Back to it...

Well, we've been in Guatemala for about 3 weeks now.  I apologize for the lack of updates, we'll try to do better!  We've become acclimated (mostly) to the slower pace of life. We continue to run outpatient clinics most days doing bread and butter general medicine and pediatrics as well as emergency cases.  

We are working hard to navigate the maze of governmental red tape so that we can increase our scope of care here.  We continue to pray for God's timing that this would be much sooner rather than later as we have numerous pregnant woman who are seen and managed for prenatal care here weekly.  One of our greatest needs is to have Anesthesia available daily and we continue to pray and wait for this.  We recently received a gifted ultrasound unit and digital X-ray plate from The Ivan Bowen Family Foundation for which we are verygrateful.  The ultrasound gives crystal clear images and the Xray unit is so simple, even I can use it!

Last week 8 year old Julia came to see us after having experienced severe abdominal pain in the night.  She had previously seen a small government clinic with few resources and was given pain medicine and sent home.  After a brief examination with the new ultrasound machine, I was able to clearly identify her obvious surgical emergency.  This is usually seen on CT scan, but the ultrasound image was quite ​clear.  While we cannot yet take this girl's appendix out here, I was able to get her the needed antibiotics, an accurate diagnosis, and send her for appropriate care.

Yesterday,  I met 15 year old Louís.  He fell while riding his bike early in the morning.  His wrist was obviously deformed following his injury.  Until recently, no reliable xray unit existed within a 2 hour drive of Canillá.  Unfortunately, he had a similar situation occur 2 years ago, which required a 2 hour drive to a large government hospital and surgery.  This was such an expense to his single mother and disabled sibling that the mother was unable to afford food for a week.  Rather than transfer for xray, I literally shot my first x ray ever on his wrist using the new digital xray.  This new device is awesome!   The xray device is foolproof- even I could shoot a reliable film for this kid (please no snappy commentary from my rad tech friends!).  We were able to take care of Louís' fracture here and his mother was more than grateful for the time and money we were able to save her . 

"The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.

    The world and all its people belong to him."

Psalm 24:1

 In the downtime from the hospital, we're learning some good life skills like driving - no better time than for a 6 year old and 4 year old, right?!!  And of course enjoying playing with some baby puppies here on the compound has been a favorite for the kids.

 The kids were able to see first hand where our milk comes from when it shows up in jars at our door :-)  They even milked the cow and learned it was not quite as easy as it looks!  They were also able to help with the butchering of a cow - we do have quite a few pics, but I'll spare you.

 

Of course most of the days are spent playing with sticks and boys being boys!  homemade swords and guns in this pic....

We were so honored to be here for the arrival of this sweet treasure!