Joe Biden

      My most interesting patient today was 3 1/2 months old. His name was Joe Biden. I saw it written on the dosye but I didn't know if maybe the pronunciation would be a little different so I asked the mom what the baby's name was. She pronounced it exactly the same as we say it- Joe Biden. He was sick. He had a temperature of 38* celsius and his heart rate was 200. I think his heart rate was that high simply because of his fever because overall he looked quite good. I gave his mom Amoxicillin and Tylenol for him. 

     The second most interesting case was an 18 month old little girl. I guess she fell in the fire on Tuesday evening. This scenario could very easily happen here as fires used for cooking are usually built on the ground or the charcoal is placed in a small metal "stove". She had burns to both hips, both thighs, her lower abdomen, and her diaper area. Thankfully I think the burns are just 1st degree, which is lucky because it would be a challenge to keep any kind of a bandage on in the diaper area. On her hips the blisters have popped but some of the other places the skin is still intact. I gave the family several tubes of triple antibiotic ointment to put on it several times a day and gave them a randevou for Monday. 

     There is a very active church right behind Jay's house. Pastor Jean conducts services at all hours of the day and night- these services include many different types of worship- preaching, singing, speaking in tongues, shouting, praying, music including a keyboard- you name it... at times a song or several phrases of a song can stretch out to last longer than 20 minutes. FYI, the microphone/speaker system at his church works quite well, sometimes to our dismay. Honestly, sometimes they are having a service when we go to bed at night and already at it again the next morning when we get up. Pastor Jean has brought several patients to the clinic in his machin this week. One of them was a 15 year old girl. She was mostly carried in, writhing in pain. Her complaint was that her back hurt, so bad! They said she was pregnant, that actually her baby was "due" a month and a half ago- toward the middle of October actually. The problem was, she did not look pregnant, for sure not 9 months pregnant! They put her on the exam table in my room, but she didn't stay on the table. She got down off the table and was writhing around clutching at her back etc... Her vital signs were stable, heart rate and blood pressure both within normal limits. I was very suspicious that she was not pregnant at all- so we sent her to the outhouse to provide us with a urine specimen so that we could do some "tests". Her urine specimen showed that she was NOT pregnant and she didn't  have any signs/symptoms of a urinary tract infection either. When I told her that her urine specimen showed she was not pregnant, her reply was something to the effect of " take me home!" I asked her then if she had any other complaints or if her back was the only place she was hurting. Yes, it was just her back, and she wanted to go home. So I gave her Ibuprofen and several doses of a muscle relaxant and sent her home. This happened several days ago and she hasn't  been back so I guess she must be feeling better. 

     We had several families over for lunch today to celebrate Thanksgiving. One family are missionaries from Gwo Cheval, another couple are staying at the mission house in Savann Mouton for a couple of months. Then several families from here in Oriani. It was an enjoyable afternoon and evening. Jesse's stayed later than most of the rest and we played several games with them- escape room and forbidden island- they are both games that are played as a team - so either everyone wins or everyone loses. 

     More another day.