The Clinic

It has been a few days and I am trying to get into the groove of the clinic. Right now I am struggling with the language, but it has only been a few days. It is not so much the language as always having to ask someone to interpret. But all is going well and I am getting some great experience. So far we have treated a lot of malaria, lots of cuts, some rashes and things like that. We did have one HIV test for a little baby, but it was negative, thank God. We were concerned because this baby has been seen in our clinic multiple times with many different problems. So we worried that she was immunosuppressed. The problem we run into is that many of our tests are outdated. So we have to just try, then use our common sense. We do not have a doctor working with us so we do a lot of diagnosing and treating. We prescribe and give out meds like it is nothing. This really surprised me, but there really is no choice. With this many kids there is no way we could take each one into town if we suspected Malaria. Town by the way is about a 20 min ride on horrible roads. So we do what we can and make referrals when we cannot do anything. There is a hospital in Yei and it seems to be good. It even has an HIV clinic where they get treatment and counseling as well as testing. This is quite a peacful area, with wonderful little villages surrounding. I will take a picture sometime of one of the villages and you can see how cute they are. This is actually quite a beautiful area, with lots of trees and tall grass. Please pray that I continue to adapt to the culture and to my place here at Harvesters. As a nurse we have a lot of responsibilities. Well, God Bless!