Clinic: Episode 3

After returning to Pucallpa, we had one crazy day to pack up the whole pharmacy and travel out to Km 4 for our next medical clinic. The clinic was a pretty normal one, no extreme cases, but lots of people who needed help. In 5 days the medical team saw 811 people. Our clinic site was a small little building (quite a bit smaller than the size of an average living room)with a dirt floor. We were quite crammed – with 2 doctor rooms, two triage rooms, a registration area, pharmacy and a laboratory making it fun to perform clinic duties. Thankfully the dental team had a little house all to their own. It was fun to complete another clinic week. I love the chance to learn more medically and have the opportunity to come in contact with so many individuals and to help them. The new area is really dusty, so lots of people had respiratory problems and we ran into many who had crazy high blood pressures, one lady had shingles, one man had a huge bulge of blood vessels on his hand, some just wanted vitamins and worm meds; however, the most interesting case was a lady who had had a piece of wood stuck in her foot for over a year. Due to the dusty conditions, Doctor took her to his clinic to do the surgery, so I didn’t get to watch, but it was still a pretty crazy case. There are always interesting things that happen during clinic (including getting woken up each morning around 2 or 3 by the line forming outside waiting for medical attention) and lots of interesting people with crazy stories. But now another clinic has passed and Tuesday the travel team will be moving out to the new location. Funny thing is that our new home is named the 17 of September…so technically I can say that I will be living in the 17 of September for the next two months, it is going to be a very long eventful day…hehehehehe.