Machete Surgery in San Jose!

Well, we are almost done with our time in San Jose this brigade and it has been an exciting trip. We have seen many patients and learned a lot from the communities surrounding us. To top off our medical experience, Suzanne and I had a memorable afternoon yesterday. During our second to last medical session we had a 15 year old boy who walked 5 hours to see us. He was walking through a field and a snake landed on his arm so he used his machete to kill it--unfortunately he also lacerated his left hand. When he arrived at our clinic he was unable to extend his 3-5th fingers at all! After some investigation on our part we found 3 severed tendons and after much lidocaine and searching we found the other half of 2 of the tendons. We sutured it together and when the pt was leaving he was able to extend all his fingers slightly! We are hoping that he will follow-up with Carmen (the nurse here in San Jose) and eventually have full use of his left hand again.
The sun is now wishing us a good trip to Tela and hopefully the highway strike will not impede our departure!
-Meg

Last day of clinic in San Jose

It's Thursday, and we are wrapping up the last morning of clinic prior to packing up and heading down the mountain to Tela. It's a mixed sentiment. The patients are still coming in steadily to clinic, and I, for one, am sad to have to roll up all of the eyeglasses supplies. Haven't had to turn anyone away from an eye exam, but still hoping that the one myopic (nearsighted) patient will come back into clinic so that we could fit her into glasses. The eye clinic has been very interesting the past couple of days. There is nothing more precious that putting a pair of glasses on a patient who couldn't see and afterwards could read the tiniest of numbers on the near card. There were other instances where the glasses couldn't really help much. Many patients came yesterday with maturing cataracts that could only be helped by surgery. Hopefully they can all make their way down to the ophthalmology clinic in El Progreso (and that the letters describing their eye exams will help).

I think everyone of us is looking forward to Tela. A change of pace from the hectic clinic and a chance to spend time catching up with members of the health committee... and obviously just plain enjoy the beach! Let's hope for sunshine, since the last couple of days the skies were quite weepy around here (see previous post).
This morning the weather is seemingly holding out. The clouds have lifted and sun is beaming down once again, drying up all the puddles. If it stays like this, it could be a very nice ride down the mountain to Imapro and then Tela.
See you all soon!

Cloud Trek to Pescadero

15th April 2008, team C loaded up 3 horses, 1 for supplies, 2 for riding, and set off in the driving rain to Pescadero. 2 hours uphill, we set off as a rag-tag brigade of travellers delivering medical care to an outlying community. A ways into the trek, we realize the horses are having trouble with the mud, and few people will make the walk to see us. We have people following up with us though, so Don Fidel decides we should press on. One uphill is followed by another, and as we crest one hill, a view opens up to our left of palm trees awash in fog. Here the wind picks up, adding a touch of chill to the rain. We are walking among the clouds, and visibility musn't be more than 30 yards on either side of us. Mid-morning we arrive at Pescadero. A child unlocks the school-house for us, and we set up clinic before devouring PBJ sandwiches. About 15 patients show up, most with important complaints, many who have not had their meds refilled in months, including necessary blood pressure controls. By two pm, we have seen everyone, and so set off on the long downhill climb back to San Jose. Randy and Suzanne ride. Randy's horse is stubborn, but with his experience he is able to control it. The walk is hard on our knees, but we make it back in about 1 h 40 min. At night, after discussing interesting cases, including seizures in a teenage girl, the team descends into several games of mafia... -Zeb

Rainy day in Pescadaro

Sorry about the dearth of postings. I am having trouble getting the group login to work, and computer time is severely limited by the generator needing to be on.[

Yesterday a group of about 8 of us hiked several hours through Honduran rain along muddy slippery roads and trails to reach a distant village named Pescadaro.

We arrived totally drenched, with a mule, 2 horses, 3 backpacs of medications and supplies, and 8 chilly americans and 2 local guides.

We set up the "away clinic" in a school house on the edge of a muddy cliff...in just 18 months since I was there last, the edge of the schoolyard has fallen away into the red chasm below, and now a chain link and barbed wire fence blocks off the foot path the ends abruptly just beyond.

Because of the rain, we saw only about 10 patients, then trecked back the 5 miles or so in continued downpouring rain.

If anyone is able to look at a satellite map for the area for yesterday, please let us know how it looks from above!

Better get off they computer as there is a long line waiting.

We will be home this Saturday night, hopefully more updates before then.

Spring in San Jose

Hello everyone, we have all arrived safely in San Jose, and are doing Saturday morning clinic.



I arrived yesterday after spending a week at a new location in Ocote Paulino, only a few miles away as the crow flies, but requiring an hour and a half car ride down the mountain, around to the other side and back up to get to San Jose.



It's great to see everyone here and the wonderful clinic that we've build. The Ocote Paulino project is in it's infancy and will be many years before something similar to what we have here is built.



I never thought i would be referring patients to the clinic in San Jose, but last week I realized how much we've done here.



Expect for more entries from everyone else now that I've got the blog runnign again.



-Suzanne A., MD