Today is Wednesday and our time is going so fast! The last 2 days have been filled with seeing patients in the clinic and then also working with the PT techs here so they get ready for the test next week on anatomy. We tend to wake up early, have breakfast of what ever we dig out of our suitcases. If we are lucky there is hot water and coffee. We then get to our clinic by 8:00 am and have a brief team meeting with all the PT staff. We then join hands in the center of a circle and do our "Go Rehab!" cheer! We are then open for service with long lines of people waiting to be seen. They arrive early in the morning and will wait all day if needed to be seen.
I treat patients who have had tramuatic injuries, low back pain, SI joint pain, strokes, amputation, crush injuries, wounds, kids & even babies. The list goes on and on. I have been given the title of peds specialist, low back specialist, and amputee specialist! Anyway we all really do it all! I have really been impressed on how important it is to splint an injured hand correctly as I have never seen such thumb adductor contractures. Nevertheless, folks did what they could in the early days after the quake.
Today in clinic 3 of my patients from Jimani came all the way from the refugee camp in Fond Parisian's Love-A-Child refugee camp to be seen. They were so excited to see me and show me how well they are now doing. I get a big hug from each one and they tell everyone we are the Jimani family! They tell me they will always remember Sue PT who first taught them to walk and gave them hope. They say I have shown them the way to a new life. It is extremely humbling.
Last night a friend - Al Ingersoll- who works with Healing Hands for Haiti and a couple of reporters from Canada (Toronto Star) picked me up and we headed up to the HHH coupound guesthouse. We drove through down town Port Au Prince. We visited a woman (former ballet dancer) who is now an amputee after the quake. The immense destruction to the infrastructure thorughout Port Au Prince was indescribable - still. There are many tent cities everywhere. The National Palace is definitely a strange thing to see in person as is the damaged national cathedral.
Once up at HHH guest house, we had dinner, and visited with another friend - Naoki Yao- a prosthetist from Japan. We chatted about the challenges and rewards of working here in Haiti. Al's wife - Deb- came home from a late meeting and it was wonderful to see her and learn about her work with ARC! We were all exhaused and went to bed by 10:00-ish! Such party animals! There was a huge storm that came up and it rained so HARD! The next morning it was evident that the storm had its impact on traffic as there were some mud slides in parts of the city slowing traffic even more.
Last night I slept under my mosquito net to the sound of what I though was a babbling brook outside my window. It was really city water/sewage according to Al! I guess it is sometimes better not to know! There is a Haitian proverb that says, "It is the shoe that knows if the sock has a hole!" Se soulye ki konnensi choset gen twou.
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