Sorry about no update yesterday. The internet was super slow and the wifi was acting up at the house. Seems to have fixed itself (even our attempts at resetting the router had no effect) by this morning, so here I am.
Clinic and the inpatients are going well. There's a lot a pediatric patients with developmental delay and/or what seems to be CP (hey, cut me a little slack, I'm a GERIATRIC clinical specialist). I am glad they are coming, but feel very inadequate. Then I remember if I wasn't here they would be getting nothing. No PT at all. So it's a bit easier to at least try what I can. Taryn and Ed even think my one girl that is coming every day (so tomorrow will be 5 days) seems to be doing a bit better. At least now this little one will talk to me and doesn't seem so scared. She's a bit easier to work with, just seems to have physical problems and is so smart. She names colors and counts and tries to get away with stuff with me, she's so sharp! At least for some of the more challenging kids (one who has really low tone and is very floppy, and another who has a lot of tone and is very stiff) we've decided to treat with at least 2 if not all 3 of us. More heads are better than one when you're trying to do a bunch of stuff!
The inpatients are pretty interesting. We've got 2 patients with burns, one pretty severe on both his arms and his legs. They are healing up, only one open area, and yesterday and today marked the first time since his burn (at least a month ago) that he's been up walking. He's a champ, and his daughter was so happy. They think he might be able to go home in a few weeks and we are hoping he can be walking by himself with a cane by then. Another inpatient is pseudo-famous. He had cholera in January and developed a very rare reaction to the saline solution used to treat the cholera that gave him paralysis. For those medical types, they thought he developed Guillian-Barre, but it turned out it was this rare reaction. He's the only person in Haiti know to have survived this reaction, and he's walking now with some bracing and a platform walker. Today he went up and down a long steep ramp we have at the clinic, as well as up and down the stairs.
The heat is oppressive. I don't know how to explain it, and I don't know if I'm not tolerating it as well as last year or if I just blocked out how awful it is. Nonetheless, it's hot. Damn hot. Hella hot. So hot that after the 2 block walk to the house after clinic this afternoon at about 3 pm I'm all tired and completely sweated through. Mind you, at the clinic and in the hospital I'm hot. But at least there are a few fans and I'm indoors in the shade and I'm occupied doing things while I'm being so hot. In the afternoon, after clinic, without much to distract me....hot. Too hot. Damn hot. Hella hot. So hot that your sweaty, sweaty clothes aren't really all that smelly because you are constantly sweating and there is no time for the bacteria that cause the smelliness to grow. That hot.
The food continues to amaze me, and the cooks here are so sweet. It's been nearly a week since Taryn, Ed, and I arrived and they have figured out what we like. So they keep making those things. Or they do little things. Taryn loves hot sauce, now they've figured that out they keep getting the Tabasco out of the fridge and handing it to her when she's making up her plate. Or that Ed likes tea in the morning, so they have a small bowl of water for him either already heated or all ready for the microwave. So adorable, and so very, very kind!
I promise to try to upload some more photos, if the internet holds, later tonight. For now I'm off to reply to some email and take a nap. I hope it rains tonight, since that helps a bit with the heat and certainly helps me sleep a bit more.
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