Today was a great day.
Disclaimer: I do not rejoice over people's injuries. I am excited at the opportunity people's injuries bring but I don't hope people get hurt.
Today I started keeping a medical log. This wise suggestion was made by my mother. I really like the idea, it is actually kind of fun for a weird detailed person like myself. The following are the first few entries in the La Digue Medical Log.
8-28-06:
~Tiga, 6 yr old boy, fell & got a cut above his left eye on 8-20. The cut probably needed stitches, it is now infected and his eye is swollen. Forgot to take photo.
~Madame Mercius, a LL cook, came with a breast abscess. It had opened up on its own yesterday so it looked like a infected flat sore. She is 5 months pregnant, maybe the cause of the abscess (breast ducts clogging). Either way, ow. Purposely did not take photo.
~Cherline, 5 year old girl, came with what looked to me like an eye infection. I asked my friend, Dr. Jen and she said that it was probably not a bacterial infection therefore an antibiotic wouldn't do much for her. We are praying that it runs its course and leaves her soon. She is very shy but way cute (photo does no justice)
~Rosius Dieujuste (Rose-e-us Diuh-joost) is a man with a toe that grossed out many of you. The toe is still the coolest, craziest thing I've ever seen. I will not post the before but if you need a refresher or don't know his story click here. (hint: you could read how it happened & cover up the photo with a piece of paper while you read.) He went to St. Aird, a clinic about 30 mintues from us run by our Indiana friends, The Fultons. The Haitian doctors there cut off the 'meat' (scar tissue) on August 10th and things are looking up. I was happy to come down and still see he had a toe; it would have been easier to aputate the whole toe but I'm glad the doctor who did it knew that the easy way isn't always best. He will return everday for dressing changes.
~Willman (wheelmaan), a man from Barbancourt, was 'passing by' a fight when he got hit with a rock on the top of his head. It must have been a very large rock, because this is a very large cut. He went to a doctor in Archaie for stitches and hadn't changed the bandage since then (8 days). So it was pretty stanky. I was pretty appalled unimpressed with the suture job. Mainly just thinking about the fact that he paid for that. Degaje (Kreyol word that translates to 'make it work' ; kind of like 'oh well, do what you gotta do'). There were like 4 big, loose stitches and I took them out because it had been long enough and it was looking infected. He will return every-other-day until it is healed.
Left Photo: before I took out the floppy stitches.
Right Photo: afterwards. The sides didn't come together perfectly, do to the fact that it was probably a jagged laceration to begin with.
Continued on next two blog entries...
