Calpi... Only 15 Minutes Away

Our next and final village, Calpi (cal-pee). I must have misunderstood Miss Katty when she said how long it would take to get to this village. I heard fifty minutes; it was much closer to fifteen minutes. The short drive was very nice. Again, we had a wonderful set up, with pharmacy, lab, and clinic all in one spot.

Checking out X-ray's a patient brought in

Most everyone patient we saw today was geriatric (old). As with most things geriatric, each patient took quite a bit of time. I don't think we quite made it into the 100's, but everyone we saw was pretty sick.  Lots of infections of all different kinds. There was always a constant line up at the ear washing. One poor woman had three sessions of lactulose (to loosen the wax), water (to flush it out), and scrapping (for everything that still hasn't made its way out) and you still couldn't see her ear drum!!! Savannah loaded her up with lactulose and a cotton ball for an overnight soaking. Hopefully, by the morning things will have loosed a bit.

The poor woman with the impacted ear

A lot more of the people in this village have access to pharmacies, which is a great thing, but it makes everything a bit tricky. Its complicated because they are taking medications but they do not know what the name of the medication is or even what they are taking it for. The other tricky thing we encountered with patients having access (or "kind of" access as I like to call it) to health care, is that they have possible diagnosis's that a doctor told them they might have:

"A doctor says I have hypertension" Patient shows us blood pressure reading from the last 6months, all normal.
"Are you on medications?"
"No"

"I have diabetes"
"Why do you think you have diabetes"
"A doctor say I have diabetes"
"Did you have any tests done? Any blood glucose readings?"
"No"

Other times, just like in the U.S., it can be pretty comical the things people come up with for what is causing their ailments:

"My liver is swollen"
"Why do you think your liver is swollen"
"Because I have back pain and my knees hurt. And, so does my head"

"I need reading glasses"
"Can you read this without glasses"
"Yes, but I need reading glasses"

Hahahahahah!

After dinner tonight, the Pastor's wife from Alao (Village 1) came to share her story with us. Her family has faced persecution, abuse, and rejection. Over time things have changed, the communities and people that once persecuted them now accept them. In fact, some of those people were the first people in line for clinic when we went to Alao. It was an amazing story! She also sang us a beautiful song after her moving story.

Tomorrow we will be seeing mostly kiddos and families. It should be crazy day!

Selfie! I look extra pale next to the beautiful brown skin