End of Day 5 -

Yesterday we saw 65 patients, today it was 59. Mostly Women, children and the elderly. No young men and no men under the age of 70. There were some very very sick people and there is just nothing that can be done. We suspected 2 cases of TB, worked with an HIV family, students found a cardiac arrhythmia but not much that can be done about it, lots of fungal issues, runny noses and cough. One beautiful young child had a temp of 102; gave her some tylenol and sent her home to hydrate. Another lady in her 50's arrived and after a having diarrhea/ vomiting had a blood pressure of 82/58with a heart rate of 88. All they symptoms of dehydration - we sat her down, gave her one Reglan and had her sip coconut water for a few hours. Then sent her on her way - she had almost a two block walk in the heat back home.

One young lady came in the a bag of problems - the students were finally able to determine that all she wanted was Pepto Bismal because it tasted good when she got it once. We quickly ran out of liquid tylenol today and chewable vitamins are pretty low in count for our next clinic day. The greatest need is pharmaceuticals. If anyone knows how we can get our hands on recently expired drugs (they use them up to one year after they expire) please send the info to us. I got up last night with a headache and felt guilty about taking ibuprofen.

The doctor we are working with said to the students, " there are no chronic disease here because here they die before it becomes chronic." The poverty is heart breaking.

Tomorrow - we assess a village called Billy White. We will be there all morning, then have a soccer game planned with the villagers. After we are meeting with a Medicine Man that will share his wealth of knowledge related to plants and pharmaceuticals.

Too tired to re-read and edit/ sorry for any errors or poor grammar.