I also returned to the clinic this morning for the first time in many weeks. We have had two 4th year nursing students here from the States and so I was replaced in my job at the clinic by them. This left me free to take care of Shoppers' Day, but it was great to be back working with Allan and Ling and seeing patients. We saw lots of kids this morning and they are always my favorites. There was one 3 or 4 year old boy who came with his baby sister. He really wanted to be the patient though. He wanted me to check all of his vital signs and everytime I went out to the waiting room to call a patient he said "Hey, ako, ako", which means me, me. He also kept wanting to pat me on the back. He was so cute and had a great big smile, but as you can see, when I tried to take his picture he refused to smile. (pardon the blurriness, but I was having camera problems this morning)
As cute as that little boy is, he isn't the one that stole my heart this morning though. Jomar is a 9 year old boy who began coming to the clinic in July for epilepsy. I could tell when he climbed on the scale this morning that something wasn't right with his mannerisms and his eyes. As I took his vital signs, I began to wonder if he was mentally retarded. Some of the things he did reminded me so much of my cousin Jenny who is MR. He seemed a little shy at first, but he soon warmed up. When Allan shined the light into his eyes he got so tickled that he giggled through out the rest of the exam. As Allan went to fill his meds, Jomar and I began making goofy eyes at each other. After a few minutes, he began saying "Rain, Rain go away, sa (tagalog word) another day" in perfect English over and over. He was such a delight. What his dad then told Ling and I, broke my heart. Jomar had been perfectly normal until he was 7 years old. He was a bright boy and in school, but one day he hit his head and he has been having seizures ever since. His seizures became so frequent that his parents began schooling him at home. He is now very developmentally delayed. For the last 2 months, he has been on some medicine that was part of the donation from that US hospital that closed. His seizures have dropped from 1 or more a day to only 1 a week.
I really wanted to take a good picture of him this morning, but my camera still wouldn't cooperate. He gave some great poses, but unfortunately they were blurry. So this is the best shot I have of him and his dad. We see so many single mother families here, that it is great to see a dad care so much for his son. Would you join us in praying for Jomar and his family? We only have about 7 weeks worth of seizure meds left for him and are hoping the med is available here for us to purchase more.Allan's two cents: For the past few months the clinic has been well stocked with just about any medicine a primary care doctor could ask for. This abundance was due to the closure of a hospital in the U.S. and the medicines that were given from its stock. These are top-of-line type drugs that I was trained to use during residency in the States. It has been good to be able to provide some of the best medications (that I am familiar with) for certain problems. However, we are now starting to deplete some of the most heavily needed medications, such as those for chronic lung problems, which requires us to switch to second-line or even "distinctly alternative" choices. Please pray for us as I am learning and adapting to using medicines that may not even be available in the U.S.
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