 patients all day who were actually assigned to me. Most of the patients I saw had athletes foot on smalll wounds from bacteria. I did see a pretty nasty head wound( unknown origin) and moisture associated dermatitis. I saw a few returnee patients ( all wounds) and a smattering of ortho patients. Most of the ortho patients o saw had back and neck pain. I did a lot of needling and manipulations as well as massage and cupping. All of the patients we see work really hard day to day to make a living/ survive. They have to get into crazy positions and carry insane amount of weight. It is no wonder they are so sore! I also screened some general medical patients for basic issues to make it more efficient for the nurses to give out meds. I have become rather proficient in testing pee for UTIs as well as taking blood sugars. I am also getting really good at cranial nerve testing and vision screens. I learn so much here!!! After work we hung out ,...

So many wounds today!!!!! I saw several traumatic wounds that were infected as well as some wounds that just appeared according to the patients. One patient had his Achilles exposed. He had no idea how it started or how long he had had it for. A lot of people here will crush antibiotics and put the powdered antibiotics on the wound. It is a great idea in theory, but really just makes the wound worse. People will often also out talcum powder is wounds to dry them up. This particular patient has layer and layers of powder and antiobiorics cakes on his wound. It took a good hour to get it cleared off. I bet I have sufficiently grossed everyone out so I will shift from wounds to something you may actually enjoy reading about 😜 I did my first successful lumbar manipulation today! It was amazing to see this guys with super tight guarded muscles respond so well to the manipulation. His muscles just relaxed completely . I followed it up with some needling and cupping and his pain went away....

Today was an all around great day. In the morning I saw two PTs who had had strokes who did well with donated braces and splints and several patients who had wounds . The wounds came from varied sources including a thorn, two moto burns and varying ties wounds. None were super gross, but it felt good to dig back into wound care Haiti style. There are so many PTs in this group who do or are interested in wound care. start rant........ I wish New England would get wth the lrogrammand realize that PTs are just as capable of doing wound care as nurses. I am the only PT that I know of who does wound care in MA and it has been a lot of convincing people that I am legit and can do wound care... end rant.... anyway... the afternoon was less eventful, but I did a successful thoracic manipulation on one of my colleagues . Tomorrow I will have to try it with a patient ! After treatment time we geeked out over PT related things. There was a cervical ( neck) mania lecture going on while a few thera...

Today was the first day of clinic! 90 patients seen and treated by 15 ish therapists. Not too shabby! We also rolled out a new electronic documenting system today. Myself and 3 other therapists were the guinea pigs. Seems to work well so far. Between starting EPic this year and this new computer system I will be a tech savie documenting genius by the end of my time in Haiti. .... maybe😜 All of my patients I saw today had ortho related pain so it was a quick brush up on needling, cupping and manipulating backs, knees and hips. I was hoping to see some gnarly wounds , but alas none came in today. Maybe tomorrow. Three kiddos came by at the end of the day who had some scrapes I got to clean sand and bugs out of. So I guess I did technically get to see some wounds. There are a bunch of wound PTs on this trip. I am excited to see how they treat wounds and learn from them. I know I say this every trip, but it really is amazing to be with 15 others PTs with varying specialties. I learn so so...

Travel day! Loooooong day! I left home at230 pm on sept 22 and arrived at our clinic at 9 pm on sept 23. Long day with minimal sleep, but good bonding time with the crew. Our team is a mix of people from all over the United States and Australia. We all have different backgrounds, but most of the PTs in the trip are OP ortho. This is great for me because not only do I learn a TON while I am here, they also send me all the gross oozy wounds . Win!!! After a good night sleep we hopped on a sailboat and headed over to Tortuga . The water is amazingly clear and warm and I can hang out in it for hours. The surf was a bit rough but we survived. Now we are off to dinner and unpacking our supplies .

It is that time again!!!! T- 1 day and I am off to Haiti again. The packing began about a week ago and of course I have unpacked and repacked about 4 time since. That you to everyone who has donated supplies they will go a long way and make some of our patients very happy!  This trip is going to be great! I am spending the first few weeks in Port de Paix ( my usual destination) and the last few days will be on Fond des Blancs ( loosely translated to town of white people) at St. Boniface hospital . There is a hospital there that has a newish spinal cord injury program. I will be educating staff on wound care as well as mobility techniques. Spaulding is doing this as kind of an exchange organ. A PT and MD from St. Boniface where here at Spaulding this week and then I will go there at the end of my trip. Pretty sweet! Some fun facts about Fond des Blancs. During the Haitian resistance against France some Polish soldiers left the French side for he Haitian side. The Haitians rewarded t...