The past week was filled with new opportunities to allow God to work in our lives. What impacted me the most was on Thursday, I was working with Josephina, one of HTI's physicians, and only a few patients came to the clinic that day. God places us where we can work for him the most, as there was a 6 year old child that was bought to the clinic by her mother. For the past 2-3 days she had nausea, vomiting and some diarrhea. When we examined the child the abdomen was tight, there were no bowel sounds, and there were several positive physical signs for appendicitis. Josephina instructed the mother to take the child directly to the hospital and we prayed for them before they went their way.
The last patient, was a 50-55 year old women who was extremely thin and her husband stated she had been "ill several years but worse now" She weighed 80 lbs and was skin and bones. On examination her liver was very large and her abdomen was slightly tender at all points. There were no other significant physical signs. Josephina ask him if he would take her for an ultrasound and lab work to determine a possible diagnosis of cancer. He conveyed that we did not want to, that his wife was the shepherd for the family and they would leave it in the hands of God. We gave them some supportive medications and ask them to please come to Clinica Caris for follow up, and again it was time to pray to God for this very sick women and her family.
Neva spent the day Thursday with Dr. Lisa at her referral clinic at Caris. They saw a young man who is in similar shape and his labs and clinical presentation raise concerns about about the possibility of leukemia. He, too, was sent to the hospital for further testing and the hope of treatment. Then, a little guy, four years old and only 20 pounds, was brought to the clinic by his mom in obvious distress related to malnutrition. He was treated for parasites and his mother was given information on nutrition and hopefully he can be referred to a milk program that is available in Chichi. If we had any questions about why we are working in Guatemala, they were all answered in one day!
Saturday, we headed for the coast for a week of eye surgery. More from Montellano in the next few days.