It was day one on the job and what a job we had!!!
We had a brief orientation at the clinic today and met the staff who work at the Healing Hands Clinic, then we were off and running.
The therapy staff (physical and occupational) have a larger working space this year and they did some conversions at the clinic which allows for more room for treating patients which is great! The therapy staff saw several patients today (mostly stroke and some children with cerebral palsy and saw one nine-month old boy who was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome today).
Rick and Bob were extremely busy in the O & P (orthotic and prosthetic) lab. The lab was nearly spotless this morning, but the two whirling devils in O & P managed to create a little mess. Actually they were quite busy. Bob casted 5 amputees (two bi-lateral). They evaluated and fitted someone with a fracture on the ball of the foot (she needed customized shoes to relieve pressure). Quite different then coming in in her flip flop from Old Navy. They also saw stroke patient, fitted him with donated AFO (Ankle Foot Orthosis) and then sent him to therapy for his first PT session. The grand highlight was fitting a gentleman (T-8 paraplegic) for new HKAFO (see below). They took cast impressions of both legs and will do a preliminary fitting on Friday for Hip/Knee/Ankle/Foot othotic. I told you they were busy.
Unfortunately they discovered they weren't able to do any sewing (for making straps, etc.) due to not having any needles for the sewing machine. It's not like running out to the craft/fabric store here to find a needle. Jill and Sue spent nearly 1 1/2 looking for needles, a charger for the cell phone and a toaster for the guest house. All they could find was the charger for the cell. We will spend more time looking for needles as this will be essential to get some of the work done.
There was a group of us assigned to go to Food for the Poor orphanage today. After the 1/2 hour drive to get there we were told that we weren't expected there today. So we will be going there again on Wednesday to see if we can get some work done there. Events like this are not atypical of how things work in Haiti. One has to quite flexible here and go with the flow.
Since we couldn't provide any service at the orphanage, we headed back to the clinic. We realized that one container (we are expecting two) of the equipment from Wheelchairs for Humanity had arrived. The 145 boxes (each weighing approximately 110 pounds) were in the storage room. They were not supposed to have been delivered to the clinic. So we had to haul the boxes down out of the storage area (this was not an easy task to say the least and it was especially exhausting in the 80s or maybe even 90s) . I hope that we are able to move tomorrow (physically) as this was really quite the workout.
We have been eating well here in Haiti. Everyone is feeling pretty good. Erin and Steve are suffering from colds and upper respiratory issues, but we are pumping them full of medicine to make them well.
We did go to the Montana last night for dinner and rum punch. We also heard some music and caught the Packer vs. Giants game. We were all sad about the Packer loss except Rick. Rick ended up getting his shoes (sandals) shined because he won a bet that the Giants would win.
Sue is doing a great job at keeping the team together despite all the challenges she encounters on a daily basis. The best made plans often change on a dime here, but she keeps her cool and hasn't had a melt down that any of us have witnessed. Maybe she is drinking in the closet and that is how she is keeping it all together.
We are having great fun here! Hopefully we will have more productive day tomorrow (in terms of treating people and doing the physical rehab work that we are here to do). Today was productive, just in a different sense.
Just an FYI: We have four computers working at the guesthouse now- as Jill says "We are roughing it here. We used to have only one computer and now we have four" Ah, the age of technology. Thanks to Jean Pierre for his work on getting the computer up and running!
We had a brief orientation at the clinic today and met the staff who work at the Healing Hands Clinic, then we were off and running.
The therapy staff (physical and occupational) have a larger working space this year and they did some conversions at the clinic which allows for more room for treating patients which is great! The therapy staff saw several patients today (mostly stroke and some children with cerebral palsy and saw one nine-month old boy who was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome today).
Rick and Bob were extremely busy in the O & P (orthotic and prosthetic) lab. The lab was nearly spotless this morning, but the two whirling devils in O & P managed to create a little mess. Actually they were quite busy. Bob casted 5 amputees (two bi-lateral). They evaluated and fitted someone with a fracture on the ball of the foot (she needed customized shoes to relieve pressure). Quite different then coming in in her flip flop from Old Navy. They also saw stroke patient, fitted him with donated AFO (Ankle Foot Orthosis) and then sent him to therapy for his first PT session. The grand highlight was fitting a gentleman (T-8 paraplegic) for new HKAFO (see below). They took cast impressions of both legs and will do a preliminary fitting on Friday for Hip/Knee/Ankle/Foot othotic. I told you they were busy.
Unfortunately they discovered they weren't able to do any sewing (for making straps, etc.) due to not having any needles for the sewing machine. It's not like running out to the craft/fabric store here to find a needle. Jill and Sue spent nearly 1 1/2 looking for needles, a charger for the cell phone and a toaster for the guest house. All they could find was the charger for the cell. We will spend more time looking for needles as this will be essential to get some of the work done.
There was a group of us assigned to go to Food for the Poor orphanage today. After the 1/2 hour drive to get there we were told that we weren't expected there today. So we will be going there again on Wednesday to see if we can get some work done there. Events like this are not atypical of how things work in Haiti. One has to quite flexible here and go with the flow.
Since we couldn't provide any service at the orphanage, we headed back to the clinic. We realized that one container (we are expecting two) of the equipment from Wheelchairs for Humanity had arrived. The 145 boxes (each weighing approximately 110 pounds) were in the storage room. They were not supposed to have been delivered to the clinic. So we had to haul the boxes down out of the storage area (this was not an easy task to say the least and it was especially exhausting in the 80s or maybe even 90s) . I hope that we are able to move tomorrow (physically) as this was really quite the workout.
We have been eating well here in Haiti. Everyone is feeling pretty good. Erin and Steve are suffering from colds and upper respiratory issues, but we are pumping them full of medicine to make them well.
We did go to the Montana last night for dinner and rum punch. We also heard some music and caught the Packer vs. Giants game. We were all sad about the Packer loss except Rick. Rick ended up getting his shoes (sandals) shined because he won a bet that the Giants would win.
Sue is doing a great job at keeping the team together despite all the challenges she encounters on a daily basis. The best made plans often change on a dime here, but she keeps her cool and hasn't had a melt down that any of us have witnessed. Maybe she is drinking in the closet and that is how she is keeping it all together.
We are having great fun here! Hopefully we will have more productive day tomorrow (in terms of treating people and doing the physical rehab work that we are here to do). Today was productive, just in a different sense.
Just an FYI: We have four computers working at the guesthouse now- as Jill says "We are roughing it here. We used to have only one computer and now we have four" Ah, the age of technology. Thanks to Jean Pierre for his work on getting the computer up and running!
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