Day 2- Operation Haiti

Today was our first full day in Haiti. Two of us, Pam and I got the coveted spots to Leogone. Chris, Rebecca, and Jessie remained in Petionville to work in the Port au Prince clinic. I say 'coveted' as tongue in cheek. To get these slots we had to get up at 5am, take a very long 2 hour drive up into the mountains and work in an outdoor clinic in the tropical heat. Pam and I are part of a group of 5 (1 resident, 3 nurses, 1 nursing student) selected to spend the week here in Leogone, a small impoverished mountain town. From Leogone we will visit other villages on other days to do one day clinics. We are hosted by a local Haitian physician that has a small maternity hospital. Dr. Delson and his wife and three small children lived next door to the hospital, but their house was demolished by the earthquake, and now they live in the hospital. The have given us quarters in their hospital. The other four women share a large sunny room with four beds, but I got a private room with an attached bathroom! Quite the luxurious accomodations! We worked in a 'clinic in a can'. This is a trailer buidling delivered here by Heart to Heart. It is airconditioned and has three rooms in it, a pharmacy and two exam rooms. Pam and I triaged patients in the courtyard, while the two docs saw patients in the exam rooms. Everything went very smoothly and it was a great clinic day. Our most interesting case today was a man getting follow up wound care after being in a motorcycle accident two weeks ago. We tentatively romoved his bandages to find great looking granualation tissue- a sure sign of good healing and no signs of infection. Pam and I worked triage today. We did weights and vitals on each patient prior to their seeing one of the doctors. The clinic was well organized and everyone was seen by 1:00. I took an afternoon nap while the others walked to a gas station to buy beer and soda. We were served a delicious dinner of savory stew made with pumpkins, and beef and lots of varieties of beans served over (guess what) beans and rice. It tasted so good, we all had seconds. I plan to spend my evening studying (I have a test the day after I return). Tomorrow our group of five subdivides again while some stay behind to work in the clinic in a can, and the others of us will go further up into the mountains to more remote villages. We have to pack up our pharmacy and take everything with us. If we don't carry it in, we won't have it. I'm eager to learn how things are going for Chris, Rebecca, and Pam back in Petionville. I hope their first day went as well as ours. Looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.