25 Oct Tuesday
Busy day. I enjoyed
myself. To be honest, I wish I got to see
more patient care, but Bekkie told me that tomorrow we’d practice a few things,
like BP.
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| Issenuru. 1. nurse miriam 2. issenuru health post 3. steward and sister smith 4. dr mike 5. dr fred's room 6. carol & dr mike in the pharmacy 7. carol preparing prescriptions 8. sylvester and medex 9. dr fred, carol, medex |
26 Oct Weds
About today: this morning Dr. Fred and I took a boat with
Medex Jackie to see a man name Ove. 8
years ago he had a piece of machinery at the mine fall on his back- crush
him. He was 24 at the time. Now he lays in bed- a mattress under tarps
held up by sticks which is where his family lives. He has no feeling from the waist down and
cannot use his legs. His skin down there
is shiny and tight and his feet are contracted.
Recently he had to start using a catheter to empty his bladder. It drains into a coke bottle. His BP was fine, his heart rate was fine- he
is otherwise a young, healthy, handsome man of 32.
We left Issenuru today and traveled to Fall’s Top, aka
Kamarunga [sinc—Kangaruma]. We had a
hill to carry all our gear up. People
from the village came to help; they were so kind.
Got to know our Dentex, Sylvester, better today. I taught him
how to tango tonight- the basic and promenade.
He wanted to do a spin and dip and tried it, but everything went wrong
when he dipped me down too far and we both fell down! I fell on my “bumsy” and he fell forward on
his knee towards me. It was a pretty
funny. We laughed and wiped the sand off
of ourselves.
Sylvester went to secondary school in Georgetown, but he’s
actually Amerindian from the Upper Mazaruni (where we go next week). As the only Amerindian in school, he said he
was treated like a prince, which I thought very interesting.
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| 1. delicious stuffed chicken by auntie irene 2 & 3. hanging out at night 4. someone's home 5. issenuru health post 6. health post with patients 7. patients waiting 8. a child and me 9. cute little boy! 10. little boy and sister 11. man and daughter 12. burnsley 13. people waiting for jet boat 14. sylvester and carol stuffing a bedroll 15. carol and me |
A healthcare worker here named David was answering a bunch
of Carol’s questions about Amerindian culture and life. That was very interesting. If we have time, Carol, Auntie Irene and I
will go to church in Issano this Sunday.
I hope we are able to- I don’t like going without church and it will be
interesting see an Amerindian Anglican Church Meeting.
We had a migraine patient come in today. I asked Dr. Fred if I could sit in on his
meeting with him. He said yes and when
he was done talking to the patient, I asked if I could ask some questions and
talked to the patient about lifestyle things that will trigger migraines- eat
and sleep on regular schedule, no alcohol, smoking, etc. I asked Dr. Fred later if it was OK that I
did that and he said “absolutely, yes!
Especially in this environment.”
Then he told me that I did well, I am very empathic, and I should go
into medicine. That was so nice to hear.
Well, I’m drifting off now… busy day tomorrow since we just
arrived Kamarunga [sinc] today.
Oh, I don’t know if I mentioned- yesterday I watched
Sylvester do an extraction. That was
very interesting. They’re not able to do
fillings or whatever here so if someone ever has a problem with a tooth, it
just gets extracted- that’s the best option.
I’m grateful for the country I live in and the medical care I
receive. I’m grateful that my brothers
and other friends in their 20’s don’t work at the mines, risking life and limb.
About dental care in
the interior (23 Nov 2011): They can do
a lot of things other than extractions in Guyana, but when a dental
professional such as a Dentex* goes to visit the villages in the interior, they
can only bring so much with them and so the extraction tools are what is
brought. If a patient’s tooth isn’t bad
enough to warrant an extraction the Dentex will recommend boating to the
nearest hospital to come and get a filling.
Medical services are free to all Guyanese, but often the distance to the
nearest hospital is prohibitive.
“Dentex” means
dentist-extension or something like that and requires 3-4 years of college
technical training. Dentexes can not
only do extractions, but also fillings and cleanings.
“Medex” means
medical-extension or something like that and likewise requires 3-4 years of
college technical training. I think of
medexes as being like a Physician’s Assistant or Nurse Practitioner here in the
states. From what I saw, medexes would
be in charge of an area encompassing several villages. Working under the medexes are healthcare
workers. We saw a healthcare worker
stationed at each village we visited- excepting Kangaruma because she was on
maternity leave. Healthcare Worker David
Joseph from Issano came to Kangaruma to prepare the village for our arrival, and
then went back to Issano to prepare that area for us. We loved him.
He’s awesome. Healthcare workers
have, I believe, about 3 months training… and they are responsible for a
lot. Including diagnosing things like
malaria and worms using a blood smear and a microscope. They do have opportunities for continuing
education. Most are underpaid,
overworked, and undersupplied. Despite
this, there are still some awesome, highly competent, and knowledgeable
healthcare workers- such as David Joseph.
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| boatride from issenuru to kangaruma. 1. ovaltine cookie! 2. house with writing 3. houses along the river 4. burnsley and bekkie 5. dr mike 6. dr fred 7. some girls on the boat 9. mazaruni river 10. sylvester & carol on the jet boat with boxes of our stuff 11. maz 12 & 13. houses along river |
I really enjoy how readily Dr. Fred, Miriam, and Carol work
and are willing to meet with patients, even when they’re tired, sweaty, and
need to take care of packing o unpacking their own stuff. There is always time to see those who need to
be seen. That is Christlike. That is caring about the one. That is the way medicine should operate. Strange how out here we have much less that
we can do, but we also can live up to some ideals better.
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