kinneychronicles: March 2012

Things have slowed down here at the clinic, or maybe we have just adjusted to the number of people we see. But no more cholera epidemics or big crises. Here are some interesting facts. In 2011, the medical clinic saw a total of 4,551 patients and 2,059 of those had malaria. There have been more births this past month as well. I have had more experiences walking into a hut and finding the baby and placenta lying on the floor. I was also called to "help" at a delivery and it was the first time the mom was still in labor when I got there. I say "help" because I was basically moral support. The mom was very shy and I don't know anything about delivering babies so I was reading a book equivalent to "How to Deliver Babies for Dummies." The more I read, the more stressed I became because it pointed out all the things that could go wrong. When I first arrived at the hut the room was full of women, but after a while I found myself alone with the mom. I thought to myself, "This is crazy. All the other women here know more about delivering babies than I do. At least they've had their own children." I felt like I was giving them a false sense of security. So I decided to take a break and told the women to come get me if they had any problems. Not long after, they called for me again and when I got there the room was full of women again and the mom had a baby girl. As soon as she was born I was allowed to cut the cord and take care of her. She's probably the warmest baby here in Palawan because she didn't have to lay on a cold floor for a few hours. I praise God for answering my many prayers that afternoon.

We have also been dealing with spiritual attacks among some Christians here. The attacks sometimes start with stomach or kidney pain and when the person is in the middle of it, they are not with it at all, sometimes screaming, sometimes sleeping. We pray, sing songs, and keep the person from getting injured. We know the devil is mad and doing everything in his power to discourage the church here. But we know that God's power is greater and the battle has already been won by the blood of Jesus Christ.

While Chris and I have been here we have had more time to study the Bible. It is becoming very obvious to us that God is calling every person to work for Him. His return is very near and while we are saved by grace, that doesn't mean we should just go to church once a week and be content to keep that knowledge to ourselves. God has a work for each of us to share what we have learned and show the love of Christ to those around us. Whether that work is being a missionary overseas, supporting the church financially, or being a missionary to those around us at home. We are already thinking about what God's plan is for us next year. Of course we have our own wishes and desires, but do they fit in with what God wants us to do? Please continue to pray for the Palawano people and for us as we seek God's will for our life.

Amy

Life at the Clinic

I thought it might be nice to share a typical day at the clinic. We open at 8:00am, and it is not uncommon for people to be waiting on the porch for us. A student worker from high school meets us Monday through Thursday to help us with our workload while learning valuable life skills. Some of the tasks they help us with are: prepacking medicine for quick dispensing, washing cups and syringes used to give medicine, as well as daily clean up around the clinic. The staff is also responsible for teaching the students how to weigh people, taking blood pressure and temperature, finding charts, and filing them away. Some of the more advanced students are given opportunites to practice giving shots to the staff.

Once the clinic has been cleaned up, we begin asking who is sick or needs medicine. It's basically run just like a doctor's office back in the states, except your doctor checks you in, gets all the vitals, and then takes you back to the exam room. Once we determine the illness, we prepare the medicine for the patient. The medicine is placed in plastic bags and knots are tied in the bags to separate doses for different times of the day. Each bag then represents the number of days to take the medicine. We pack it this way because most people can't read.

On a daily basis we see from 5-20 patients, depending on the weather, or if there is an event that requires people to walk by the clinic. Pediatrics makes up the bulk of our patients. The most common thing we treat for is malaria and second to that is upper respiratory illness. There are also a fair number of cases of RSV and pneumonia in children. We also see lots of kids who have sores covering their legs and bodies and I think this is due to poor hygiene.

The adults who come to the clinic most commonly have upper respiratory illness or malaria as well. However, I have seen a few cases of hepatitis, typhoid, and other interesting pathologies. There are also lots of rashes here including ringworm, athlete's itch, atopic dermatitis, and a jungle rash that does not seem to respond to any medicine that we have. Many adults also have dental problems and they often come with symptoms of a tooth abcess.

One of the stranger things that I have only seen in the Palawanos is that sometimes when they eat fish, green mangoes, or passion fruit, they develop severe gastritis. They complain of sharp stabbing pain in their epigastric region, and are unable to walk around. Often they vomit once and then go into a comatose-like state and do not respond to verbal stimuli. Usually I go to their home to treat them and they recover in a day or two.

So that is a quick snapshot of what we do here in the clinic.

Chris Kinney

Chris talking with one of the patients