Oooh, It's Hot Down Here. . . . (Clinic numero 2)

Yesterday was our first day in La Majada to provide care for them.  We again, started our day with a wonderful breakfast provided by Carlos and his wife.  He is a chef for a local high school and college.  The hotel that we are staying at in Zacapa offers a laundry service for 20 Quetzals.  What a deal!  For us two weekers, it is a nice surprise to have this amenity. After breakfast, we were off to "the clinic" for our first day.

We arrived at "the clinic" and there were already people waiting to be seen despite having to wait another 30 minutes before we open.  We took that time to set up our workstations and released the pharmacy students to organize the pharmacy how they wanted and that it would be a user friendly system under the supervision of Bev.  Once we had everything in order, it was time to open for the day with Chris completing intake in the morning and Jeremy in the afternoon. Joyce, Ernie, and Jeremy being the providers for the morning and Ernie and Joyce in the afternoon.  Joy organizing the children's area as well as assisting throughout the clinic where needed and Kayci, John, and Phil heading up the pharmacy with Bev.  Thank you to the whole team for all that you did yesterday in order for us to provide the best care that we could.



Our clinic today, saw multiple complaints for aches and pains throughout the body especially two individuals with Sciatica.  They both had seen a physician for this but the recommendation was surgery.  When diving into the situation, they were never informed about steroid injections first and then potential surgery.  Not sure if those physicians were thinking about cost first and foremost because in the national hospital, the visits are free but medications are not.  It is interesting to me that this is the way the national healthcare system is and not potentially covering medications that have a high success rate in curing or at least prolonging the most invasive procedure. 

As a surprise, some nursing students from the area joined us in clinic most of the day. They were doing well-child checks and giving out immunizations. The nurses were very interested in what we were doing and what medications we had brought along. We wish that we could have shared some of our assessment skills with them. With the many glasses that were donated to us, we were able to meet the optical needs of many adults. The looks on their faces was a "sight to see" (pun intended per Phil).

Pharmacy had a fun day working without a translator. The pharmacy students picked up the spanish very quickly, writing labels and counseling in Spanish with minimal help from the translator that was helping the doctors. The words started to roll off the tongue without difficulty. We handed out many bottles and bags of children's multivitamins and acetaminophen, and helped to treat some diabetic and high blood pressure patients as well.

After "the clinic", we all went back to the hotel and rested for a while before dinner. We had a great dinner of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. After dinner, the group went to church in La Majada. It was interesting to listen to a church service in Spanish. The people of La Majada showed how grateful they are for our clinic services.

On our way home from church, we drove through many of the local markets. Many of them were unloading tobacco and fruit in the coolness of the night. The markets were very busy with all of the Guatemalan people working.