Our last day working in Mussote. The adult station and htn/belly combined station were packed. I tried to weed some out and treat easy things or I would repeat blood pressures. The pastor's other son brought a glucometer but alas we couldn't find the huge bag of metformin we had brought (diabetes medicine). I found 3/4 of a worm tablet and broke it in 3's. I looked for kids in the belly station, checked there card, confirmed that they had belly pain and decreased appetite, squeezed their protuberent belly and shoved a quarter tablet of pyrantel in their mouth to chew. They chewed it compliantly. (It tastes like a chewable vitamin).
At one point I see a pregnant woman at triage. Joel tells me he's sending her to the htn station. I look at her pressure and it was 170/110. This woman would be hospitalized in the states! I get Joel out of triage and ask her if she sees a doctor. She does. Do you take medication? She does. Do you have it? She takes it out. She's taking methyldopa 500 mg 3 times a day. Did you take it today. Yes. Did you take it 3 times yesterday? Yes. I go through all our medications and find the one least harmful using my special phone app for medications. Amlodipine is ok. So I start her on10mg at night in addition to what she's taking. I tell her to see her doctor next week and show him/her what I gave her.Her hemaglobin was normal. Her HIV test was negative.
Later in the day the anemia station is seeing a guy that looks super skinny. Like concentration-camp-skinny. His hemaglobin was 8.9. HIV negative. I brought Dr. Goulos over. He started talking to him. He eventually turns to me and says that he was treated for TB for 6 months. That's probably what it is then...resistant TB. Another referral!
We finished relatively early. We had done 70 paps in all in Mussote. Crazy! The pastor couldn't stop thanking us. Dr. Gousse had told me that the foundation wanted to build a hospital in Mussote. That would be great. In the meantime, we'll try to do what we can. Elaine decided she wants to get people to sponsor patients so that we could provide enough medications for them year round...especially the ones with chronic conditions like hypertension. What a great idea for our organization to work on! Elaine and I have started and NGO called H.E.A.L. (Healthcare, Empowerment, Advocacy & Learning). Hopefully we'll have our tax id by next year!
The next morning, as we were packing up the bus, Danielle finds a suitcase full of more vitamin/toothbrushes and aspirin! Ok, I'm going to have to be better organized next year. Well, we're putting on a health fair at one of the schools/orphanages for monday and tuesday so I'm sure we'll use them there!
Friday we headed out to Club Indigo, the resort at the beach that I look forward to going to every year...amazing water, great food, the perfect break! Sunday we dropped Dr.Anderson off at the airport and we pick up my "lost" bag. It was like Christmas! More blood pressure medicine, all the baggies and labels, my fan, the urine dipsticks, the urine cups, makeup that my friend had donated (we can use them as gifts for monday and tuesday) and lots more condoms...we had almost finished what we had. When picking up the bag, to insure that the bag was mine, they asked me what was in there. I said baggies and condoms. "Lots of condoms?". She must have gone through the bag since the lock was unlocked. "Yes