OMS Tour, Prenatal Checkup, Vaginal Exam, Epilepsy, & Optometry

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

This morning I went on a tour of the OMS International mission compounds around Vaudreuil with the new team plus Jen. First we went to see the clinic, which is right next to where I'm staying, then we drove a few minutes down the road to the new Radio 4VEH station (VEH stands for Voix Evangélique d'Haiti or Evangelical Voice of Haiti, and 4V is the radio station code for Haiti). The old station is located in the compound where we're staying, and Radio 4VEH has been running for the past 58 years or so.

Next we drove to the new seminary site. They are still building the place, and the new team is here to help out with that. Jen and I returned to the clinic while the team stayed at the construction site to work there.

Just to introduce the new people that came yesterday: Julie is an RN who was a missionary here 6 years ago. She brought a team with her, 4 of them are teenagers from her church, Tyler, Ali (Alison), Matt, and Jacob. Then there's Kelly (high school social studies teacher), Cindy (middle school technology advisor from Tennessee), and a couple from Alabama, Heather and Mike, who is a pastor. Christine (lab technician) and Jen (college student) came with this group as an addition to Tim's group. So they're helping out at the clinic lab.

Wednesdays are prenatal checkup days, so I shadowed Gavin while he consulted pregnant women. I learned how to measure fundus height and find fetal heartbeat with a handheld ultrasound machine. One lady who is 3-months pregnant was having vaginal bleeds, so Gavin checked to see if the cervix was open and assess risk of miscarriage. This was the first time I've ever seen a vaginal exam done. It seemed painful for the patient, and definitely wasn't a pleasant sight, but it's something that I'll need to be familiar with some day.

One of the pregnant women was HIV positive, so Gavin told me that HIV+ pregnant women can get ARV treatment at a hospital for free. Like I said in my last post, people who are HIV positive are referred to a hospital for ARV treatment when their conditions become too bad, and I found out that they also get ARV for free, but only when their condition is bad enough.

One of the non-pregnant patient we saw was a woman who's been epileptic since she was little. One time she had a seizure and broke her left humerus (bone of upper arm) at two places. A while ago she had a surgery to put a big nail along the center of her humerus, but the tip of the nail sticks out under the skin at her left shoulder. She's been on carbamazepine (my classmates should know what class of anticonvulsant this is) and hasn't had a seizure since. She can't speak but can make sounds with her voice, and she's very outgoing and expressive with her arms and face. (Now, where's the lesion?) She was brought here by her mother from far away as many people travel several hours to get here.

Gavin was done seeing patients a bit early today (we've been having less patients since Christmas time because less people have been able to afford to come here due to rising food prices), so I joined Carly and Anna at the optometry. They brought a bunch of frames and lenses from the States and have been making glasses for patients here. Usually they just ask questions like, "Do you have problem seeing far or near?" but sometimes the answers aren't just yes/no or far/near. Some people give complicated answers like, "When the sun is high or if I cover one eye, I can't see well." Even I have to ask them to repeat several times to understand what they are saying, so I'd imagine it'd be a lot harder for Carly and Anna who hasn't spent as much time in Haiti. Nonetheless they seem to be doing a great job... and I'm not saying that just because they're probably reading this.

After dinner, one of the missionary couple's daughter Kaeli, who is 8 years old, brought a deck of UNO, so a few of us played UNO with her. I hadn't played UNO in such a long time. I think I should play more card games with my friends in med school. After we sent Keyleigh to bed, we played what my friends call Hillari-picto-pass, which is basically a chinese telephone with pictionary but you alternate between drawing and writing caption. As usual, it was a fun game.