The First Clinic Day

It was a good night’s rest that led me into the bright humid morning. Today was the first clinic day and I think we were ready. It wasn’t just an optical day but all medical disiplines would be working together in the same area Ticuentepe.
There was a nervous energy and excitement as we prepared to work. Sadly, it was pancakes for breakfast which is my most detested food but I was able to scrounge up peanut butter toast and fresh papaya and a cold coke so all was not lost.
We loaded up the vans with all the supplies and I noticed that the tool bag wasn’t around. I started hunting everywhere for it. Some were convinced that if we couldn’t find it, it must be in the van. I held strong that if you didn’t see it, it wasn’t there.
Finally just minutes before we had to leave, I located it slipped in behind a night stand and a wall, barely visible. It had fallen and was just out of view. So glad we discovered it before it was left behind.
Our drive into Ticuentepe was 45mins of various roads. From paving stones to river bed rocks, it’s always impressive to see what these local drivers can get these 15 passenger vans over and through. AS we drove into the mountains there were fields of pineapple and dragon fruit on either side.
We arrive at the site of the clinic, a church that was built in 2005 by a team from Paris, Ontario. Only about 12 people were waiting which surprised me as I was use to much longer line ups forming when medical teams came into villages.
We were organized and set up quickly. We decided that I would do the assessments and refractions while Mabel and Mary fit glasses and checked VA. I also had an interpreter Tanya who would help with the basic questions and instructions. Tanya is amazing. She has worked with other medical teams before so she knew the terms and questions I neede to ask. She is funny and kind and I am grateful to have her as my ears and voice for the day. Irene was also with me to document each visit.
My goal was to complete about 75 assessments between 9am-4pm. If we needed to start a wait list for the next day we could do that.
The flow of people was steady but not over whelming. Some just needed to see the Famiy Physicians and nurses who were triaging patients, some just needed to have there eyes checked and others needed both.
The patient base was different than others in the Dominican Republic and Malawi. There most patients were either under 15yrs or over 55yrs with lots of complications. Today we saw mostly patients between the ages of 20-50 and with generally healthy eyes and low RXs. As I said to the team, not the most challenging optical day but one to celebrate! It’s nice to have average problems that you can readily solve.
We were finishing up just after 4pm and everyone had been seen! That is a great victory. A day of 102 assessments.
On the way home, we  stopped at a local supermarket to get a few snacks and it’s always interesting to see what the most popular flavours are. In Nicaragua, it’s chili, lime & salt and queso.
We made it home to the compound tired but satisfied with a good day’s work done. Dinner was comfort of stir fry beef, mashed potatoes and salad.
My new favourite thing is frozen yogurt. We can’t have the ice cream here due to the unknown processing but yogurt is fine. We keep it in the freezer so that it can be cool packs in our lunches. It is just a lovely treat in the middle of a hot muggy day.