Yesterday

Yesterday, my 4 year old little girl, turned 5! And we celebrated that blessing with a sticky bun breakfast and promise of further celebration when I would be off call.

Yesterday I rocked my two year old to sleep in our hammock, and then went down to the hospital and held the life of a 1 year old in my hands as I kept him breathing by squeezing and releasing a bag over-and-over, during my 4 hour turn with a little boy named Alan.

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I’d like to give you glimpse of what our days here are like. It’s hard to capture the differences, the beauty and the pain that we see here each day. But maybe a simple run through my clinic list can give you some insight into what we do here.

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Yesterday in my clinic…

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• I saw a 3 year old girl with a cough and fever.
• A forty year old man recovering from falling off a roof and landing head first on a machete (he had a large scalp laceration and a severe concussion- those are improved, but his left sided facial weakness may be permanent)
• A boy who has been having dizziness and headaches at school, that could be secondary to struggling in school or to an anti-tuberculosis medicine that he has to take until his father completes the full treatment course for tuberculosis (that usually takes about 6 months)
• A 16 year old, pregnant with her first baby, who came in for a routine visit, and on my ultrasound was found to have too much fluid around the baby. This puts her at risk for complications, and means we have to do further testing to see if there is a reversible cause.
• A 70 year old woman with severe arthritis in both knees and severe high blood pressure.
• A 52 year old woman who began to have a severely itchy rash around her eyes 8 days ago, and despite seeing several doctors and receiving multiple treatments has continued to suffer.
• A 2 year old boy who was feeling totally better after receiving an anti-parasitic medication 1 week ago. (Unfortunately I never think to take pictures of the well and happy children I see and discharge.)
• A 30 year old with a stomach infection called H. pylori, who also suffered from hemorrhoids.
• A 15 year old young lady, pregnant with her first baby, coming in for labs and an ultrasound that showed normal development and no complications thus far.

It is unusual that a day goes by when I don’t diagnose cancer or diabetes, and the deadly complications thereof, but yesterday was one such happy day.

Below are some of the dermatologic problems that I’ve recently seen (avoid looking too closely if you are queasy). Medical people challenge: can you name the weird warty lesion in the top middle position. It was on a 40yo man’s abdomen, RLQ, itchy, persisting for months, no inciting event.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support. We love the work that God has given us to do here. The needs, great and small, are countless. But the people here are gracious and thankful for any help.

Grace and Peace,
Nathan & Family

Please be in prayer for:

-Axel, a 3 year old boy with something called nephrotic syndrome, which will likely destroy his kidneys unless he begins responding to the only medication we have.

-Alan, a 1 year old boy who is currently not breathing on his own, due to a large amount of inflammation in his lungs, that is likely due to something he swallowed that went down the wrong way.

-Our family, as we look to the future and pray about our long-term plans.