Shortly after leaving the children on the hill yesterday, Timizou arrived to have his foot rechecked and to my relief, he seems to be healing well and should make a full recovery. During the process of cleaning and redressing we had another arrival…a lady Léon asked to come by in the afternoon. She sat close as I finished with Timizou, not out of curiosity but rather to assure her evaluation…and upon closer scrutiny, her ailment became clear – a large swollen area on her right lower leg.
We learned she had been treated at Kaikok twice but unfortunately with no resolution. The area was very tender – she clearly had a large abscess that was not resolving. This was the largest abscess I have ever encountered and required yet another drainage procedure. With Chelsea’s expert assistance the lesion was opened, evacuated, packed and bandaged…all with a large audience inspecting our work every step of the way. I put her on antibiotics and expect to recheck her today after clinic. My only hope, due to the duration of her symptoms, is that there is not a deeper infection in the bone that will not resolve without surgery and IV medication. If so, she will need to visit Hopital Lumiere in Bon Fin. We do seem to keep them busy after we leave!
Once we finished, we headed to the bar to make good on my promise to treat Timizou to a birthday beer and we had a nice group. It was good to sit, relax and laugh for a bit before we headed back for dinner – as always delicious! They are definitely fattening us up again this week!
After dinner I headed to the roof to check in with the family and wouldn’t you know, another patient arrived after an unfortunate incident with a flying rock – Rock 1, Head 0. Luckily we have surgeon Kitty on staff and she quickly cleaned and sutured his deep wound, again with Chelsea’s expert assistance! The young man tolerated his impromptu surgery well and was off into the night in no time, with a recheck scheduled for tonight. We seem to do our best work on this trip AFTER hours!!
The repacking and sorting was quick and we will save our filing for tonight, so the beds called us and we again had another good night’s sleep, though not the best of the trip…still cannot complain! We awoke today to calm winds and prepared to return to Bwa Bouton for a command performance.
It was raining over the sea and almost immediately poured down on our location. We had no idea what we would find as we awaited the rain to stop but once it ceased we loaded up for the journey. As it turns out, no new precipitation at Bwa Bouton, and based on our prior experience at this location, we expected the crowd to gather quickly once the residents got word of our arrival.
There were definitely more patients at the outset and we did not stay ahead of the demand, however when all was said and done, we had just treated another 63 patients…another unusually light load for this team, but all who came were seen. The breeze continued, though going from cool to sultry at times – we are just happy to have continued air movement to keep us comfortable. So far it seems as though we have landed in a parallel Ile a Vache, as far as climate and clinic demands are concerned. The rest remains the same and we are very happy for that.
Once home from clinic we had a delicious lunch and awaited our surgical follow-up patients. Since it was too late for some of the group to venture out yesterday, they will do so today. But in the meantime, we again had a couple walk-in patients. Kitty sewed up an 8 yr old’s finger – Machete 1, Finger 0. I drained yet another lesion and am awaiting the opportunity to recheck the healing progress of my late day patient from yesterday.
We also had a return visit from the mother of the young child with a likely abdominal tumor. He was seen at Hopital Lumiere and will now need to see Oncology in Port au Prince – we will definitely assist in the cost thanks to our generous donors!!
For now we are relaxing at the local pub with our friends as we sip on a cold beverage and consider our time here so far…and that to come before our departure. Our day is not even close to over yet so there will certainly be more to share tomorrow…but for now that is all.
Love to All,
The Team
Following your progress every day! Keep up the good work!
Hope all the surgical patients ate healing nicely!
Love to all,
Jenny