Tuesday, April 18: First day of patients

Tuesday was supposed to start with clinic set up before patients started arriving, which didn't go exactly as planned. We ended up seeing patients throughout the day and set up in between seeing people. We had 7 prosthetic patients and 1 eye patient on Tuesday. Several people called that they were at the turn off from the paved road, so Protashow went to pick them up. He was busy with transporting people and translating for us. 

John setting up his room.

Chris setting up the work area.

Many of the people who came to the clinic on Tuesday were there for glasses. We take donated prescription glasses and readers with us each trip. This started because many of the people who come to see John just have vision problems and are not missing an eye. We don't do eye exams but just let people try on glasses until they find a pair that they feel helps. 

Killion being casted for a new prosthesis. I saw him my first trip in 2014. His amputation was due to a car accident.

Chris casting Joel for a new prosthesis. He is the man who we made a prosthesis for in 2014, and he didn't come back for fitting. We ended up fitting him with the leg in 2015, and we saw him last year for follow up. His prosthesis is just not fitting well now, so he needed a new one.

Luyando came with her mother. She is 14 yrs old now and nearly as tall as me. We made her a new socket this past September that is still fitting, so she got a new knee, foot, liner and pair of shoes. I love that she smiles now and seems less timid around us. 

Chris casting Luxon for a new prosthesis. Luxon came with his dad to see us. He needs a new prosthesis each time since he's a kid and is growing.

A patient of John's who came for follow up. Her eye is fitting well, so John just needed to polish it.

So beautiful!

Here's Rick working on the door to our bathroom. We were waiting on the water to be turned on to the bathroom and a door before we could use it.

John's patient brought him potatoes as a thank you gift. I'm always amazed when people bring gifts as a thank you. They may not have much but they give so freely out of gratitude. We also got some pumpkins from a patient and a watermelon from someone else. 

We also saw Osia and Hachoompwe for casting for new prostheses on Tuesday. They are both patients we've been seeing each year. And a man named Dennis with weakness in his legs came. He really needed AFOs (ankle-foot braces) but we don't have the ability to make plastic ones without an oven. That was a hard conversation. We did put new tips on his crutches though.

We got started right away on pouring casts with plaster and modifying. Wednesday and Thursday would bring more patients, so we wanted to get as much accomplished as possible on the 5 we casted on Tuesday. 

*Next post: Wednesday, April 19: Patients from Macha