258

258 is the number of patients that we saw in our two days at the more formal clinic in Villa Linda Miller. We actually saw more patients than that because people would comein for their kids to be seen by the pediatrician and we would end up seeing the parents as well without any paperwork. The families that actually live in Villa Linda Miller are poor but because of the consistent work of the medical mission teams they are relatively healthy. We still passed out a lot of vitamins and parasite medicine. Actually anyone that came in got parasite meds and vitamins. We also saw some very desparate people from the surrounding area that came in including one little boy who was pretty malnurished, not walking at age 3 with spindly legs and a head that appeared too big for ihis body. The story was hard to decipher but it sounded like the woman who had brought him in wasn{t his mother but had taken him in when his mother abandoned him at her house. It was very vyer sad. We were able to hook tham up with another ministry in the area to get them some extra food to try and catch this little guy up. Hopefully that all works out. We also saw a young woman about 13 who said she had a sore throat and body aches. Almost everyone who comes into the clinic says that but tuned out she had tonsillitis and probably felt pretty cruddy. After she trusted us a bit she shyly asked if we had anothing that could help her face as she had pretty severe acne. As a matter of fact by choosing one antibiotic over another we were able to give her one drug that would help her throat and clear her face up. It might not keep her face clear but it felt good to be able to even help with a vanity issue!
Our hardest day so far was the afternoon we spent in the dump. Yes, that kind of dump. the poorest of the poor live in the dump and pick through the trash looking for something to recycle or sell. It is horrendous. Truly hell on earth. There are children that work the dump as well. A couple years ago a man from Villa Linda Miller started a school for the children of the dump and it has been tremendously successful. He{s gotten 150 kids out of the dump until noon everyday and in school. Despite that the dump is a desparate place. We passed out parasite meds like candy, cleaned out incredible dirty wounds, I listened to lots of hearts and lungs and gave out lots of tylenol and advil. We treated as much as we could but the conditions are just so awful. It was heartbreaking.
One more story and then I gotta run. the first night we were here a woman showed up at the Micah project house with her 10 year old son. He{d been running fever and was lethargic and refusing to walk because his joiints hurt so bad. Our team of doctors (which includes a neurologist and a pedi ER doc) checked him over and even called collegues back in the states for ideas of what to do. Our ER doc discovered during the exam that his hip was where most of the pain was. They decided that there were way too many things it could be and without x-rays it was impossible to say but agreed with the mother that she could go home that night and they would call her the next day. The next day he was worse, higher fever, worse pain, etc. So our team insisted that the mother needed to take him to the hospital. Sure enough he had an infection inhis hip joint that required surgery. Had he not gone to the hospital the infection could have spread to the bone and that is very vyer serious.
Oh, I lied, one more story, yesterday at the clinic we had a mom of a 15 day old baby come in with.......yes, a breastfeeding problem!!!! Fixed her right up! She had a pretty severe plugged duct so I gave her all the home care advice and some antibiotics to take if it turned into mastitis.

We leave Tegucigalpa tomorrow and will be home Satruday. Great trip, would definitely come again but Im ready for my own bed, hot showers and hugs from my girls!