Being with Dr. Don today was a new experience for me. Last time I traveled to Nicaragua my Spanish wasn't good enough to be a translator. The most memorable patient I saw today was a one-month-old baby who had scabies all over her body.
Scabies is when a parasite gets under your skin and leaves trails of poop that cause an allergic reaction on your skin. The scabs that form from this allergic reaction itch like nothing else and the itching worsens the scabs and is how scabies is passed on to others. This one-month-old baby was covered in scabies scabs and you can just tell how much she itched and how uncomfortable she was.
Fortunately, Dr. Don was able to provide her with the medicine to kill the parasite and to relieve the itching. Seeing this baby brought so many things to my mind that I take for granted in the United States. We were lucky to have the medicine the baby needed at the clinic but that is not always the case. In the U.S., the medicine would be so much more readily available.
Also, this women was lucky enough to be able to either afford the visit or had a voucher to be seen and could bring this baby to the clinic. What if she hadn't been able to do that? What would I have done if I were in this mother's situation and this little girl was mine? It's overwhelming for me to think about all the what-ifs and all the other Nicaraguans who are not as lucky to be near to the clinic in Nueva Vida.
I had forgotten a little bit from the last time I traveled down how hard some of the things we see are to process but I was definitely reminded of that today working in the health clinic.
