What follows is my version of events which occurred from February 11th to February 19th. Believe what you will.
As part of my schoolin' I spent the first week of my Travel Medicine/Infectious Disease rotation on a medical mission in Guatemala. My preceptor, a classmate, and I went with a group called Faith in Practice. We spent a total of 8 days in various places around Guatemala City. 4 days of clinic and 4 days of touristing.
Prior to our arrival, local volunteers and staff spread the word of our free clinics, which provided us with plenty of patients, ~500/day, over 2000 total.
There were physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, translators, etc. local and foreign, about 40-50 of us total. I worked in triage deducing where it hurt and herding people accordingly to general medicine, pediatrics, or gynecology. Turns out my gynecological vocab is sorely lacking as I did not regularly discuss menstruation or the like on my LDS mission. I also worked in the pharmacy dispensing and counseling. We started with quite an armamentarium of drugs which we brought in trunks. By the last day of clinic our supplies were severely limited and creativity was employed in filling the physicians' orders.
To my surprise, the majority of patients that came in were there for minor aches and pains ("me duelen las canillas" aka "my shins hurt") and most patients coming through the pharmacy received tylenol and vitamins. Although I was not disappointed with my original expectation of seeing a fair share of unique health problems. Several patients presented with fairly embarrassing infections of the genitalia, which made for interesting and candid counseling sessions by yours truly. One middle-aged man came in with rheumatoid arthritis that had never been treated, exacerbated by his occupation in agriculture. We gave him 2 months of steroids, but a lot of damage had already occurred and I hate to think of what will happen after he runs out. Almost every patient that came to the clinics received albendazole, which I refer to as the "spring cleaning pill," a single dose anti-parasitic drug that takes care of most worms and giardia to some extent. Many patients were referred for surgery in Antigua, where they could stay at the equivalent of a Ronald McDonald House, Casa de Fe.
All in all, most patients presented with disease states that are easily treated when there are means available to treat them. This is the problem in the developing world, I suppose.
If, for some reason, you haven't realized that this post has nothing to do with Azure or Vince and you are still reading, here is an abbreviated itinerary:
Day 1: arrival in Guatemala City, drive to Antigua (former capital of Guatemala, now a historic relic/tourist trap), nearly vomited during trip after eating mayo-heavy sandwich and contorting myself into rear-facing position in automobile. check into fancy hotel, eat fancy food.
Day 2: more tourism. tour of Casa de Fe and Obras Sociales. visit market, haggle/get swindled
Day 3: drive to our hotel at Puente Los Esclavos outside of Cuilapa, Santa Rosa.
Day 4: Clinic 1 in La Canoa ~ 20 miles from El Salvador border.
Day 5: La Canoa again. I feel like death, develop fever.
Day 6: I stay home while my colleagues save the world at Clinic 2 in Las Minas, an area outside of Casillas, Santa Rosa. Cold hands of death fail to relinquish their icy grip on my well-being.
Day 7: 85% recovery, I go to Clinic 2 for our final day of seeing patients.
Day 8: Return to Antigua.
Day 9: drive to Guatemala city airport & return home.
Our team blog
More team pictures
While this trip ended up being a financial money pit for an already impoverished pharmacy student, the experience solidified my desire to continually participate in these type of short-duration trips. Ultimately, our desire is to spend our geriatric era as full time medical/proselytizing missionaries.
As part of my schoolin' I spent the first week of my Travel Medicine/Infectious Disease rotation on a medical mission in Guatemala. My preceptor, a classmate, and I went with a group called Faith in Practice. We spent a total of 8 days in various places around Guatemala City. 4 days of clinic and 4 days of touristing.
Prior to our arrival, local volunteers and staff spread the word of our free clinics, which provided us with plenty of patients, ~500/day, over 2000 total.
There were physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, translators, etc. local and foreign, about 40-50 of us total. I worked in triage deducing where it hurt and herding people accordingly to general medicine, pediatrics, or gynecology. Turns out my gynecological vocab is sorely lacking as I did not regularly discuss menstruation or the like on my LDS mission. I also worked in the pharmacy dispensing and counseling. We started with quite an armamentarium of drugs which we brought in trunks. By the last day of clinic our supplies were severely limited and creativity was employed in filling the physicians' orders.
To my surprise, the majority of patients that came in were there for minor aches and pains ("me duelen las canillas" aka "my shins hurt") and most patients coming through the pharmacy received tylenol and vitamins. Although I was not disappointed with my original expectation of seeing a fair share of unique health problems. Several patients presented with fairly embarrassing infections of the genitalia, which made for interesting and candid counseling sessions by yours truly. One middle-aged man came in with rheumatoid arthritis that had never been treated, exacerbated by his occupation in agriculture. We gave him 2 months of steroids, but a lot of damage had already occurred and I hate to think of what will happen after he runs out. Almost every patient that came to the clinics received albendazole, which I refer to as the "spring cleaning pill," a single dose anti-parasitic drug that takes care of most worms and giardia to some extent. Many patients were referred for surgery in Antigua, where they could stay at the equivalent of a Ronald McDonald House, Casa de Fe.
All in all, most patients presented with disease states that are easily treated when there are means available to treat them. This is the problem in the developing world, I suppose.
If, for some reason, you haven't realized that this post has nothing to do with Azure or Vince and you are still reading, here is an abbreviated itinerary:
Day 1: arrival in Guatemala City, drive to Antigua (former capital of Guatemala, now a historic relic/tourist trap), nearly vomited during trip after eating mayo-heavy sandwich and contorting myself into rear-facing position in automobile. check into fancy hotel, eat fancy food.
Day 2: more tourism. tour of Casa de Fe and Obras Sociales. visit market, haggle/get swindled
Day 3: drive to our hotel at Puente Los Esclavos outside of Cuilapa, Santa Rosa.
Day 4: Clinic 1 in La Canoa ~ 20 miles from El Salvador border.
Day 5: La Canoa again. I feel like death, develop fever.
Day 6: I stay home while my colleagues save the world at Clinic 2 in Las Minas, an area outside of Casillas, Santa Rosa. Cold hands of death fail to relinquish their icy grip on my well-being.
Day 7: 85% recovery, I go to Clinic 2 for our final day of seeing patients.
Day 8: Return to Antigua.
Day 9: drive to Guatemala city airport & return home.
Our team blog
More team pictures
While this trip ended up being a financial money pit for an already impoverished pharmacy student, the experience solidified my desire to continually participate in these type of short-duration trips. Ultimately, our desire is to spend our geriatric era as full time medical/proselytizing missionaries.
2 comments:
Woooooooooooah. Amazing! Wish I could do something like this.
Sorry about the endless money pit though.
Guatemala is the best. Hope you didn't come home with amoebas.
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