Ashley and Joshua Durham’s Blog

Today was rainy and muddy and the clinic was closed for Good Friday. Joshua rounded on his patient (the brand new baby) and he helped out in the ER. For some reason, the ER was really busy today.
During the afternoon, we joined Ida and Leroy to help paint the hospital. They have been here for almost 2 months repainting the whole hospital. They have their plane tickets on hold, and they plan to “stay here until it’s finished.” We have made a lot of good friends here. It has been a long 2 weeks for us though, and we are excited to get home.
Tomorrow is Saturday and therefore sabbath day for most people around this hospital. We are going to have to find something to do on our own to pass the time.

Go out with a bang!

Last night was an exciting end to our 2 week trip.  At about 6:45, the hospital administrator pulled up to the house we are staying in, and the medical director came to the door and said, “I need help.”  That was all he said!  Josh came walking around the corner and the two of us got right into the truck to go to the hospital.  The other doctor had to perform an emergency c-section on a 23 year old girl because the baby didn’t look like it was doing well.  Joshua was the only one around who could attend to the baby once the c-section was complete.  He was nervous knowing that he would have to take care of the baby on his own and there was a good chance that something may not go smoothly.  But, off he went anyway, without a second thought.

We both spent the little time we had locating meds, refreshing on doses, locating equipment for intubation and suction, and making sure oxygen was available.  After all the scrambling and worrying, everything went fine.  The baby had no problems.  With a little suctioning, the champ pulled right through! 

Way to go Dr. Josh!!! 

Next, there was a 17 y.o. pt on the way with acute appendicitis . . . !

day 11

Our rashes are all but gone, the sunburns are almost healed, and things are going well. We have both gotten into our grooves and are doing our own things. Ashley has the new filing system for the pharmacy up and running. The local pediatrician is gone for the next 2 days, so I am seeing all the kids and helping out a ton. There are no other docs trained to see kids. Yesterday there was a baby delivered with some type of congenigal cardiomyopathy and birth defects, it was sad. It will likely die. A couple more days to go and its home sweet home with a/c, warm showers, and safe drinking water for us!

P.S.

Oh, almost forgot!
The rashes are still roaring. We hope they are just from heat, but prednisone helped Joshua’s die down.
On top of that, we are both sunburned and want to return to the land of snow and air conditioning!

1 week’s gone

It’s been a productive week! My first day a patient rode the bus 2 hours to see a doctor for an infected toenail. Amazingly, there was no doctor at the clinic who could remove it. I’m glad I was there because I was able to remove it without complications and the patient didn’t have to be turned away.
The saddest thing I have seen so far was a 46 year old lady who came in with complaints of SOA. I drew a Hg, K, Cr, and took a CXR because that was all she could afford. Her Hg was 3 and Cr was 36! Her K was 5.9 and CXR showed heart failure. I sent her to Belize City; the 1 dialysis center in the country. I hope she was able to pay for the 3-4 hour bus ride to the city, because she couldn’t pay for the dr. visit.
I haven’t seen any tropical diseases yet, everyone is dying from diabetes and hypertension; and lack of education (both patient education and physician!)
Let’s see what next week brings. . .

Caye Caulker

After a long hard week we headed out to Caye Caulker Island and just finished our first snorkeling adventure. We swam with nurse sharks, sting rays, and tons of other fish. It was a blast. We are heading back to San Ignacio in the morning.

Day 3 . . .

Joshua has a mysterious rash on his arms, we both have sunburns, and water isn’t as available as we had hoped.
We were definitely missing some important information regarding preparation for our trip. The problem wasn’t with INMED . . .

We made it!

Well, we made it to Belize!!!  The water is beautiful and the weather is perfect, especially after leaving the snow in KC!

EVERYONE takes US dollars here, don’t worry about exchanging money.  They will give you change in Belize dollars, so bring smaller bills with you.  Exchange is 2 Belize dollars to 1 US, unless you go to a bank to exchange it, where I have been told the exchange rate isn’t as good. 

People here are friendly, although we are still a little wary since we stand out as obvious travellers.  We’re heading to San Ignacio today and we are excited about what is to come. 

Oh, drinking water!!  Pack your Diet Dew, because they don’t sell it here!  The ”Coca-Cola Light” tastes different from our beloved Diet Coke in America.  Pack that too!

 Ashley and Joshua 

Traveling

Joshua and I are new to international travel and we are extremely excited about our upcoming trip to Belize!  We are both very blessed to have the chance to help the residents of Belize while we are at La Loma Luz Hospital.

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