{"id":1077,"date":"2019-02-20T05:38:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T10:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/?p=1077"},"modified":"2019-02-20T05:38:01","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T10:38:01","slug":"bush-medical-dental-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/2019\/02\/20\/bush-medical-dental-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush Medical\/Dental Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had the great privilege of joining one of our doctors and\nthree members of our dental clinic team in one of our remote church planting\nlocations for a joint clinic. The missionary teams had invited us in and\nprepared a lengthy list of patients for both sides to see! Though there is a\nlocal hausik<\/em> (hospital) and dental\nclinic, neither are well set up and we were frequently told by our patients\nthat the hausik<\/em> treats pretty much\neverything with Amoxicillin and Panadol (Tylenol)! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the large guest house where we were staying, we set up\none side as the medical clinic. There was a massive table set up that made a\ngood exam table once a twin mattress was placed on it with plenty of room\naround it for our equipment and space to write our notes. A high bar chair made\na stand for the ultrasound machine and a dining room chair doubled as a seat\nfor patients but also the stepstool to get up on the exam table. Since most\npatients were not over 5ft 8in, this was a necessity! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other side of the living area the dental team set up\nthe dining table with their instruments and one plastic chair as the dental\nchair with a dining chair behind it providing one of them with a foot rest\nallowing the patients to use a cushion on their leg as a headrest while the\ndentist worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people waited to be seen down below in the meeting house\nand the missionary would call them up to the house when it was their turn. Word\nhad spread that we were coming and though many of the people belonging to other\nreligions had rejected the missionaries and their talk, they were eager to come\nand be seen by our doctors. It gives us another opportunity to speak the truth\nof Jesus into their lives! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the patients on both sides were complicated cases.\nThe dental team saw 50-60 patients in 3 days while our medical team saw about\n40 patients in the same 3 days. Something that was a bit unusual for us on this\ntrip was that almost all of the patients spoke Tok Pigin<\/em> (the trade language) very well. This made communication\nso much easier and we didn\u2019t need for a translator very often. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the medical side, we had many fascinating cases and did\nmany ultrasounds, examining everything from broken bones to masses to goiters\nto hernias. We also placed and read TB skin tests and collected blood samples\nfor lab testing, some of which we were able to do on site. I do not have time\nto tell of all of our adventures, but I will tell you about a few of our most\ninteresting medical cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WARNING! The next bit is a description of the medical\nfascinations we found! If this does not suit you, feel free to skip on to the\nnext story on my blog!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One young woman had fallen several months ago and broken her\nfemur. Though she had gone to the hausik <\/em>(hospital)\nand they had put the leg in traction for a time, the leg still healed with the\noverlapping segments of the femur fusing together. She was referred to another\nhausik and an orthopedic surgeon for repair surgery. The missionaries are\nhopeful that the surgery will be paid for and she will have restored use of her\nleg and decreased pain in her compensating healthy side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another poor young woman is pregnant with her 7th child. Two\nmasses were felt in her abdomen. It was assumed that the upper middle one was\nthe child she carried and the other smaller side one was an unknown mass. Unfortunately,\nwith ultrasound, it was determined that the larger visible mass is actually a\nclotted hemorrhagic cyst the size of a rugby ball that is actually displacing\nthe pregnancy. The baby is shoved over to the right side and there is not room\nfor her (most likely a girl!) to pass the cyst and enter the birth canal. She\nis being referred to a hausik<\/em> surgeon\nthat can help her give birth via c-section and remove the cyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet another young woman had a sizeable goiter on her thyroid\nbut more concerning, she had 6-7 swollen cervical lymph glands that may\nindicate cancer. The doctor was able to do a fine needle biopsy and had several\nsmears to send off for testing and evaluation by a lab in the U.S.A. We are\nawaiting the results. Since there is only one oncologist in the country (when\nhe’s here) it is unlikely that she will have treatment for her cancer unless\nsurgery can remove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A young man had been hit hard with a bush knife (machete)\nthat cut his arm deeply and fractured both his radius and his ulna! Though the\ncut had long since healed, neither bone had healed or approximated (met\ntogether) so both moved freely within his arm! So weird to feel and see! He\ncontinues to be splinted until he can see an orthopedic surgeon to plate the\nbones to repair the fracture. His sister is the one with the shortened leg so\nwe will try to get them seen at the same time by the same recommended surgeon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WARNING! PARTICULARLY GROSS!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another woman we saw was sweet Matrina. Right away, we noticed\nthe strange depressed configuration of her nose. One of her complaints was an\nextremely foul smell from her mouth and nose and worms coming out of her nose\nwhen she blew it (usually occurring twice a month!). This has been going on for\na long time. Using a scope, it appeared to be as we had feared–nasopharyngeal\ncancer. It had eaten away the septum (dividing cartilage in the nose) and some\nof the bone so that the light on the scope could be clearly seen through the\nskin as high as the eyebrow line! This collection of dead tissue from the\ncancer attracts flies which lay eggs in the dead tissue. The “worms”\nare the larval flies! This also accounted for the foul odor. We gave her some\nantibiotics to help with the probable infection and a bottle with which to\nirrigate her nose regularly to help flush out the dead tissue and prevent\nlarval flies from colonizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately for Matrina, no matter where in the world she\nlived, this cancer is inoperable. It has been slow growing for many years now\nand we are uncertain how long she has left due to this slow growth pattern.\nMatrina has been quite resistant to talking about Jesus in the past. Penny made\nit clear to her that now she is close to death and must skelim<\/em> (“scale” or weigh out) what she believes. The\nchoice is hers but she may not have long to make it. She nodded with tears in\nher eyes. Please be praying for Matrina. Though she appears much older, the\nelderly in this area are usually in their 50s when they die. We guess that she\nis also in her 50s. We were able to share with her 24 yr old son and some of\nher family what they may see as the tumor progresses and what to do for her. He\nnodded but as is often the case in PNG cultures, the truth is accepted and the\ntopic changed to easier subjects, like the tooth he needed cared for. Please be\npraying for Matrina’s family and for the missionaries as they talk with them\nand continue to walk this difficult road with them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also got to enjoy time with the missionary kids. So much\nfun to see them eager to learn and participating! They got to see and\nexperience ultrasounds with Dr. Bud and see teeth extractions with Dr. Sheena,\nblood draws and labs with me, and dental instructions with Wendy. They enjoyed\ngetting to wear gloves and a face mask and \u201cshooting\u201d each other with empty\nsyringes. And It was fun just to spend time with them! Many more adventures\nwere part of our short time in Menya but I don’t have time to record the half\nof them! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One last thing I will say is that due to the heavy rains we\nexperienced, our guest house was frequently without running water and the older\nboys did an amazing job of carrying buckets of clean water back and forth to\nthe house for us! With these heavy rains, 3 landslides appeared on the mountain\nopposite us on the river. One of them wiped out a house and some gardens.\nFloods and landslides are a significant issue in a country as mountainous as\nours! Fortunately, the other two narrow slides did not affect much!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much more to tell but so little time! Perhaps you\u2019ll just\nhave to come join us here to see it for yourself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the great privilege of joining one of our doctors and three members of our dental clinic team in one of our remote church planting locations for a joint clinic. The missionary teams had invited us in and prepared a lengthy list of patients for both sides to see! Though there is a local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/tobi-magill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}