1 week’s gone

March 16th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized

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. . .

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