So, it always begins when we hit the road from San Antonio, but this year "the Caravan" included a charter bus for some of us to ride in. Definitely the way to travel!
After 2 days on the road we made it to Moctezuma and knew we were there (directional/town signage en route wasn't great) because we saw the banner advertising the free medical services we were going to be providing.
After an afternoon unloading and literally transforming the local elementary school into a MASH-like hospital the clinic and operating room (supported by our pharmacy, lab, and x-ray) were open for business.
Here is Kyle putting a little boy to sleep before surgery, and carrying another little boy to the post-op/recovery area after his surgery. Kyle's team consisted of him and two outstanding nurse anesthetists.
Monica (CRNA) loving on a little baby post-op. He peed all over her and she just kept holding him until he was ready to go to recovery. Kyle putting in a spinal prior to a surgery.
The entire OR/pre-op crew.
I primarily helped out translating in the clinic. Each person is given a "ficha"--a blank medical record w/ their name, vitals (which I helped take the first few mornings) and a number that gets them into "the system". Once they are seen in the clinic they may be sent for a pre-op consultation, to X-ray, the lab, often back to the clinic for follow-up, and to the pharmacy. Here is part of the line of people waiting to be seen.
Here is our clinic set-up: little stations each with a doc (and a translator if needed) and patients! (Private examination/treatment room was next door.)
Me and Wendi--the awesome PA (Physician Assistant) I translated for (though she didn't really need me her Spanish was so good). (She went to PA school after coming on a TIME Caravan and deciding she had to be in medicine even though she was currently in grad school for something else!)
Two awesome med students working with patients in the clinic. "Diga Ahhhhh!"
This little boy made my day. He invented a little game where he would put this little toy (foam) truck on his head and fling it at me and then I was expected to do it back to him. It only got a little out of control!
Reading an x-ray "Caravan style" (al fresco).
When I wasn't needed in the clinic, I lent my skills to the surgical team...okay, that is clearly a bad joke. Mostly what I did was
try to be somewhat invisible while obnoxiously taking approximately 1 billion photos.
BUT I did get to pretend to be a med student for one afternoon during siesta (a wonderful Latin tradition we are fools not to implement in the US) and "scrub in" on an umbilical hernia surgery. A wonderful Mexican surgeon humored my curiosity and let me "help". He and the surgical nurses (perhaps the hardest working folks on the trip--and super kind) taught me how to scrub in (i.e. everything is sterile) and I got to "assist" by dabbing the tiny amount of blood there was and cutting suture (thread used to close up the surgical site). Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about? (Seriously, it was one of the most thrilling things I've ever gotten to do.)
Me and "my surgeon"--Dr. Andrade.
We started each morning with a time of worship (in English and Spanish) and teaching. Here we are under the "big top" the awesome "maintenance men" constructed to keep us dry.
Here is Brother Windell bringing the Word...come rain or come shine. He is everything a preacher from South Carolina should be. Amen!
After we got to work every day, our Mexican partners held a VBS of sorts for any of the local kiddos who wanted to come...
Franny (Kyle's mom) stayed for both weeks of the trip. She was a key part of the pharmacy team. You're thinking: Hey, isn't Kyle and Ali's sister-in-law Melissa a pharmacy tech? Wouldn't she be a great addition to the team? And to that we say: Yes!
Why don't you leave her a note to that effect! (And while I'm in a recruiting kind of mood (or meddling?)--Kyle's brother Luke would be invaluable to the maintenance (i.e. make something out of nothing) crew.
Perhaps you'd like to encourage him too?)
Can you believe with all we've got going on down there we actually have time to get out and have a little fun exploring too?
Apparently the Longhorns are very popular in Moctezuma. (In all fairness, I missed the opportunity snap a shot at a little boy in the VBS program wearing an A&M jacket.)
Yarn at the market
Comida: "Street chicken" and "pan dulce"
The townspeople.
One afternoon we got a ride with some policemen to the local water park of sorts.
Meeting medical and surgical needs is wonderful--a blessing to those who receive care and to all of us who get to take part--but what we're really about is sharing the Good News!
Without these guys and what they do this would be just another hospital.
This is why we're really here.
Okay, so I took over 600 photos...if you're a die-hard and you want to see more...jump on over to our
Picasa Web Album. And if you are inspired to come with us, let us know!!! (And let's be perfectly clear about this--this group needs clinicians (and students), Spanish-speakers (even if you--like me--sound like a gringo) and ANYONE else that just has a heart to serve!
Alabare alabare alabare alabare alabare a mi Senor!
