Yesterday was a good day at clinic. After a little understandable confusion getting started, we settled in to seeing patients. In the mornings we see patients with appointments made by their local HHI agents, the cooperadores de salud. They are often continuity patients , folks HHI has seen before and are being followed for a chronic condition like hypertension or diabetes. No such luck for me! I think they were testing the new guy by giving me the tough ones! I had an epileptic lady on trivial doses of Tegretol, a gentleman with an enormous inguinal hernia and an unfortunate lady with a herniated disk who was suffering from progressive weakness in her legs, to the point she could barely walk. All these cases are pretty routine in the US where medications and specialists are readily available, but in the DR access is a real challenge. Our three international program directors, young ladies from the US who are living here to make this program run, do a great job helping us get appropriate care for these challenging cases, and will follow up with them long after we are gone. It's this sort of committment to longer term care that makes me appreciate what HHI is trying to do here.
In the afternoon we saw walk-in patients at a pretty fast clip. Most of it was pretty straightforward- colds, back pain, skin rashes and that sort of thing, but there were a few with interesting pathology. I saw a one year old boy who barely made any noise, and it was interesting to consider all the potential causes. He was an adorable, big quiet kid who reminded me of Clay at that age.
It's time for breakfast then once more unto the breech. More from gorgeous Puerto Plata later.
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