Day 2 of Sarorn's clinics and we were at Sarorn's parents village. After an hour and a half van drive, we arrived at the school where we would be holding the clinic for the day. We set up our stations underneath a beautiful big tree in the grounds of the school. We had 3 nurses stations, as we only had 3 interpreters today.
Our lovely van driver was our interpreter. Some words were a challenge, but he generally did very well. One of the first cases Bianca and I (Gabby) saw was a very cute 6 year old boy who had crashed his bike and hit his mouth into the handlebars. As a result, his top front tooth had come through the gum and into his top inside lip. We gave him some analgesia and we have given Sarorn money for the boy to see a dentist to fix/remove his tooth and look at his other teeth.
Another patient we saw was a man in his 40's who had an accident some years ago, which resulted in him becoming a paraplegic, making him wheelchair bound and incontinent. He came to us saying he had a wound on his hip. For privacy reasons we took him into an empty school room and helped him out of his wheelchair and onto a sheet on the floor. We both felt very emotional about seeing him in such a condition, but when we saw the wounds we snapped back into nurse mode. On examination we discovered that he had pressure sores on both hips and on both his buttock cheeks. We cleaned and dressed his wounds and gave him more supplies, gave him some antibiotics, instructed him and his neighbour on positioning him to relieve pressure off the sores, and later that day we also found him some glassses that made him very happy. We also have arranged with Sarorn to re-pad his wheelchair and make it softer on all his pressure points, as a lot of the padding has gone.
On a lighter note, the other girls had many cuddles with lots of kiddies. Blowing bubbles and having many laughs!! One girl started to brush her teeth as soon as she was given a toothbrush, and the girls tried to get a photo but missed it. They still got a very cute picture of her.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Sarorn's parents house in the middle of the day, which sustained us for the afternoon.
The glasses station was run more smoothly than normal, and Athina, Heidi and I were able to find many of the older villagers glasses. It is so wonderful to see their faces when they find glasses that help them. Their faces light up, because suddenly they can see!!!
It is always so nice to go to Sarorn's village, and we look forward to returning again next year.