Last day in the Jungle

---

The last day of clinic was the most organized yet. We were actually in our "own" village for the day. They have a little more infrastructure there, and actually have a health center. We just set up in the health center and took over the area for they day. It was their de-worming day for the masses of schoolkids, so in addition to seeing the families we would normally see, there were about 600 kids running through. Fortunately, we didn´t have to see them all. The day went pretty smoothely, until about noon. Again, I started feeling sick. This time it was aweful stomach cramps. I think we decided it was gastritis. I took someone´s prilosec and starting feeling much better. Unfortunately, that wasn´t until writhing in pain for a few hours. I was able to see almost a whole day of pts though, so it worked out ok. There were couple of interesting patients that made the trip worthwhile, from a medical standpoint. There was an older woman with mucocutaneous leischmaniasis (a parasite transmitted by the sandfly bite). Mucocutaneous leisch is particularly disturbing though because it slowly eats away at your face. She already had pretty complete destruction of her midface. It´s not too difficult to treat, but it does require western medicine. In the extreme poverty of the area, they couldn´t afford to go to Iquitos for the treatment. So, we all took up a collection and paid the 1000 soles (about $350) for her to go to Iquitos and get treated. When we left the next day, she was on the boat with us back to Iquitos. Another interesting case we saw was this giant growth on this man´s back. We were lucky to have a dermatologist with us, who basically said was essentially a really crazy mole. It was this big heaped up wart looking thing about 6in in diameter, at least. Also had an infection in it. Gross. Other than that, just the norm. I must say I did a lot more pelvic exams than I thought I would on this trip (made very difficult with suboptimal equipment, no gel, and a headlight to see by).

After pounding out a pretty long day of clinic, we headed back. My stomach was doing ok, but still a bit sore. The night was pretty uneventful and we just settled in for one last night in the jungle.

---

Photos

clinic
Masses of school kids came through clinic. That´s Roxanna on the left.

sling
We were limited in supplies out there and this man´s arm was sore (muscle strain? difficult to diagnose and treat out there -- we referred him on to the clinic for Xray). We fashioned a sling out of 2 garbage bags until he could get seen.

Jungle bird
This little bird flew into the window at the clinic just as we were leaving. Val picked it up and held it long enough for it to recover and fly away. No idea what type of bird though...

Comments

[Mom]

Do you have lab facilities to check for parasites for yourselves? Do some testing and/or deworming. The pix were beautiful. Looks like National Geographic. The one of the peppers could be a companion to the one of olives that you have from Spain. TBC is tuberculosis. That was a TB area (room)

[Lisa Jancy]

I have enjoyed reading your travel blog and love the photos! Glad to hear you made it out of the jungle!!!