The Harvest is Plentiful but the Workers are Few

Today our day was delayed a little by the rain. We have 2 medical teams at our base. Today we all went out together, because it was too muddy to get up into the mountains to see the patients at one clinic. Then we came home early because it turned super sticky humid hot.

Didn't see anything too exciting, but there was the 2 month baby brought in that I saw with a 102.8 temp swaddled in a blanket, with rapid respirations and heartrate. The baby was dehydrated and needed to go to the hospital, and was failing to thrive for his age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYVOuYZyq2k


I can't say too much more about today, but what I can talk about is the needs. If you have any ideas or would like to help with a solution let me know. The most common drugs we handout are vitamins and Tylenol. There is always a huge need for that. The oral thermometers we have don't work the best, and it would be a good idea to get a bunch of temporal thermometers. But the thing that came to my mind first was when we were talking about a man that probably had prostrate cancer. There was no way to confirm the cancer without proper tests being run like the ones we do in the States. The man had a distended abdomen and was probably full of urine due to the inability to void. I know how uncomfortable it is when you need to void, but can't. I have Shy Bladder Syndrome, and in certain situations can't go no matter how much I need to go. There is also a need for an ultrasound machine. An ultrasound machine has the ability to see the fetus in utero and the measure the amount of the urine in the bladder, so if the bladder was too full the patient could be cathed. On that note, for extra full bladders would require straight cath kits, which the clinic doesn't have. I don't know how feesible it would be to have foley catheter kits in this type of living conditions. The challenge that comes with all of this is actually performing the catherization, there is no privacy in the clinics. All the patients are examined out in the open. If you have any ideas on solutions or how to obtain equipment please let me know. I'm going to do research, and see if I can't contact some of these companies about getting stuff at a discounted rate.