Clinic Day 3-
It was an extra early morning that got us going today. We were travelling a little bit farther so needed to start earlier. Also I had noticed that my left eye had started to feel a little off. It’s easy to catch an infections when working in these conditions so I decided to stave off any problem and will do a run of antibiotics in it until we get home.
Everyone was ready to get back to the task at hand. Today, Irene, Liz and I rode in the smaller van today with the supplies and our driver Cecilio. It was a little disturbing, at one point, when he put on the new reading glasses I fit him with yesterday to use his phone and to continue. DUDE, I said for close only! NOT DRIVING.
Again the roads were typical changing from well paved to river bed hazard. At one point there was a huge tree that had fallen across the road. Instead of removing it, they had just carved though it to have it as a tunnel on the road.
We arrived at the church that was hosting the clinic for the day. It has only been partially finished so there was no electricity, doors, windows and a dirt floor. But we had tables, our equipment and so even in the most primitive conditions we were ready to see patients.
Again, we were working along side 2 local physicians and had set up a basic pharmacy as well as the optical clinic. About 30 people were waiting for us and the line wouldn’t diminish throughout the day.
It was a steady flow of patients. More kids that needed glasses for school, more seniors needing readers and lots of irritated eyes that needed artificial tears to give some relief. I will post photos when I can as there are lots of stories to tell.
Irene and Liz have joined our Optical group helping keep records and assisting with getting and returning glasses during the fittings. This type of help makes the process so much smoother and our job easier. We really appreciate their willingness to learn and help.
We were able to assess 106 people today with about 20% not needed glasses. We are starting to run low on the lower plus and minus options already. There haven’t been many that are in the extreme prescriptions that I have seen in other countries we have done these clinic in. I’m not sure why.
It was 4:15pm when we finally fit our last patient. The doctors and pharmacy were done so we just had to pack up and load the van.
We have been having some issues with our tire pressure(no surprise with these roads) so when we stopped at the local supermarket, our driver Allan went to get it fixed. That left our group on the side of the parking lot with our purchases trying not to get into trouble.
Everyone was ready to get back to the task at hand. Today, Irene, Liz and I rode in the smaller van today with the supplies and our driver Cecilio. It was a little disturbing, at one point, when he put on the new reading glasses I fit him with yesterday to use his phone and to continue. DUDE, I said for close only! NOT DRIVING.
Again the roads were typical changing from well paved to river bed hazard. At one point there was a huge tree that had fallen across the road. Instead of removing it, they had just carved though it to have it as a tunnel on the road.
We arrived at the church that was hosting the clinic for the day. It has only been partially finished so there was no electricity, doors, windows and a dirt floor. But we had tables, our equipment and so even in the most primitive conditions we were ready to see patients.
Again, we were working along side 2 local physicians and had set up a basic pharmacy as well as the optical clinic. About 30 people were waiting for us and the line wouldn’t diminish throughout the day.
It was a steady flow of patients. More kids that needed glasses for school, more seniors needing readers and lots of irritated eyes that needed artificial tears to give some relief. I will post photos when I can as there are lots of stories to tell.
Irene and Liz have joined our Optical group helping keep records and assisting with getting and returning glasses during the fittings. This type of help makes the process so much smoother and our job easier. We really appreciate their willingness to learn and help.
We were able to assess 106 people today with about 20% not needed glasses. We are starting to run low on the lower plus and minus options already. There haven’t been many that are in the extreme prescriptions that I have seen in other countries we have done these clinic in. I’m not sure why.
It was 4:15pm when we finally fit our last patient. The doctors and pharmacy were done so we just had to pack up and load the van.
We have been having some issues with our tire pressure(no surprise with these roads) so when we stopped at the local supermarket, our driver Allan went to get it fixed. That left our group on the side of the parking lot with our purchases trying not to get into trouble.
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