Clinic Update

Big time thanks to those who are praying for the clinics. Our first clinic was on Sunday in the village of Nataragat. It went pretty well (we mostly saw a lot of malaria cases, and one that we think has TB) and our plan was to have a clinic every day this week. Yesterday it POURED rain for hours so we couldn't go anywhere! When there are no paved roads every heavy rain turns dirt paths into mud pits. We are supposedly at the end of rainy season but it's rained at least 3 times in the last week and a half so I'm not convinced.

After it finished raining and the sun had been out for an hour or two we took the team on a walk to the nearest village by our compound. I was not really in the mood to go but I decided to go anyway, only because it was my only opportunity to not be the newest person there. I would actually know some of what was going on and be able to explain it to the others. It turned out to be a really nice visit and the team got to see a Toposa village and some even tried grinding sorghum...harder than it looks, people!

Today's clinic was definitely more interesting than the one on Sunday. We were in the village closest to us and had lots of needy people. Needy as in, just want us to give them anything and everything no matter if they are sick or not. But the Toposa are a hard people to love, and that's a whole 'nother blog post (or 12 blog posts) for later.

Be glad I did not take pictures today!!
One of the babies that we saw today, maybe a year old, had a giant infection in his neck, kind of behind his ear. I don't know what had happened originally but this morning he had a giant infected pocket of nasty crap that needed to be drained out. We hadn't brought a scalpel blade with us so Carrie and I drove home "quickly" to get one. One the way back we drove past the local clinic and got waved down by the workers there because a lady had been brought there with really bad angiodema and her tongue was so swollen that she couldn't close her mouth or talk or swallow. So we put her in the truck and I slipped and slid down the mud pit back to our clinic and we gave her an antibiotic injection as soon as we get there. I'm not sure what happened to her after that because I went straight to the operating room plastic chair to hold the baby's head while one of the doctors prepped him for surgery. Any by surgery, I mean we laid his head in my lap, wiped the area with an alcohol swab and betadine, injected the area with lidocaine, and made an incision big enough for us to drain the pus and blood out into my (gloved) hand. We didn't have any bandage tape so we put some antibiotic ointment on the incision, wrapped a gauze strip around the baby's head and I secured it with neon green duct tape, the next best thing. Sorry, I know all of that was a gross description, but it was part of my day. Swollen tongue, surgery in my hands, duct taping a baby.

Tomorrow we are going to a different village so you can pray that we will have enough of the right medicines and that the local Toposa believers will use their time at the clinics wisely and be able to share stories from God's word. I have also been dealing with an eye infection, but I think it's about over. Thank you for praying for our team!