Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I’m sitting now on a 2-foot stage at one end of the room where we set up our clinic. Harp music floats through the air as dad busily works at pulling a tooth with Paula’s assistance. This spacious, air-conditioned building sits in a place once occupied by a courtyard, but since it never really grew grass well, I think the building much improves the place. Six vents in the ceiling pump out a steady stream of cool air, and the windows lining the length of both walls let in plenty of natural light without extra heat.

After the initial excitement of setting up the clinic, a kind of fatigue settled over everyone. Some were sniffling … I think we brought a cold down with us. In spite of tiredness and colds being an obstacle, we were all happy, and turned to encouraging one another with jokes and jibes. Dad’s corniness started to come out … you gotta love Dad’s puns! They are about as punny as they come!

With the Mayor of Hualahuises. It was a promo photo. :D

The first two patients of the morning were some of the most difficult. Definitely more difficult than anything the first two days! First, I assisted Dad with a root canal, a complex procedure requiring a swiss army load of equipment to pull off. Almost an hour later we were finishing up treatment with our first patient, and Dad started to be concerned, feeling like he was getting behind.

Our next patient needed an extraction. It was my first time assisting for an extraction, a procedure I usually try to avoid if I can. However, no one else was available, so I took a deep breath and tried to collect my nerves. After unsuccessfully trying to suction while positioning myself so I couldn’t see anything, I began to realize that Dad was having trouble. (You might want to skip to the next paragraph if you are squeamish. If I was reading this, I’d skip this next part…) First, there was a lot of blood. Also, the burr dad was using in the drill was dull, and no matter what he tried, he couldn’t get the tooth to loosen. My suction hose had a small tip, which I had to keep clearing with water to keep it from getting clogged. Dad moved from humming to singing, then praying out loud. (For those of you who know Dad, you know that when he gets to the point singing, it’s a tough one!) When the tooth finally began to wiggle, we both relaxed. “As long as it moves, I can get it out.”

Another hour passed, and we finished our second patient of the morning. We only saw two more before breaking for lunch, but we know that our success does not lie in numbers, but in the work God is doing that maybe we don’t even know about. When the time came for lunch, we rejoiced at the opportunity for a well-deserved rest.

During lunch, Mr. DeHoyos had me pull up a group on You Tube called Mariachi Vargas. What a fun show, and those guys know their stuff! The piece was called “Violin Huapango.” You should look it up if you have a chance! This mariachi band is probably the best in the world, and they are based out of Monterrey, Mexico!

Jamie stayed back to rest, so Joby and I took over the x-ray department for the first part of the afternoon. Things were going great, until we realized we had a little confusion with the order of patients. When we arrived in the morning, the DIF gave a pre-made list with names, a numbered order, and what kind of treatment they wanted. The difficulty came when I started to call numbers to take the x-rays. I realized there were two sets of numbers, one for the morning, and one for the afternoon. The numbers went 1-20 for the morning and began again at 1 for the afternoon group. We saw so few patients in the morning that the ones we didn’t treat stayed on for the afternoon, causing confusion with the new patients coming in. Fortunately the DIF workers were very understanding and flexible, and we soon resolved the problem and a new numbering system.

Towards the end of the day, we realized that the placement of our chairs put our patients directly in the sun from about 4:30 on. (and what is the problem with sunlight???) ☺ Another problem easily remedied by moving the chairs back a couple feet, much to the relief of our patients. About 30 minutes before we closed for the day, the DIF workers brought cold cokes … mmm! I tell you, NOTHING tastes better than a cold coke at the end of a looooong clinic day!