Clinic's Opening Day

Today was AWESOME!! We opened the clinic around 10:30 am after organizing ourselves and all the new stuff we brought up the mountain. We saw 126 patients and the eye clinic saw roughly 80 people today. We had four clinic stations set up, with a vitals station that all the patients funneled through first. There was also a pharmacy and a scabies station. I manned the scabies station with Lexi, who is 16. Most of the time we counted pills and made 30 pill packs of Tylenol and vitamins. I think we had about 10-12 scabies patients today. About 60% of them were small children, but there were some adults. The scabies treatment consists of rubbing a special lotion all over an infected person. Here are the directions I was given.

1. For children under 4, rub the cream all over the scalp, behind the ears, between toes and every where in between. Make sure you get the tip of the penis and the butt crack. For kids older than four, the scalp is unnecessary.
2. Kids younger than 12 need to be lathered up by a "professional."
3. Watch the teens and adults to make sure they get everything.
4. Tell them to wash all clothing and bedding, and they can wash the lotion off in the morning.

Our first scabies patient was a 20 something male. Lexi and I quickly agreed that watching him put on the lotion was not necessary, so we just asked him to put his hand over the curtain when he needed more. Most of the scabies treatments were pretty simple, but we had one little girl who was heartbreaking. She had the worst case of scabies some of the medical people, who have been here frequently, and had open sores all over. She had a really nasty one on her leg, one on her crotch and several others. She was crying when she got to our station, but when we started putting on the lotion she lost it. With every screech my heart broke a little more, and by the end I was crying with her. It was traumatizing. I had to leave the building for a little bit after she left because I just couldn't handle it.

The rest of the day went fairly well. We are looking forward to tomorrow.