Today I went to one last outreach clinic. It went really well. We were set up in a little school house with three rooms. I triaged in room one, the two doctors saw patients in the second room and then they would proceed to the third room, the pharmacy, to pick up any medications the doctor had prescribed for them. It went really well, we saw over 70 patients, which was because we had to close up shop early, we could have seen many more. Here are a few things you see in Haiti.....
- Arthritis
- Heartburn and Indigestion
- Colds
- Urinary Tract Infections
- Worms
- HYPERTENSION!
Haitians have the highest blood pressures I've ever seen. Today the highest I saw was 202/116. These people are walking around ready to stroke out right before my eyes. Because of their high blood pressures we subsequently get a great deal of complaints of difficulty with seeing and headaches. This year we did not have a great deal of prescription meds, we had a few, but very little.
As we were packing up, we had a little jam session with our interpreters Matt and Stevvenson. Someone had a Justin Bieber notebook and Matt had "Baby" on his phone. We were all singing and dancing. It was a great stress release :D Justin can make anyone move those hips.
To top off the day, a nice relaxing late afternoon soaking up some wonderful sun by the pool. My tan is getting pretty bombin'!
There are tons of Haitians here too and they have the same problem. I had this lady with high 200s/100s walking around like nbd and I was panicked that she was going to stroke out and die but no. Apparently that's her normal. :/ I think my BP goes up just taking theirs. I'll have to remember next time that Justin Bieber is the key to stress release and lower BP. :)
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