First Week at the Clinic Completed

It is hard to believe that the first week at the clinic is over.  It feels like we just walked off the plane at the Arequipa airport yesterday.  During the past week, I had the privilege to treat patients of varying aliments from low back pain to cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus.  It has been very moving treating patients that do not have the same access to health and medical equipment we have back in the states.  The gratitude and value that they put into something as small as a home exercise program to a wheeled walker amazes me.  I found that it is very easy to take for granted the ease of access to state of the art equipment we have back home but this trip has given me a new outlook on the importance of paying it forward.  It maybe something as small as a single point cane in the corner of the basement that could be the difference in someones life to allow them the ability to leave their home. 

Me with my geri friends

I have had many moving experiences with patients and their stories over the last week.  The two that really stick out to me are about an older women and a 14 year old girl.  The older women was diagnosed with CP when she was younger.  She came to us because her wheelchair she currently uses is rented and she needs to return the chair at the end of the month.  To get to the clinic that day she had to go to a police officer to stop the bus in order to get on it.  She folded her wheelchair up and climbed onto the bus, she never explained to me how she got off the bus but I am sure that it was challenging.  The strength that I saw in her eyes during the session led me to make sure that I do whatever I can to get her a chair within the next month. 
The 14 year old girl was diagnosed with brain cancer and a few months ago had surgery for hydrocephalus.  Before the surgery she was unable to walk.  Now she walked, with moderate help from her mom, into the clinic that day.  She was full of smiles the entire session and by the end, after she was fitted with SMOs and a walker, she was walking independently. 

After the passing of each day, I look back and realize that it is not about the newest or the most expensive treatments.  It is about the quality of care and most of the time it is about the little things in life. 

Just  a few other tid bits about my week: 

-I evaluated and treated my first ever pediatrics patients.  I felt like a deer in headlights the entire time but managed to get through it and now have a great appreciation for pediatric therapists. 

- I am becoming very efficient at treating low back pain because 6 out of the 12 patients I have evaluated complained of gross LBP. 

All three of us made it through the first week without getting sick, continue praying for us.  This weekend we have the opportunity to travel to Colca Canyon.  Colca Canyon is deeper then the grand canyon back in the states and it also is full of condors, google it. 

We hope to return with lots of fun stories about our weekend on Sunday.  God bless and continue praying for safety of the team members and patients and the equipment because it still has not arrived.