Today we headed back to Pastor Bernard's church, Lord of Harvest. Dr. Argel joined us again today and helped us see 85 patients in 3 hours. He has been an amazing blessing- he took extra days off of work to volunteer his time. Each day Jeff has spent time with Argel talking over various diseases that we see here- and how it is best to treat them. Argel has been a great addition to the team- and has offered to help us organize more medical professional volunteers next time we come- in exchange for coming to his community and doing a medical outreach program next time we visit.
It was a “slow” day for us- we had time to enjoy a lunch break and took time to sing together (Dr. Argel sang and Jeff played drums while the kids helped lead worship). All of our nurses had a chance to play and practice their skills a bit and they practiced using all of Jeff's tools on each other. Them team was glad to be able to take it a bit slower today- and we all laughed a bit that we considered seeing 85 patients a “slow, easy day.” We also got to to see some of the same families that we served last year- and it was great to see how their kids have grown and meet all the new babies.
We were able to get back early enough to join the kids for PE- it was soccer day, so we hollered and cheered for both teams, and the guys even joined in the crazy game. The ball kept getting kicked into the rice field- so JR just left his shoes off so he could go fetch it from the mud if needed.
This afternoon we had a bit of down time to write letters to the kids and rest. Whenever we are back at the Mission House, all the staff kids come over to help write letters and play. Genesis, Mycah, and Luis have been little shadows the whole week- and they bring us all to giggles at every turn.
Hide-and-go-seek, volley ball, wall ball, and board games were the choice games for the evening. Several of the kids also went wild over the new embroidery floss we brought to make friendship bracelets.
Note from Jeff:
Today we had the pleasure of treating a fairly common skin infection. Purlent discharge (pus), puretic (itchy) mostly around the intertrigal areas (skin folds) like the groin, fingers and toes. There were also vesicles (blisters) often in linear tracts. With a trained eye and careful observation, a small little friend could be seen living within the the wounds. What we saw was multiple cases of scabies with a superficial bacterial infection. The whole team has been sympathetically scratching and itching since. Besides scabies other parasite infections are very common here. In the US we have pin worms in many of our children. In the Philippines they have ascaris. Which is a round worm that can get up to foot in length. A mother came in with her child who was only 1 year old. Her son was very sick last week and was unable to eat or drink. Because of the illness and inability to eat, the child's worms started to crawl out of his nose and mouth. The medicine that we have for treating worms is only indicated for children over 2 years old or if they are very xymptomatic, like loosing weight failing to thrive. It was decided that we would not treat the child today because he was doing well and there was only limited medications. The mother asked is there anything else we can do for the worms. I told her that she can go to the free clinic which is close by to get different medication and that she needs to have her child eat daily so that the worms do not come up. I told her, she should have her child eat every day no matter what, if for nothing else to keep the worms happy.
We diagnosed colon cancer, many urinary tract infections, and of course the common cold. Yesterday, we had a chance to use a Doppler to check the fetal heart tones of the pregnant mothers. To see the mothers smile when they heard their babies heart beat for the first time would light the entire room. The women all wanted to know the sex of their babies- but we couldn't hear with the monitor whether it was a boy or girl:) One woman who had chest pain for 3 months, was miraculously healed immediately during prayer. God is amazing and still now and always answers prayer. There was also a 70 year old man who had a stroke 5 years ago, he tells the story how his entire left side was numb and he was unable to speak clearly or move his left arm. He had the pastor pray for him, and he was healed immediately except for a little numbness to his face that has remained.
After the last story about the man with the stroke- I told the man that the little numbness that was left was a reminder to him of God's healing power. Just like Jacob in the Bible who had a limp after wrestling with God- to serve as a reminder of God's work in his life.
Again- our God is an AWESOME God.
