800+ Patients

Today was the final day of setting up clinics. We loaded onto the vans early in the morning to travel 2.5 hours to our destination. Again, we went higher and higher into the villages in the mountains and took bumpy dirt trails to reach the village of San Juan. This village was very similar to the ones we had been to the previous day. The homes were composed of concrete slabs with cracked walls and tin roofs. The children were found wondering the street hand-in-hand with younger bothers and sisters or friends. Stray dogs stood on the side of the road waiting patiently for the buses to pass by.

Once we reached the gymnasium where we would be setting up for the day, we were met with the familiar faces of women and children waiting to be seen.

Waiting patiently as we set up our stations and begin registration 

I was stationed at finger stick and was responsible for testing everyones blood sugar age 15 and older. It doesn't seem to matter where you live in the world, NO ONE likes getting their sugar checked. I don't blame them, it hurts! We all did our best to convince each patient that it is very important to get their sugar checked for good health. Thankfully I only had one person cry from the pain, but she quickly recovered and thanked me for my help. It was incredible to know that despite feeling pain and discomfort, the citizens of this village were still so thankful for our help.

What I liked best about the finger stick station is that it was a great "floater" station. If registration is backed up and cannot get information fast enough, we can help out. If physical exam has too many patients and not enough people to examine them, we go find a stethoscope and jump in to see this patient through receiving their medications. If we couldn't find a stethoscope we took everyones history so that the physical exam people would only have to do the exam and write a plan. It was inspirational to see everyone that I was volunteering with jump in and be flexible all day long. I rarely heard someone complain or ask to sit down for a break. Everyone worked so well together to give each other time to quickly run to the bathroom or go outside to get a breath of fresh air. I'll admit that I was worried that our group would not mesh well and we would keep to our friend groups, but I was more than happy to be wrong. The teamwork I saw this week, and especially this last day, inspired me to obtain this level of trust and comfort with my future co-workers and everyone I work with while on rotation.

Jumping in to help vitals with weights 

Helping out with physical exam

One of the patients I jumped in to help do a physical exam on was a mother accompanied by her 4 sons. I always started with the children (especially since they quickly lost attention and would start running away before you finished) and was happy to find that they were all healthy and only in need of some vitamins! When I got to mom, I asked her why she was here and she started describing her symptoms with words I had not heard perviously during the week. I quickly grabbed a translator and discovered that the mom wanted to know if she was pregnant. We ran over to the pharmacy and grabbed the last pregnancy test available. She took the test and it revealed she was pregnant! I asked her when her last menstrual period was and told her that her baby was going to be born around July 20th of this year. The mother had the largest smile on her face and a few tears in her eyes as I told her the exciting news. The majority of my day was spent wishing I could do more for everyone I saw, but having one of my last patients be someone who is extremely satisfied with just the words "you're pregnant, congratulations!" and wanting nothing more was very rewarding. Regardless, I made sure she got a few extra months of vitamins for her pregnancy.

The girl on the right (5 years) brought in her younger sister (3 years) to be seen because she was worried about her sister's cough for the past 2 days. This older girl was so protective over her sister, comforting her and holding her hand to make sure she was okay. It was a heartbreaking moment.  

Then woman on the right is the one we told is pregnant.
These are some of her adorable children running around while we explain the good news

We had the opportunity to see over 250 patients in one day. Towards the end of the day we didn't even have enough registration forms for everyone and had to start using the backs of the translation sheets we were provided for each station. Running out of registration papers also meant that we started running out of supplies at the pharmacy. Early in the morning we were out of Albendazole (an anti-parasitic) that we gave to all children with loss of appetite and distended bellies. Children vitamins became sparse in the afternoon and we had to make the decision to only give out vitamins to children who were accompanied by a sibling 12 years and older or a parent. Thankfully we had just enough backpacks full of goodies for every child and no one had to leave without one!

Busy final rush at the end of the day! 

Everyone walked out happy with a backpack 

Once all the final patients had been seen, we started handing out anything we had left. Some of my classmates handed out the extra shirts they had and others gave away their sneakers. All of the extra food we had from lunch, mostly boiled eggs and bananas, were given away to the children. We gave all of our extra medications and antibiotics to the doctor who volunteers and oversees our clinics. Nothing was brought home with us, because what would it do for us? We knew that the citizens of Guatemala needed it more than we did.

We left the village quite tired after seeing so many patients, but with our hearts full of pride and unforgettable memories. Knowing we had the opportunity to help so many people, even in the simplest ways, is life changing. This was my first experience participating in this type of trip and already I am ready to go back and do another. I have a strong feeling that after graduation I will be volunteering and giving my time to many trips similar to this. This was a life changing experience and one I will never forget.

Children lined up on the side of the street and waved goodbye to us as we left on the buses.
They didn't want us to forget them, but in reality they will never leave my memories