Doctor heal thyself

It´s Friday morning. The mission is officially over and we were to leave early this morning for Quito, a day of tourism. However, two of the team are quite ill with gastroenteritis. We doctoring them the best we can, and hoping no one else gets sick. Travel plans (4 hr drive to Quito) onhold for now.

Yesterday we were in a different section of San Juan. We saw about 90 patients. A little frustrating because this group of people have a bit more resources and access to medical care. Many of them are currently treated by a local doctor for hypertension or gastritis or other chronic conditions. Yet they wanted to see the American doctors. Obviously we are not in a position to treat chronic ongoing conditions that need regular follow up. Additionally, none of them seemed to know anything about the meds they are taking (ie: names, dosage etc..)
So many patients were just given a note with their vitals and a polite recommendation re: their treatment plan.

There was a very interestinganomalyy. A young boy with 6 fingers and toes on each hand and foot. His sister had a large disfiguring birth mark/defect on one of her legs. When we questioned the mom about the rest of the family (8 children) the others were ¨normalÂApparentlytly she is married to her first cousin. I can´t download pictures right now, but I will later.

There were a lot of females with vaginal complaints. We did the best we could to examine and treat mild vaginitis (unfortunately did not have the capability to diagnose sexually transmitted diseases). I think the students were a little surprised by the number of women wanting a vaginal exam. It made for a humorous moment when Nick made a little faux pas in translating. A woman came to the clinic with samples of vaginitis treatment that we had given her neighbor. She said she had the same symptoms and wanted some of the same medication. Nick misunderstood her to say that she wanted us to give her some medication for her neighbor. So in the process of trying to say that she had to bring the neighbor to the clinic for us to examine he accidentally used the word vagina instead of vecina (word for neighbor). So the translation was you need to bring the vagina here (instead of you need to bring the neighbor here). Needless to say the whole clinic broke out laughing - locals and Americans!!! (i´m sure the humor may be lost in the dialogue).

One of our young ladies was showered with affection and a romantic love letter from one of the watiers at our hostal. Flattering, but stressful for her. She let him down easy!

Last night was a fiesta with Martha and the team. We drank wine and learned to salsa. It was a nice end to our stay in Riobamba.

Adios for now, Pray that the whole team doesn´t get ill!!

Terry