MARIA COMPLETES SECOND CHEMOTHERAPY FOR BREAST CANCER

I have been in Guatemala for many years, yet this is the first time I have had the opportunity to be more aware and present for the care and treatment of a cancer patient. It is very important to me since I spent ten years in ONCOLOGY NURSING in the United States.

Maria is 44 years old and has Breast Cancer.  She has a large gaping wound in her breast that is draining. She has six children, including a 10 year old daughter, Manuela, who is blind and has hydrocephalus.  They are poor but do have more luxury than the majority of the most poor in the mountainous village,  about three miles from the Clinic. Maria is an only child and lives in a home provided by her parents. Her father owns coffee land. They have a small storefront in their home where Maria's husband, Manuel, sells pop, sugar, tortrix, and a few other items of interest to the local population. I am sure the daily profit is little over ten dollars a day. They do have television and a refrigerator and furniture in their home. Their children attend the local schools and are members of the small Catholic parish church.  Manuela, their blind daughter, does not attend school; despite her birth defect she is attentive and very devoted to her mom.  Their kitchen would have the typical dirt floor and wood fire on a raised stone stove. The family would gather about the fire many times in the day as part of their culture.

Yesterday Maria returned from her second treatment of Chemotherapy. She goes in on the bus and we retrieve her the next morning from the Cancer Institute.  Her treatment of chemotherapy costs about $500. each and she will have six followed by a mastectomy. I was surprised that the treatment is basically the chemotherapy and a few medicines prior in preparation. The family goes to the pharmacy with the list of medications, pays for them and transport the medication to the nurse in the chemotherapy unit. She was advised by the discharge nurse that, if she has fever, to buy tylenol. Her breast was not examined or treated. She was not advised of the probable side effects of nausea, vomiting, low blood counts, and infection and what to do if this should occur.

She returned to the clinic from the treatment and we washed her wound, provided her some pain medications and checked her blood counts and brought her home. We will now watch her closely for the side effects, as her white count will fall as they did after first chemotherapy, and she did have fever, chills and infection and receive antibiotics and vitamins and protein supplement from the Clinica Maxeña.

The clinic is diagnosing more CANCER now;  according to the paper today, cervical cancer is the most prevalent among women with this diagnosis.  Papanicolau exam is scheduled monthly and the cost is seven dollars in the Clinica Maxeña.  You can be part of the solution for making Cancer diagnosis and treatment more available for the poor by donating on line for Clinica Maxeña at:
http://catalog.diocesehelena.org/Guatemala-Mission-c10/

THANK YOU!

Photos of Maria and Manuel and three of their children, in front of their home. Manuela stands alone below; we hope to follow up on her Hydrocephalus and resulting blindness after her moms recovery.

Jewelry Making as Hobby and Earning some Money

A few young women from our Nutrition Program are single moms and other young patients are chronically ill and have no income and little education.  I have always loved to knit and have an interest in jewelry making.  The clinic has been able to raise extra income with selling of beaded jewelry. One former graduate of Asuncion, from a town on Lake Atitlan, a few hours from our Mission, is very talented in making of jewelry. She is now an auxilliar nurse and a young friend of mine. I invited her here this weekend to teach some young women this art of jewelry making and hopefully a means of income for these young women.  I also included a young woman from our parish who is active in Youth Ministry as a possible person to continue to teach jewelry making to others, to form maybe a club or association. Yesterday was the first class and Rebecca will continue today teaching making earrings and beaded rings. I provided the materials I had stored away from past projects and also snack, lunch, and space to work.

All the young women are under 18 years with the exception of a young insulin dependent diabetic; she is 20 years old.   Two of the young single moms are under 15 and part of our nutrition class.  Unfortunately they had their infants by Caesarean in the National Hospital. The infants are not given to their moms at birth and when they return home, without breast feeding instruction, and days without breast feeding, their milk has dried up.  I have talked to our Doctor EVER, who works one 18 hour shift a week in this hospital, to see how to change this practice. We do attempt our breast pump and a medicinal plant to produce the milk but usually to no avail.  It is too late for breast milk so they are part of nutrition project to provide some formula, prevent malnutrition and assist them in caring for their  infants.

Four of the five young women invited came and were very interested in our bead project and learned quickly.  They made one beaded ring and 2 beaded earrings.  They took them home and will now try to sell them. They were also given some materials to continue this project.  Transita, from Youth Pastoral is also very interested to continue the group.  The plan is that Transita will meet Wednesdays with the present group to continue with rings and earrings and in August Rebecca will return for another few days with new beaded projects. We will look for a few other young needy women to join our group.  I may also teach some knitting for infants to these women.  Today I took Transita and Rebecca for lunch and relaxation.  Nice weekend and hopeful future for a few young women in need.