Hump day

Today is Wednesday March 29 th. We were in a new community today and there were many many children. It was a community that seemed better off than Pinada. The school buildings that we used today had a soccer field and a basketball court. The building we used for the medical clinic had its own banyo! 

I saw a woman with diabetes and high blood pressure, She has never seen a doctor.

I saw an 18 to girl who has been married for 2 years. Her husband wanted her seen because she is not pregnant yet and he wants us to tell her why.

I saw another 18 yo girl who has been married for 1 month. She is one week late and wanted me to check to see if she was pregnant. 

She was. She also had a UTI. 

I had to ask her many personal questions. Through 2 interpreters-one to translate from English to Spanish and another from Spanish to Ke'chi. One was female and one was male. It took her 10 minutes to tell me in a coded way that her period was late.. trying to get the rest of the information from her was very hard because talking to a man that wasn't your husband esp about such personal matters isn't really done. I could tell she was scared- and I gave her basic info on taking care of herself with clean water and good food. I gave her prenatal vitamins and wished her well. She most likely will not go to a prenatal clinic because the community nurses that run them are mostly men. She will be on her own with some guidance from other women in the community to figure it all out. This case got me. Thought about for a long time. She is 18. 

I saw a 38 year old father who came in for stomach aches. He had a daughter that spent a whole year (on and off) in the hospital 2.5 hours from his house. With limited funds and his manual labor job clearing fields and cutting crops with machetes, it was a very stressful time.

She is better now. But he still worries about her and if she will get sick again. This worry is giving him stomach aches- he wanted medicine to take the hurt away.  I told him we are not different from each other. His stomach hurts because he is a wonderful caring father who loves his daughter. He didn't need medicine- he needed someone to tell him it's ok to worry and that he'll be ok. 

The last couple I took care of was a 75 year. Love you all!