Guatemala- Doctoring

My group of 6th grade educated health care workers faced another day of experiencing what the danger signs are of a child about ready to die. At least that is how I have to teach it so that they will get the idea of a sick kid and not so sick kid. My one man who apparently has been a dentist for 35 years (although his teeth would not show it) commented on his extensive knowledge of giving injections for nerve blocks. But as soon as I taught them how to give injections of Ceftriaxone, he was the first to start out wrong. Again, I would highly NOT recommend him for dental car unless you are stuck in the mountains of Guatemala with a root canal and no transportation...then maybe. (plus he is a farmer so his hands don´t look like our friendly neighborhood dentist with pristine nails).

Today we had ¨real´¨ children from the clinic that we could all have them practice how to assess. The first, of course, was a kid who decided to cry through the whole exam which meant having them try to count respirations with a crying child. They did a great job ( try counting for a whole minute...especially with a screaming child...ain´t fun) and of course it was faster than normal so they all wanted to give antibiotics. They were right, if the kid weren´t crying and they soon learned that you have to calm a child down before getting a good reading.

We then had to give injections to each other to practice. To my amazement, they got it save the dentist. All of them could mix it, draw it up, and inject it (water for practice of course) by the end of the session.

One of the ladies brought her baby doll and I used it for my practice cases for them to ask questions. They would laugh when trying to count the respirations as I made the doll bounce up and down with respiratory rates or cry throughout the questions. I named my kids ¨Rico Suave¨and Gringa Rubia, and they laughed so hard. I am not quite sure how much they got, but I do know that they seemed to have a good time.

One lady lived across from the Centro and invited me to her house with cats on the counters and a dog trying to get my attention by petting itself on my leg. It was apparent this family had connections with the united states as their pets were already ¨pets¨. She opened her back gate to a whole field of corn. One as big as Brett´s apple orchard...and when I asked if they sold it, they said...no we eat it all! Can you believe it? That´s alot of corn!

Anyway, another day!
I´m heading over to the doctor´s house with the others for dinner so will have to write more later!

Hasta pronto
De Guatemala