Saturday evening March 14, 2009

We are just back from dinner at Cyvadier Platz hotel. We needed to check it out and make our reservations for next Saturday evening. The cove was filled with a lot of water and there is very little beach area this year. There were several swimmers in the cove and a couple in the hotel pool. We met the midwife who accompanied Tiffany Olson, MD with the January team at the hotel. At Son-son’s we also met with an OB-GYN from Port-au-Prince who wants to help (?) us to get registered as an NGO in Haiti in about 39 days. A further meeting was set up with him for after the clinic. We need to check out his story. The experienced FOTCOH people will understand that. We also stopped at Joseph’s Cyvadier market. Attention: he has Doritos, Ramen Noodles, Prego sauce, and lots of rum. No wine selection however. Darn!

So far the experiment that I came here to do has mixed results. The problem is that the Haitians are not showing up in the numbers that we expected. On day 1 we had to refer 3 patients back to this clinic for follow up and another one again today. I am pleased to report tha those who have come to the clinic were stable in their Diabetes and Hypertension but Dr Nelson picked up on other medical problems. Some of which we could treat, like the malaria patient today, some need more examination by our providers.

Tomorrow we may also have a problem with patients as it is Sunday so we expect that instead of 30 it may be closer to 10 patients who come to us. Dick says Mass starts at 7 AM and we will have two more Haitians with us at Mass. I’d better get to bed early. Ha! I enjoyed the rain overnight. It came in waves at about 15 minute intervals. Yes, I did not sleep well last night but I still feel rested.

The pharmacy will be ready to open when the team arrives. We are days ahead on the pill packing. I gave the girls tomorrow off because we are so far ahead. Again, I must thank the January team for a well organized pharmacy to come into.

BTW, I think I told the team that I lost the lizard to the floor cleaners. I’ll have to look for another item for practical jokes. I’ve been working to start getting the lab set up but I have not done that before so I am proceeding slowly.

Dr Nelson and I had a nice talk today about patient education in Haiti, patient compliance in Haiti, our new packaging to protect the medications, and working through the interpreters. We decided that he should address the interpreters and maybe all of the Haitian workers about that and some other issues on Tuesday. We continue to tease each other every chance we get but we do work well together and that is a good thing. He dose not get mad when I question a dose or a therapy. I gave him my printed 2009 Medical Guidelines last night and he had questions for me about some of the pages so I believe that he read it. I also sent it to him in a pdf file for his computer. He is now a resident physician at St. Michel hospital and he has privileges there now. Sadly, the failure to thrive Medika Mamba baby that we sent to the hospital never arrived. Now we will need to see if we can find the baby while the team is here.

I know I am missing the March madness in Peoria and more importantly, I am missing my family. I did get a message from my son so I do have a news link there. I see on the PJStar website that the Illinois river is flooding the downtown area and that is no surprise with the rain we had last weekend. I am anxious for the rest of the team to arrive next Monday. It should be a great experience. It is time to go out on the deck and check on the stars if the cloud cover has dissipated. Papa Dick just told me that it smells fishy out there. I also hear the Saturday night Voodoo drums on the North side so I’ll climb on the roof for a better view. Whew, I just caught a whiff of the breeze from the South and Dick is very right.
Till tomorrow