Wednesday the optometrist came with us to the school/orphanage in los brasiles. When we arrived, I gave them a tour around the school and we saw all the cute kids in the classrooms and identified the sick kids needing to see Dr. Karla. The optometrist set up where Dr. Karla and I normally work so we were out in the cafeteria area doing the consults. We saw about 15 kids.
Debbie and I started the consult by collecting/calculating the sick/hurting Nicaraguan children’s name, age, birthday, grade level in school, vital signs, chief complaint, height in cm, weight in kg, BMI, and general triage assessment. Then, we passed the patient on to Dr. Karla to decide plan of care. If we had the medicines needed, Ryan would distribute the medicines in little plastic bags from the prescription written by Dr. Karla. Debbie did an ear wash with little 10mL syringes full of salt water, I splinted a pinky finger to send a patient for X-Rays, we discovered a heart murmur and we were doing our nursing thing side-by-side!!!! The little moments of just the smiles exchanged and the care in Debbie’s eyes were fun to watch and be a part of. There was one little girl named Alba who took a real interest and played with the stethoscope and wanted to listen to her heart…maybe she will be a nurse one day too!
We ate lunch at the cafeteria at the orphanage and then went to visit some patients in their homes. Little Ismael, who is 5 yrs old and was diagnosed with leukemia and then taken out of the hospital by his parents believing that God would cure their son, looked about the same as he did a week ago. He can stand leaning on a chair or his mama’s leg which is an improvement. However, his capillary refill was slow, his tongue was white, his eye socket was pale as well. His mama said he was eating okay and they were still giving him the iron supplements. We will continue to check on him and be a resource for his family. Edwin, is 4 yrs old and has cerebral palsy with frequent pneumonia. He was lying in his bed and despite his breathing and lungs being a lot clear/pneumonia-free was not very responsive. Dr. Karla and I have been suspecting that he has seizures…the kind that are not so much convulsions of the body but rather more subtle in the form of unresponsive stares, twitches, laughter, and rigidity. While we were visiting his eyes rolled back in his head and he became rigid, then his eyes would roll back and he would stare off in the distance. His mother says he has been really tired lately and doing that more often. We are going to bring him to a neurologist appointment tomorrow to check the little one out and see what’s going on with his brain.
The car (Charlie is it’s name) had a flat tire that Jose Luis fixed while we visited with Edwin and his sweet mother. Then we went off to get some Nica ceviche…Dr. Karla really likes it and wanted to share it with Debbie and Ryan. After the big bowl of ceviche, we went over to Dr. Karla’s house where Debbie got to meet Dr. Karla’s daughter, Lidia, and parents. She is 2 years old…super cute…and that particular evening expressing the terrible two part of herself. She was fussy but still fun to see kick her little ball around, walk, hold hands, and be indecisive. She was a cute little mess.
Love,
Ayla Landry
"Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born."
~Dale E. Turner
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