medical camp pictures

Clinic Day 2

We started the morning at 0630 with breakfast consisting of omelets, fresh fruit, and the traditional rice and beans. The bus departed at 0730 from Hotel Ticomo to the school where we set up our 2nd day of clinic. Clinic doors opened at 0900 with patients lined up waiting to be seen. We cared for a variety of complaints ranging from rashes, abdominal issues, breast lumps, cirrhosis of the liver, and a severe leg wound. Dr. Nikki was 3 for 3 with her positive pregnancy tests. One of the LifeLink employees that received an ultrasound yesterday, went into labor last night, and delivered a healthy baby. The heat played a major factor today, but thankfully "Mama" Julie kept pushing water and gatorade, and took turns "fanning" us. Lunch consisted of turkey sandwiches, PB&J, fresh, local bananas, apples, hard-boiled eggs, and of course, chips and salsa. We did a better job with the patient flow today, wrapping up the clinic around 3:00, but had to wait approximately an hour for our ride. This gave us a chance to mingle with the local children and dogs. Jenny G. had three little boys laughing hysterically while they watched a video she took of them. It's such a blessing to have the opportunity to care for these people, who are so grateful and appreciative of what we're doing for them. One of our patients stopped us as we were leaving and wished us the best of luck, and hoped that we would return in the near future. We arrived back at the hotel this evening where we sat around the hotel pool and relaxed after a hard days work. Dinner is shortly to come, then it's early to bed so that we're up and ready for another day of clinic tomorrow. Thanks for continuing to follow the blog. We're working on posting more pictures (hopefully tonight). Niki and Sarah R.

La Clinica Primera!!!

Today was our first medical clinic day. First of all, breakfast started at 0630... (pancakes/Nicaraguan coffee were well deserved given the early hour and the mango bombs). The city seemed to come alive during the week compared to Sunday. We continued to try to set up the clinic before the patients arrived at 0900. Our first patients began to arrive and "Dr. Bob" checked them in and took their vital signs (blood pressure, temperature, weight, etc.). The patients were then evaluated by all of our awesome providers with the assistance of our even better translators! We saw such a mix of ages, genders, symptoms, concerns and personalities. Patient problems ranged from minor scratches, to cough/cold/fever to diarrhea with suspected parasite infection and a multitude of women's issues. We even saw extreme cases such as breast cancer and diabetic ulcers. We did several ultrasounds of pregnant women (more in the afternoon after the word got out!) and even revealed a girl baby to a very happy mother who would have otherwise not known. We started the rotations in the "pharmacy" area of our clinic...all we can say is how much we appreciate them. Overall, everyone had a great time and the patients appeared happy and positive (the kids were even happier after Bob started handing out Starburst candy). We cared for over 300 Nicaraguan patients and had a great time doing it. Some things to keep in mind were all the signs of optimism and goodwill towards community that we noticed in our patients after seeing their living conditions yesterday. What an amazing experience! Looking forward to start all over again tomorrow. Drs. Nikki and Bob Holbrook P.S. I wanted to write this entire blog in Spanish...my co-writer disagreed...

some pictures...

Day one

Hello friends and family, We wanted to let you know that everyone is safe and healthy. I do have to report, however, that our lives are being deeply touched by the events of the day. We woke up to the unfamiliar sounds of feral dogs barking, roosters, and mangos bombing the tin roof of our cabana (sounds like firecracker explosion). Breakfast was delicious, consisting of fresh tropical fruit, rice, beans, and eggs. We then took a bus to a city with a strong Sandanista presence. We toured the life-link school and base camp, also discussing logistics of tomorrows medical camp. We then toured the surrounding neighborhood, a congregation of clandestine tin hovels and squallor that experiences frequent flooding . The people were amazing, letting us tour their homes, meet their family, and reinforce to ourselves how truly lucky our lives are. Our day to day grind that is life consists of first world problems. The first medical camp is tomorrow, where we will see 60 patients per hour and I sincerely hope that I may return a fraction of what has been given to me. Jenny G. and Sarah W.

We made it!

We finally made it to the hotel. Everyone is excited but tired. The electricity is working so the rooms all have air conditioning tonight, which is awesome as it is 80 degrees and very very humid. We now have the whole team together. LifeLink International graciously picked us up from the airport. Customs was a breeze which was a blessing. We celebrated Sarah's birthday with cupcakes on the plane (Bob ate most of them). It is mango season and the hotel grounds are full of mango trees, which is great except they like to drop at night on the tin roofs-it should be an interesting night..... We will try and upload some pictures tomorrow night. Buenos noche.....

Landed in Houston

We landed safely in Houston. Waiting for Tanya from Minnesota. No rush as we have a 7 hour layover. We should get into Managua close to 10 pm. We'll meet the other 4 team members who are coming from Missouri there (16 total team members). We left Milwaukee around 5 am, so we'll be tired and ready to go to bed when we get there (at least I will). The group is very excited and eager to start this adventure. Will try and blog when we get in but it may be late or it may be once we get up in the morning (depending on Internet access). Tomorrow we get to sleep in with breakfast at 8 am, the other days breakfast is at 6:45 am! We have medical clinics Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday we get to tour the local hospital. Friday is ziplinng and SHOPPING! Saturday we have to leave again at 5 am for the airport.
Julie