Progress begins at Casa Maria

I met Jorge at 7:45am to go to Casa Maria. Having made sure that we collected the bag of medication, we set off for Casa Maria.

When we arrived the residents were still eating and so we set up our mini clinic and started making small packages for each of the residents who required medication. In each pack, we put in the appropriate amount of medication and wrote on the front what was inside and how much of each medication they should take and when.

The idea would be that we not only would have given them the correct medication each, but we would also be able to check to see if they had been given the medication as we could count the medication that was left – I guess on Wednesday next week I’ll find out if they actually were given the medication they were meant to have.

We then started to see some new patients and review some of the patients we had previously seen.

The patients who we had already seen had sometimes been given their medication, and other times not. This was the main reason for creating the packs and hopefully there will be some improvement by Wednesday next week.

One patient we saw who I initially thought may have a skin abscess had symptoms in keeping with Dermatobia (human bot fly). The premise is that the fly makes a small puncture into the skin and lays eggs nearby which go into the puncture and form a larva inside the skin. The hole that is made oozes fluid (which is excrement from the larva). This was, therefore, the first actually tropical disease I felt I had diagnosed. To confirm the diagnosis – and to treat the patient – the idea is to block the hole so that the larva feels it needs to come out for air. Then remove the larva as it comes out for the air. I therefore covered the wound with a dressing and will assess it when I return on Wednesday.

We left the clinic and I returned home where I ate lunch and went to meet my tandem. We spoke for just over an hour and I then made my way back home. I talked with my housemates and had dinner before going for a walk into town.