Oh how I Wish You Were Here...

...so you could see for yourself.  But you´re not.  So I´m going to try and bring it to you

In the Wichenzao neighborhood of Trujillo, we have our clinic that was 
originally run in a little room of a church.  It´s now in its own two story 
building and eventually, God willing, will grow into a mini hospital.



We open our doors at 0800 and start the day with scripture and prayer, which our patients are more than welcome to join.  Today it´s Lydia´s turn to read.  She´s one of our interns that plans to go to med school after her year Peru.  Her Spanish is really good which has been a huge help to those of us mostly uni-linguals.



Then everyone forms a line to register and pay for whatever service they came for.  I´m proud to say that we are stinkin reasonable compared to what the other options are in town, not to mention what you would pay in the States.  7 soles for a medical or obstetric consult.  5 for a nebulizer treatment.  Just examples.

This is the room where we triage, administer injections, do ear irrigations, IV transfusions, wound treatments, etc.  It´s very open which can be a bit odd. At one time we could have one person getting nebulized, another their blood pressure taken while answering medical history questions, one being weighed, and yet another getting a shot in their rear.  You see the folding curtain on the left?  I was trying to use it one day when it was as busy as I just described in order to give an antibiotic privately.  My patient chuckled, said something along the lines of ´let´s just do this thing´ and pulled down her pants and bent over in front of everyone.  The other folks in the room were obviously in agreement so I didný protest.  We also have 3 rooms for the doctors to see  patients in more of a private setting.

I haven´t taken care of little kids since nursing school so this has been a fun change of pace.  I´ve also been learning to do new things like place stiches, nerve blocks, joint injections, etc.
Story: We had a gal with asthma come in who was basically going into respiratory distress as one of our nurses was trying to give her a neb treatment.  As anyone would be, our patient started freaking out due to her lack of air.  She felt claustrophobic with the mask on and this anxiety led to even worsening bronchospams, which doesn´t help the gas exchange at the alveolar level (where the oxygen actually transfers into the blood in the circulatory system).  I overheard the nurse saying that our gal needed to go to the hospital because we weren´t outfitted to treat her worsening condition.  Our patient started balling because she couldn´t afford that.  Again, this doesn´t help the respiratory distress. 

Our nurse immediately started praying with her as I snuck this snapshot.  Now do you see that oxygen tank behind them?  ¨Why isn´t our patient hooked up to that?¨  I asked.  ¨Because it´s empty and it´s for CO2.¨  Oh ok.  Huh?  Turns out this thing was ´converted´.  We bought it in Lima with O2 in it and the CO2 label covered up by a label saying ¨OXYGENO¨ and now when we go to fill it up, nobody will do it ¨...because this tank is engineered for carbon dioxide¨ they tell us.  Agravating....

So this leads me to my first prayer request.  In order to purchase the proper tank, we need to raise about $300 (American).  At least it´s cheap to fill up once we have it.  If you or anyone you know want to pitch in, let us know. 

Also, we need to find another full-time nurse to fill the shoes of ours (pictured above) who is getting married in October and moving to Lima.  Honestly I don´t know how we´re going to find someone as awesome as her.

Lastly, my Spanish skills could use a lot of prayer.  I´m translating for some medical campaigns in a few days and really don´t want to mess anything up.  Especially with the surgeons.  Could you imagen the damage that could be done?

Thanks for reading and there´s a lot more to tell so stay tuned.