It seems like a small tornado went right through the yard here on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty much out of the blue, one minute blue sky, the next some big raindrops and strong winds progressing to a whirlwind. Jay watched it from the porch of Keith's house. The rest of us were inside so we didn't see the whirlwind, just heard and felt the strong wind blowing things all over because the house windows were open. The trampoline appears to have gone partway over the house. It was on the grass behind the house when this all started and it ended up twisted and upside down right by the front porch. It couldn't have come between the house and the little shop without wrecking the banana trees there and they are fine. We don't think it hit the roof either because none of us heard the kind of noise that surely would have made. The rabbit surely had the scare of his life though. He has a little fence that can be moved around in the yard so he can have fresh grass. Of course it does not have a floor and it isn't closed in on top either. The fence was moved several feet and turned 90 degrees but somehow he was still inside the fenced area. I really would have liked to see what actually happened- both with the trampoline and the rabbit... Within a few minutes it was calm again and the sun was shining. 

     On Saturday Brianna and I went with Todd and Donna to Foret market in their machin- no, I didn't forget the e on machine, in Creole a car or pickup is simply called a machin. We shopped a while then ate lunch together. Brianna and I wanted to look for a few more things after lunch so we came home on moto. 

     Today was another busy Monday at the clinic. I'm not sure exactly how many patients we saw altogether but I saw 42 patients myself. One of those patients was in my room for at least 30 minutes while Jay tried to get a catheter in him. This man has an enlarged prostate so has an indwelling catheter that he gets changed periodically. He came in today in a lot of pain. It seems like the catheter must have gotten clogged sometime yesterday afternoon because he hadn't had to empty the bag since then. I removed the old catheter because it had been in a long time but then was unsure of myself because this man seemed to be in a lot of pain. He actually sounded like a woman in labor with his moaning. So I asked Jay to come look at him with me. We determined he just had a very full bladder, but were unable to get another catheter to pass after multiple attempts. Finally, when we were about to give up, it went in. I had sighed a prayer earlier, now it's my turn to say "thank-you, God". 

     There were only a few people left sitting on the benches when I had a lady with a blood pressure of somewhere around 237/123. We have some immediate release Nifedipine so I gave a dose to this lady and let her sit there in my room while I finished seeing the rest of my patients. After 20 minutes or so, we rechecked a blood pressure. Now she was at 198/100, still very high, but definitely better than it had been. Also, we don't want to bring a blood pressure down too quickly so we gave her blood pressure medication to take every day and sent her home. She also got some Ibuprofen for her headache and a shot of Penicillin for a very red throat with white patches. Hopefully by tomorrow she will be feeling a little better. I felt lucky with this lady, several days ago I had another lady whose blood pressure was very high also.  The Nifedipine by mouth hadn't worked for her so I had to put in and IV and give some IV Labetolol to get her systolic pressure below 200. I know these people have probably been living with a blood pressure like this for an extended amount of time but I feel better personally if I can get the systolic under 200 before sending the patient home. 

     I have spent hours since I have come here studying Creole. Some days I think I'm getting somewhere then other days I wonder if I will ever be able to fully understand a normal conversation in Creole and almost feel like giving up. But surely I am learning, slowly...

     I was just looking back over my last post and I see that it didn't all get published. I don't remember what all else I had written,  I just know that we finished seeing patients that day between 1-2 o'clock so it wasn't bad at all. I was having problems with my internet connection that evening and obviously it just got disconnected before I was totally ready to publish that post.