Medical Clinic

Last week was a hectic but exciting week. We were able to help translate for a medical team of about 25 Americans who came down to do a week-long free clinic. It was held at a church in a very poor neighborhood about 20 minutes from us. The team consisted of Medical Doctors, Nurses, Pediatricians, Gynecologists, Eyedoctors, a Dentist and Pharmacists. They had a huge stock of medications shipped down ahead of time to go through customs and be ready to go when they got here.

Here is how the system worked. People lined up outside the church (the line would start the evening of the previous day and they would spend the night in line so they could get in the next day). As they came in, they would fill out an information sheet and check off their symptoms. Then they would go to "Triage" where a nurse would ask them some further questions, take their temperature, blood pressure and in some cases do an insulin test. Then they would be sent to the proper doctor. After their consultation with the doctor, if they were prescribed medications they would go to the in-house pharmacy to pick up their medications... all of this for FREE!! Then if they were not yet Christians, they had the opportunity to be presented with the gospel in one-on-one evangelism. At least 350 people gave their hearts to the Lord last week through this evangelism!! I never heard the figures, so I don't know how many people were seen by the doctors. I believe last year they saw 2,300 people and they were hoping to get more through this year. The system was very organized, and I was very impressed with it!

Chad and I took turns going - he went Tuesday and Thursday and I went Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday I was in Triage translating for a 22-year old girl by the name of Hanna who is a nursing student in Texas. On Wednesday I was in pediatrics translating for a nurse from Nashville, TN, who works in a burn center. I learned so much from her - I loved it!! We saw so many sick little children and babies. Leah listened to the heart of a little 3-year old girl, and was a bit perplexed when she was hearing the heart more on the right side than the left. She had the other pediatrician listen and he confirmed that the little girl probably has a condition where she was born with her organs all on the opposite side of her body than normal. Several other doctors came in to take a listen, and the poor little girl got a little scared with all those people around her with their stethascopes listening to her heart. Her mom got a bit scared too, but the doctor just encouraged her to take the little girl to the hospital to get an x-ray to confirm it, and also just to make sure it isn't a symptom of something more serious going on. It seemed to me that something like this should have been picked up in a routine medical exam sometime in this little girl's life before now. But this is just one more instance of the quality of the public health system down here... another case and point...

A little 3-year old boy came in and his mom said he was having really labored breathing and that this happens often with him. They usually take him to the hospital, they give him a shot and he gets better and they send him home without any further explaination. Leah asked him to take his shirt off so she could listen to his lungs. We saw right away that his little belly was going in and out so fast, and as soon as she started listening she said, "this little guy has asthma". When I translated that to the mom, she was completely shocked. We counted his respirations and that little belly was going in and out 74x/min. The doctor hooked him up with an inhaler immediately, although that was a bit scary for the little guy. Hopefully by now he is used to his inhaler and is having a much better time breathing because of it.

One thing that frustrated me was how many moms came in complaining that their child doesn't want to eat right - "he/she just wants to eat cookies and candy" - as if the doctor could give a magic pill to make the child eat right!! The problem is that the moms allow the children to eat like that, and it starts at a very young age. Then when the child starts getting older, mom expects him/her to start eating well-balanced meals. And then when the child doesn't want to eat good food, mom starts yelling at the child and can't figure out why he/she doesn't want to eat. We need to start training them early on so we don't have to re-train later. In our house, cookies, candy and snacks are REWARDS for having eaten a good meal, and they aren't even given every day. We see this in the area of discipline down here too. So often, babies and young children are not disciplined at all because "they are innocent and don't understand". Then when they get older and start blaintently disobeying, the parents get verbally (and sometimes physically) abusive. But it is just a logical sequence - if the child was never held responsible for his/her actions before and could disobey without any consequences, why is he/she going to all of a sudden start obeying? Elysia is 1yr. and 1mo. and we are already starting to see her little "human nature" come out. We are already needing to teach her that she doesn't always get her way (and that it is NOT cute when she throws herself on the floor in a fit), and just because she "can" crawl up the steps doesn't mean it is safe and permissible for her to do so. Anyway... just a little ranting from me :) Being a mom, and parenting in general is something I am a bit passionate about. I enjoy reading books on it, and am currently reading "On Becoming Child Wise", which is on parenting your child from 3-7 years.

Back to the clinic. I felt very privileged to be able to be a part of such an amazing project of compassion. The people that came in were certainly the poorest of the poor. There were at least 2 families that I saw on Friday that I would guess by their appearance that they were probably homeless. But yet they were so happy! Something that I want to definitely take back with me from our time here in Brazil is to remember how many people are out there in the world in need. I want to do my best to give of my time and resources whenever possible to help those in need around us. There in the states the poor & needy are so well hidden, but they are there! One of my biggest prayers right now is that God helps me to not just get into the daily grind of life and forget about reaching out to the lost and hurting in this world. I also have such a desire to see the church rise up and do more to reach out to the needy.

On another note, please pray with us about the dessert business. We had a few good days 2 weeks ago, but things are pretty slow again. We just need a lot of wisdom in how to push forward and what contacts to make to boost sales. We need to see it take off a bit by the end of June here to continue. We have been investing so much personally (financially & physically) into it, and just need confirmation from the Lord as to whether we are to continue or not.

This post ended up being much longer than I expected, and I don't even have any new pictures for you all. Sorry about that. But trust me, the girls are as cute as ever and haven't changed much since last week :) Elysia's new thing is that she nods and shakes her head to answer questions... and does so correctly. It's really cute. She also follows simple instructions well, i.e. "shut the door" "put it back/away" "give it to me".

Hope you all have a great week. Not sure if I will post again before next Monday. We'll see how the week goes.