Tuesday, 3/23/2010, Haiti again...

Another good day in the clinic, started out with 2 very dehydrated hypotensive pts who stayed for quite a while, and then more peds. It's amazing the things we take for granted in the US; the system that is in place. We sent a guy home today to find his own way to another hospital. He had to walk a ways down the road, then catch a tap tap. His pressure had been running 80 -90 all day and his temp dropped for only a couple of hours after tylenol and ibuprofen before climbing again. It was 39 celsius when he left, to walk in the 100+ degree heat index weather to catch a crowded tap tap (you see people hanging off the sides and on top of those things) to take him to Port au Prince. Then there was a baby that we also tried to transfer, whose mom insisted on taking him home. In the US, we would have called security, and if it came down to it, gotten CPS involved. We will probably be seeing that baby again (though hopefully she'll take him directly to the hospital)! Got off a little early today, went and raided the old ward for more supplies. I am extremely grateful for Grant, an EMT, who coordinates transfers and transportation (which can be outrageously frustrating).

With the arrival of the teams yesterday, the house is full. All the upstairs dorms are mostly full, and several girls have joined me in the tents. After they arrived last night, there was much insanity for a while, so I hid in the tent and read a book. But once everything settled down, we had a good time with cribbage, conversation, and a "how to find a vein by feel" inservice.

Monday, 3/22/2010....

I awoke after a long night's sleep to sunshine, roosters, and horns on the highway behind us. There are very few road rules in Haiti. They basically drive on the same side of the road as in the US, but utilize both sides constantly, and make up their own lanes. And always with the horns. If you're passing somebody, just blow your horn really loud.... :-)The little tap taps are the funniest with their clown car sounding horns, then the big buses roll through, whose horns sound like an 18 wheeler's, and they insist on blowing them almost constantly. We had an amazing first day of clinic. One of the Dr's with us is a pediatric ER doctor, which means that we are doing mostly urgent care and peds cases all day. My 2 favorite things. We started off the day learning how to do x-rays with a C-arm, but quickly moved on to 2 MVCs that came in. The girl had a concussion with multiple abrasions and several gashes on her head, and the guy had actually been run over by a tap tap (a Haitian taxi). The girl was stitched and bandaged. The guy was actually in pretty good shape, aside from bad road rash and a couple of broken ribs. Then we got in a young child whose mom had died in the earthquake, and dad couldn't take care of him anymore and wanted to give him up. Such a sweet little one who was also dehydrated and had some other problems, so we IV'd him, and he eventually got transferred out. Apparently, over 1/2 the kids in the orphanage here actually have parents, or at least family, that couldn't (or wouldn't) take care of them for whatever reason. Some were found abandoned. And Haitians believe that twins are bad karma or voodoo or whatever, so they are rarely kept. Another night of cribbage with three guys from an American work team that joined us today. There were about 30 people, and they are a great bunch. About half are from OK, and half from MN.

First day out.....

Written March 20, 2010, my first day on the trip to Haiti....

"Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!"

I think airports invent aircraft delays simply to sell more goods. People who were sitting contentedly in their seats waiting for their flights, suddenly decide they're famished and rush to buy massive amounts of food and drink when confronted with a one hour delay. My way of avoiding this: always take Subway on flights. Yes, you can bring food with you into an airport. So, usually the day before (to avoid any bigger rush the day of), I go to Subway and buy at least one footlong, and then refrigerate it. I knew I would be on a plane/in an airport all day today, so I actually bought 3 (had one for dinner yesterday).

As for the flights themselves, to start off with, I hate flying without a window seat. I like to see out, and often take pictures out the window. So, at home I had booked myself on a window seat for the Richmond to Chicago leg, but it wasn't showing any window seats available from Chicago to San Juan. And that's a long journey without a window. But I checked again when I got to the airport, and there was exactly one window seat available. It was perfect! Then, for the movie, they showed "Where the Wild Things Are", which I had been wanting to see. A very good movie.

Bad Travel Karma aka The Best Laid Plans

Finally arrived in San Juan after the hour delay leaving Richmond and another hour delay in Chicago, all due to the snow there. Yes, snow. Picked up my luggage and grabbed a taxi, because apparently no hotels in San Juan offer shuttle service. Get to the hotel, only to find out the reservation was canceled and that the 3 other ladies I was supposed to meet weren't going to make it in that night. The hotel, which was just a fairly cheap looking island place, wanted $80 for a room for the night. Nope. So I had them call me a cab back to the airport. As I'm waiting for it, 2 police and 2 MPs show up with machine guns. :-) So, one hour, 2 taxi rides, and 27 wasted dollars later, it was 11:30 pm, and I sat down to try to nap in the waiting area before getting on the 7 am flight to Port au Prince. I was definitely looking forward to a much easier connection on the way home, with just one layover in Miami.

A few hours later.....

All Things Work Together for Good aka All's Well That Ends Well....

Had a hard time sleeping, so was sitting there reading, when up walk Claudia, John, Henri, and Junior wearing Haiti shirts. We quickly started up a conversation and when Jr and John decided to go get something to eat, Henri and I joined them, with Claudia volunteering to watch the bags. It was great to talk to others who were going. They had all lived in Haiti @ some point, and were now going to help out with passing out supplies and doing clinics with Mount of Olives Church of God in New Jersey. Such sweet people, made my night a lot better!