SERVING THE POOR IN THE CLINICA MAXEÑA

Friends and Family,

I have been off the Blog lately.  Busy, and also I took a few days off, for rest and Relaxation.

The Clinica Maxeña continues to serve the most needy. Patients illnesses are more complex now and also more costly. The National Health system is in continual crisis.  Options for the POOR are few and one recent comment is REALITY; if you have money, YOU LIVE! if you don't YOU DIE!  Our Mission is:  " to make a difference"; we always choose LIFE.

We continue to reach out to other private institutions for HELP, whenever possible.  There are more BRIGADES of DOCTORS from the United States, offering their services, in private institutions. Our own Clinic has begun advertisement for our bi annual EYE SURGERIES, scheduled in October 2012 and March 2013.  These Doctors are from Montana and California.

One of our workers has also been bringing patients to two Catholic Hospitals, who offer general surgeries, for consult and dates for operations. These operations are at a cost of $100, which most of our patients can pay;  some however are paid by donations to our Clinic.  We also provide transportation, some diagnostic tests,  accompaniment, and follow up.  Surgeries include Gallbladder, Hysterectomies, Hernias, Plastic surgeries, Cleft Lip and Palate. These surgeries are presently scheduled in October too and the Hospitals are approximately two to three hours from the clinic. The Clinic is blessed to have two good vehicles for service of patients and errands.

Last week we brought an  EMERGENCY eye patient to a Guatemalan Institution that serves patients for EYE Disease and SURGERY.  This particular Institution, PRO CIEGOS of GUATEMALA, also accompanies our EYE DOCTORS, by providing a Guatemalan Ophtalmologic Medical Resident,  when surgery is performed in the CLINIC.  Unfortunately the GLAUCOMA was too advanced and Manuela is BLIND.  The Doctor was able to provide pain relief and medication.

WE NEED DONATIONS TO CONTINUE TO RESPOND TO THE POOR!

Please donate on line at:
http://catalog.diocesehelena.org/Guatemala-Mission-c10/  for our work with the most POOR.

THANK YOU!   SHEILA

Attached is a photo of Manuela, 47 year old Mayan Woman, blind from GLAUCOMA, as she rests in our clinic, on return from PRO CIEGOS, EYE CLINIC, in Guatemala.

TO LIVE FREE OF VIOLENCE: LOS DERECHOS DE LA MUJER!

Women in this society are often not respected as equals, even by their spouses. The situation is more critical for the disabled. More recently we seem to be encountering more women, who have been raped,  pregnant, and with little support system. 

A 22 year old woman, who has suffered from epilepsy since an infant, has been raped for the second time.  She has been rejected by her family and at times left to sleep in the corridor.  Her mom passed away about a year ago. She lives with her father, grandmother and some siblings, who are married.

The man who raped her we know as we had assisted his wife with treatment, when she suffered and died, about a year ago, with cancer.  Our Project, for needy patients, assists Reyna with her epileptic medications.  Reyna has presented her case to local authorities and to the "Organization of the Defense of the Woman",  who know her from the first RAPE.

She is receiving Pre Natal care in our clinic.  She is now six months pregnant.  Our Representative of Pastoral Health visited the family.  They agreed REYNA could stay in the kitchen and accompany her grandmother. The rest of the family lives in the adjacent Living area of their home.  At least she was not sleeping in the corridor.  She had asked us to provide her a bed since she was sleeping on a few boards on some blocks.  I agreed I could do this.  I decided I first wanted to visit the home to see her living situation.  Our representative of Pastoral Health accompanied me.

Her father came out to greet us and bring us to the living space they had provided for Reyna.
I was deeply disturbed to see the condition this young woman and her crippled grandmother were enduring.  They were in a Kitchen with a dirt floor, no door, no ventilation or lighting. Reyna´s living

was a corner of about four feet by five feet, no window,  a wooden separation from the rest of the kitchen area. Her bed was a few boards, on cement blocks, with a blanket. The rest of the small dirt floor space was cluttered by a gunny sack, I guess of her clothes. There was little space to walk in the cramped area.  Reyna was not at home at the time. The rest of the family stay inside their adjacent house that was adequate and had space for Reyna, I am sure.  Her grandmother was sitting on the dirt floor. We left in silence.  

We will provide Reyna with a bed but first I hope to first locate a more suitable home for her to live and have her baby.  We are aware her baby will be by Cesarean because of her epilepsy and other deformities. Reyna needs prayer, assistance, and accompaniment, which we hope to provide.

I include the Banner of the Organization for Defense of Indigenous Women.  This is a respectable, effective organization, which we will also consult for Reyna, so she will be accompanied in her Rights as a Woman. 

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.