Last few days have been busy. Yesterday I stayed home to care for the villagers while most of the others went to the hospital in Maesot with several patients (generally a whole day project.) I did have a translator most of the time, thankfully! Looked in a sore mouth (quickly decided I was inept!), little girls with scabies, baby with diarrhea, a few women wanted there blood pressures taken, and did several malaria tests, among other things. Two little girls ended up with pf malaria so I got to give my first pills! That scares me. I don't take lightly to giving medications I don't know very well - especially to kids. But with the help of a few phone calls we got it figured out and it was good experience.
I've just recently learned of the possibilty of taking a 6 month medic course here. It's created for medics on the front lines, I believe, so it should be really great. I just have to have a little better grasp on the language first as it's taught in Karen. There's also a doctor here who I may be able to shadow to learn more.
Right now one of my biggest goals is to speak the language - Karen (pronounced as kurin) - fluently. I'm working on learning to read and write it. I forgot a lot of what I did know while I was back in the States and it was very discouraging to begin with, but most of it's finally starting to come back! It's such a huge handicap to not be able to speak. It's especially hard in Thailand as I speak next to no Thai. My total vocabulary basically consists of the words hello, thank-you, and vegetarian (truly vital!:) But I don't see myself learning a considerable amount of Thai anytime in the near future. Over here I'm not only illiterate, but, for all intents and purposes, most of the time might as well be deaf and dumb as well.:) It can truly be humbling at times, trust me...:)
But the possibilities are really exciting!
I'm in Maesot right now as we had to take a little boy from a nearby village to the hospital. I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving 'til I got on the internet. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!:) I hope you guys are all having a great one and keeping in mind how blessed we really are!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Update
Well I'm not quite sure just exactly what to say, but I figured I should put an update on here.:) Might be a bit dry though.
The jist of it is: Arrived in Bangkok. All is well. As I stepped out of the airport I think the first thing that really hit me was the heat. I was decked out in my jacket, of course, straight from the frigid airs of MT!:)
So we're finally back on the border. It's been rather crazy the last few days. Guess they expected me to come back as a doctor or something... Which they're slowly, but surely learning I'm not...
Sabbath was anything but restful! We ended up taking an interesting trip to the hospital with several sick kids. We had a young girl who was lying in the bed of the truck going between unresponsiveness or hyperventilating and in agony with spasms in her legs. We were driving at quite exciting speeds. Altogether there were seven of us back there. I was perched at the edge of one of the benches trying to keep my balance as another sick child was lying on the other part of the bench behind me and Thai driving always manages to add some pizzazz to anything!:) Let's just say that it was pretty exciting. She ended up having severe pf malaria.
The porch here at the house is having an almost steady stream of villagers and students especially in the mornings and evenings. This morning our nurse was gone at the hospital with patients, so it was just me and mama there. To sum it up, I spent most of it wielding wicked looking poking devices and jabbing them without mercy into innocent little fingers. No, actually we had people with all types and sorts of various maladies. But I had to do testing on several for pf malaria. I was at my wit's end. The test isn't one bit like our handy-dandy glucometers back home. Instead it has this hole you've got to somehow deposit the blood into and it's the frustration of my life. I was so tired of it and the next in line was a squirming, wailing little kid who quite obviously already had a well developed fear of needles. All I wanted to do was run and hide. Couldn't stand the idea of having to poke this one over and over. But I gave it a shot and that was the first (and last, so far!) one where the blood came out in a perfect drop and ventured into the hole in like manner. Felt like that was God's gift to me this morning when He knew I couldn't take much more.:)
The jist of it is: Arrived in Bangkok. All is well. As I stepped out of the airport I think the first thing that really hit me was the heat. I was decked out in my jacket, of course, straight from the frigid airs of MT!:)
So we're finally back on the border. It's been rather crazy the last few days. Guess they expected me to come back as a doctor or something... Which they're slowly, but surely learning I'm not...
Sabbath was anything but restful! We ended up taking an interesting trip to the hospital with several sick kids. We had a young girl who was lying in the bed of the truck going between unresponsiveness or hyperventilating and in agony with spasms in her legs. We were driving at quite exciting speeds. Altogether there were seven of us back there. I was perched at the edge of one of the benches trying to keep my balance as another sick child was lying on the other part of the bench behind me and Thai driving always manages to add some pizzazz to anything!:) Let's just say that it was pretty exciting. She ended up having severe pf malaria.
The porch here at the house is having an almost steady stream of villagers and students especially in the mornings and evenings. This morning our nurse was gone at the hospital with patients, so it was just me and mama there. To sum it up, I spent most of it wielding wicked looking poking devices and jabbing them without mercy into innocent little fingers. No, actually we had people with all types and sorts of various maladies. But I had to do testing on several for pf malaria. I was at my wit's end. The test isn't one bit like our handy-dandy glucometers back home. Instead it has this hole you've got to somehow deposit the blood into and it's the frustration of my life. I was so tired of it and the next in line was a squirming, wailing little kid who quite obviously already had a well developed fear of needles. All I wanted to do was run and hide. Couldn't stand the idea of having to poke this one over and over. But I gave it a shot and that was the first (and last, so far!) one where the blood came out in a perfect drop and ventured into the hole in like manner. Felt like that was God's gift to me this morning when He knew I couldn't take much more.:)
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