Yesterday, I spent the entire day traveling. I had found out the day before that the
15th was a holiday, meaning the clinic was only open for
emergencies. As I had nothing
better to do, I was invited to go on what felt like the Paul Farmer’s Haiti
tour. We started at the new
hospital in Mirebalais, which was quite impressive. As I was on my tour of the OR suites, I was partly expecting
to find a Da Vinci. All the rooms
had head lights with cameras connected to them, I’m fairly certain most rooms
had two computers, white and bright and completely sterile, and actually
cold! Equivalent and even better
than some of the hospitals in the states, and very beautiful landscaping.
From there, we drove by the very first PIH hospital in Cange;
then our final destination in Henge before turning around and heading right
back. We spent much more time in
the car than we did any of the places we stopped, which meant I had a lot of
time to meditate, contemplate, etc.
I was able to appreciate the scenery, and truly understand the title
‘Mountains Beyond Mountains.’ I
thought of how in just under five months, I’ll trade this sauna of mountains
for snow-capped mountains in the great white north . . . something I am very
excited about.
I hate to admit this, but there is a part of me that wishes
I were in Alaska now . . . that would have been much easier. But, anyone who knows me knows that I
always like to make things more difficult for myself. I’m not sure if it’s catholic guilt, or penance for anything
bad I’ve done in my life, but I do feel that this is a task meant for me to
bear . . . this is very different from the past mission trips I’ve done where
there are other people you can easily communicate with, and understand where
you come from surrounding you, I’m alone for the time being, and it would be a
lie if I said that I wasn’t lonely . . . but to quote a very smart fish . . . I
need to ‘just keep swimming.’ . . .
So, today . . . another day in clinic. Another day where every patient with
belly pain is sent to see me.
Another day of struggles with my interpreter . . . needing to make
things as basic as possible, and explain things multiple times, I thought I was
going to loose it. Even something
as simple as getting a patient’s pregnancy history seemed to take forever. The day actually started out somewhat
successful. First patient . . .
only came for screening . . . 31, VIA positive, performed a LEEP . . . still
had some glitches, but it went more smoothly than the first, things were going
well. By the time I got to the
patient who told me that she was having increasing pain in her ovary every time
she washed her vagina with Clorox, I thought I was going to lose it. I’m not sure if I can keep this up for
the next seven weeks.
So . . . now the end of week one of the VIA see and treat
protocol at OSAPO. 18 women have
been screened, two positive and treated the same day, 3 more positive and
hopefully not lost to follow up.
No comments:
Post a Comment