Busy busy!

This week has felt busier than most, I have a awesome ND student Shayla here with me which has been great and has really helped in getting patients seen effectively. We also hosted a group who flew up from PAP for a few nights to check out MBH. Lisa is a midwife and she was traveling with Holly a nurse, Nick a pre-med student and Ashley another young traveler willing to help out wherever she could. It was fantastic that they were here, especially on Tuesday when the clinic was packed. I mean packed. We did prenatals and clinic on the same day so there were at least 20 clinic patients (10 with parents and/or siblings) and 25+ prenatal patients hanging out in the “waiting area” which overflowed to the other deck as well as any place there was to sit. We were also doing a trial run with two new translators as we are hoping Santo gets chosen for the community health worker program which leaves us without a translator as Guy is on vacation this week. So, needless to say there was a lot going on. Of course, 2 laboring mamas also came in-one expecting twins. It was so nice to have the help of Lisa, Holly, Nick and Ashley while all of this was going on! They helped with vitals, prenatals, monitoring of the mamas and anything else we threw their direction. I was thankful for their willingness to help where they were needed as well as to be able to ‘self start’ and find things to do and ways to be helpful while I was busy with patients. They finally finished prenatals at 5:30pm…one of the latest days yet!

Nick, Holly, Ashley and Lisa

Lisa and one of the mamas who delivered here

Neither laboring mama gave birth here, one was not ready and the mama with twins had some complications that resulted in us sending her to the hospital. Never fear though, another baby girl was born last night so Marie had plenty to do as always.

Yesterday was a difficult day for me in the clinic as there was a Medika Mamba patient who failed to gain weight again, leading me to have to interrogate her grandmother about who is eating her food. I am hopeful that her answer about a little diarrhea and not feeding her any formula along with the Mamba is the truth. I also had a very sweet timid 14 year old girl who had just started here menstrual cycle come in to see us. Along with this coming of age-rite of passage if you will, was another symptom, the most concerning I have seen yet. She has a large, solid, firm, non mobile, painless mass with ill defined borders in her breast that appeared one month before. The mass was the largest I have seen and I was instantly struck with concern about its features. I talked with them about the need for imaging to be done asap and that if they needed help after the imaging was complete with understanding the results or other aspects of the possible treatment I would be here for them. I am praying to whoever listens that this is simply a benign fibroadenoma though I am ready for the news of something worse if it comes. I know they will come back as soon as they get the imaging done and I plan to keep researching and striving to learn more about breast conditions as it was really a scary situation for me. In times like this I am even more thankful that in the U.S. we are able to get the help we need, even if it comes with a price. If this turns out to be something that requires removal and treatment I fear the prognosis is grim as the facilities are lacking and the trained specialists are few and far between, mostly traveling from the U.S. a few times a year to take care of the droves of patients who await their care. I am still hopeful though, something I have learned from the Haitian people who remain optimistic that a change is coming and the futures of their children will not be as difficult and cumbersome as the generations before them.