Pages From My Journal: Haiti, Day 7

3 March 2010

Today I felt much better in the health department. I think the antibiotic is working well. Julia and I went back to Petit Guinee for the day. It was a strangely slow day. Apparently it is market day really close by, so not many people come out for clinic. We did see, however, a lot of fevers and vomiting again today. I think that Malaria is very prevalent and the fact that people are living in such close corners with the rise of the tent cities makes it that much worse. Probably the most memorable thing I saw today was a 1 1/2 year old with burns to her right arm and abdomen. Apparently she was playing with a pot of boiling water with her brother and it splashed her. There was a lot of dead skin and it looked really painful. I took her history and asked her mother if she minded that I took a picture. The doctor saw her, tore off the dead skin (without pain medications!) and applied silver sulfadiazine to the areas, applied a vaseline dressing, and then wrapped her with kerlex. The poor baby cried and cried...

Other than that, my Creole is getting better. I am learning more vocab each day, which is good because I am able to understand my patients better.

Julia thought I had scabies today. I was itching all over and some red bumps appeared on my index finger. I was pretty sure that they were from the wool blankets and the heat, not scabies, but we decided to treat anyway. A research study (found through an iPhone search!) found that tea tree oil was useful in treatment and we had some in the stockroom at the guesthouse, so we borrowed it and rubbed it all over my hand. Later we found out from John that scabies takes weeks to show up... So, no scabies (at least not yet!). We are probably all paranoid!

Clinic finished at 1300 because there were just no more patients. So, we headed back to the guesthouse to restock the boxes and wait for John and Corey to return. It seemed like a small waste of time because we want to be working while we are here instead of sitting around. Perhaps today was just a fluke and the rest of the week will be better. We had an early dinner and enjoyed Bananagrams with some American EMTs. I did a small load of laundry in our bucket, then headed to bed. Corey is starting to feel sick - I hope this bug doesn't spread all around.

Jesus, thank you for a day that I felt productive even though it was slow. Thank you for this life that you have given me. Thank you for health among all this sickness. Thank you for life among all this death. Help the Haitians remember their lost and bring them comfort that only you can. We were asking our translators today what the people do to remember their loved ones lost and they said that they have done nothing as there are only mass graves. I guess there has been no time or energy to do more. Today was the first time I've seen some clean up crews shoveling through the rubble. They all had yellow USAID shirts on. I wonder if they will rebuild? Thank you, Lord, for a roof over my head and a place to sleep with clean water. What a blessing! Continue watching over me and those around me. Amen.