Medical Report

This was the first day that the medical team worked in Armenia. We started out very disorganized. Many of the things we needed had been inadvertently left at the previous clinic. We arrived and had not before set up a clinic on our own, and it took much longer than anticipated to actually start seeing patients. There was confusion about how to get people registered and take vital signs. There were so many people! I had worried that we would not see anyone! We saw 103 people, 69 children. Bob and I consulted with each other when we needed. It was almost all acute care - people who had fevers, rashes, coughs, chicken pox, and other illnesses. The people were gracious, and our translators were wonderful. We had Spanish and Mayan translators - there are two Mayan dialects here. We saw people in improvised exam rooms with curtains for privacy, usually seeing whole families together. One time I saw a mother and 6 children, sorting through their problems, one at a time. They had intestinal parasites. It was good that I figured that out by the second child. We have run through many of the medications that we brought and are buying more. I am sure we will be over budget by the time we leave. I had the opportunity to talk with the women who are on the health counsel here about diabetes. They were appreciative of the information, were responsive, and asked questions which showed that they had understood the material. The heat is amazing, over 100 today. We remind each other that we have to drink, we even count how many times we pee each day! It has been wonderful to read the letters from home. It helps to restore my spirit at the end of a very exhausting day.

Dale