Apologies for this being late - internet has been on the fritz here at Casa Calico the last few days.
Dr. Leonel arrived yesterday and had his first day in clinic today. I think it was a lot to get used to for him, but Raymond is helping us out this week so he was around and a very useful resource today. We all went to dinner last night with Peggy and her crowd, which currently consists of another American doc, a bunch of Scottish and Irish dental students, a group of nurses, a student helper, and her grandchild and friends - quite the motley crew. Leonel got to meet everyone, so that was good.
Last week in the clinic we ended up having lots of unexpected visitors. Monday and Tuesday, Peggy showed up with groups of her dental students to help to dental exams and recommend treatment for kids that needed it. They were really helpful and I think successfully convinced a lot of the parents to take their kids for dental work at Peggy's clinic, so that's good. However, none of them spoke any Spanish, which necessitated me translating them for them - a highly amusing endeavor as you can imagine. We did all right though, and I am now very skilled in translating such phrases as "Your child needs six extractions, five fillings, and four sealants, preferably right away", and "No Coca-Cola before bed!" Anyway, it generally went
well, and the patients always like getting free toothbrushes and toothpaste, and the extra personal attention.
Then Wednesday we had a visiting nurse from Peggy's clinic, who helped with taking patient vitals and the like so that I could have the time to get a few more surveys done. Thursday a pre-med student, also working with Peggy, stopped by to help out as well. There wasn't much for him to do, and so he wandered off to parts unknown and later told me that he talked to Dr. Sanchez in the main ward and got himself invited to watch a minor surgery. I think Peggy was concerned about how this would go over so she talked to him. Anyway, I think we are finally done with the visitors (some were actually very helpful so I shoudn't complain, it just made things that much more hectic in the clinic).
On the water survey, I am hoping to convince Leonel to go out into La Colonia with me this week or next before I leave and at least get a few surveys done to get some basic information. Also, once Alissa arrives next week, I am planning on doing a very scaled down version of my survey in the clinic, in order to get basic water infrastructure info for patients who live in communities other than La Colonia. Incidentally, I found a file on the Global Healing computer written by someone named Carrie that had all sorts of info on the water situation in the hospital and in Coxen Hole generally. Very interesting, especially since it is dated over a year ago and things seem to be exactly the same. Anyway, anyone know who this Carrie is or how I
could contact her? I would love to see who she talked to, because it sounds like she managed to find the elusive PMAIB office (the Ministry of Tourism project aimed at improving water and sanitation on the island, funded by Inter-American Development Bank) that no one here seems to know anything about now - unclear if they have disappeared from the island or if anything has been going on with the project in recent years.
We haven't had any terribly interesting cases in clinic recently, other than a whole family with sickle cell anemia and a whole family that needed TB post exposure prophylaxis. It seems that TB is one of the few diseases that the hospital really does a good job on tracking and following up with patients over the whole course of treatment. Otherwise, just a lot of the usual colds, scabies, and diarrhea - good times!
The only thing I have been having problems with is getting forms/charts/info sheets/etc photocopied. The copier upstairs in the administration are works just fine, but I'm quite sure that the woman who works there hates me, and I am only allowed to make ten copies at a time (sometimes five if she is feeling especially spiteful). Even if I bring her paper, she refuses to make more than ten copies - which for things like growth charts or surveys, lasts a very short period of time. Thus, I have been taking things to Paradise Computers and just copying what we need and paying for it myself. This isn't really a problem, I was just wondering if we have any discretionary funding that we could use in this case? The new printer will help for the
things we have on file at least. Anyway, let me know what you think. I can keep incurring the wrath of the admin woman and making ten copies a day too - it does get the job done. I admit it, I'm somewhat afraid of her - but I think if this is my biggest problem, I'm probably not doing so badly.
Anyway, I am excited to finally not be here by myself - although a lot of Peggy's crew have been staying at Casa Calico and nearby at Sea Grape intermittently, so I've had some company. I have learned how to cook a lot of things with bananas, mangoes, and pineapple, and how to make chocolate chip cookies with no chocolate chips (I didn't know such a thing was possible). And believe it or not, I have even found soy milk and tofu here. What an adventure. I finished my diving certification and am now planning all the other dives I want to go on before I leave - of course, too much to do in the next two weeks!
