Mobile Clinic

We ran our first mobile clinic last Monday in the little town of Santa Clara, about a 30 minute bike ride from Francia. I think the clinic went well, for our first time, but we felt incredibly overwhelmed. We were diagnosing and treating bronchitis, UTI's, pneumonia, roundworms, pre-eclampsia, and about a hundred kids with fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. We had to pull our books out every time to figure out what to do, and it felt like we were spending a long time on each patient. We hadn't packed
enough children's Tylenol, and Jeremy and Mindy had to go back for it. Overall, we just felt inadequate. I mean, we're CNA's--we're only licensed to take vitals and help patients bathe and use the bathroom.

Our other two clinics this week went more smoothly. It feels like we're getting a crash course in pharmacology and pathology, and our knowledge base is expanding. Pray for increasing knowledge, and pray for transportation. Next week's clinics are farther. We can't all ride the four-wheeler, but it would take 3 hours one way on the bicycles, even if the bikes weren't falling apart. We may be able to take the motorcycle for now, but we're hoping to buy a horse and cart soon--that will be a huge improvement
over technology!

Sorry if you tried the email address I posted and it didn't work. I found out it won't really work for everyone to email me there, so please send to katiebooton at gmail dot com instead. I'll still be able to check that once a month or so.