FEBRUARY 22, 2008
So, sorry, I mixed up the days on the ejournal. It should be:
February 19: Day 5
February 20: Day 6
Okay, I’m recovering from my drug-induced coma from the beetle juice, betel nut, the Beatles or whatever it’s called. When I say it was a blur, it was. The only thing I’m hoping was that Bill was NOT was giving me mouth to mouth resuscitation. I’d rather die.
We finished up unfinished business. We returned to the AYDC because we couldn’t go to another prison. Okay by me! These kids and families deep rooted in the Akha culture. We had about 20 eye patients that we couldn’t do yesterday so they were scheduled today. That was a good move. We only worked a half a day since there were fewer patients today. The eye docs finished their patients, the dentists, the usual, the med docs same. One of the last eye patients was rushed up to the medical clinic because she had to see me for an evaluation. Dr. Chinn saw a lady with a pigmented lesion under the eyelid and an ulcerated lesion on the top. It was really black. It didn’t look to good. A skin cancer was a possibility. When I saw the patients, I turned red-faced. It was my patient from the day before. I had removed a lesion and used silver nitrate for cautery. When the light hits it, it turns black so there was some transfer to the lower lid. It looked like pretty shoddy surgery, but, come on people, look what I am working with! We finished up seeing the last patient. We won’t be back to this clinic for awhile, but I have the feeling that we will be back before you know it.
THERE’S NOTHING, NO, SOMETHING WE CAN DO
One child particularly broke my heart. The chief complaint was: patient not walking for four years! It was a four year-old boy carried in by his petite mother. “What can a plastic surgeon in a tiny village help this young boy?” I asked myself. Instinctively I steered the patient towards Dr. Patton who gave a thorough musculoskeletal exam. The boy was one of twin boys who were born premature at 7 months. The brother died 5 hours after birth. He developed cerebral palsy. Mentally he seemed somewhat normal but physically he was quite challenged. Obviously we could not cure him but we wanted him to be as healthy as he could be so to balance his diet we gave him vitamins. He didn’t need surgery or antispastic medication or really any other meds or any other treatment. We recommended physical therapy by mom to strengthen his weak side and perhaps later a brace could be made. “Is vitamins the only thing we can offer this poor individual imprisoned by his body for the rest of his life. Could we make his life sentence any more comfortable? What about mom’s life sentence of responsibility? Then as they were leaving the clinic, no doubt disappointed, a light bulb popped over my head. Wheel chair. We have a wheel chair ministry! Thanks to Bill Ho a team from FCBC, the College and Career Group, are coming back to Chiang Rai this summer to assemble and distribute over 550 wheel chairs. (Maybe Jennifer can go on THAT mission trip.) We can get him and his mother a wheel chair because it will be soon that she will be unable to carry him and then he won’t be ambulatory. Great! Sometimes it really is the thought that counts; you just need to take the time to think.
FOR EYES
There was this one student at the school that we went to. She had such terrible eye sight she had to sit at the front of the class. Dr. Tajiri’s system only could correct vision up to -6.00 diopter. They shook their heads that day to saying, “We’re sorry, we can’t help you.” We could SEE her disappointment. Dr. Chinn had an idea and thought that if they made a pair of glasses from their strongest lenses, it might at least help her by giving her some, if not, perfect correction. So one of the officials brought her back to the Golden Triangle Inn this evening and they fitted her to glasses and she was so pleased and was looking around appreciating her new found visions. Way to go docs.
EXTREME MAKEOVER
One of our interpreters is Auntica, or “A” as she is known among the villagers. She is young and has quite striking model quality features. I see a lot of pretty patients in my field of work that some men, but not me, may categorize them as “drop dead gorgeous, hot mama, and tight.” But out of respect to my wife and children I want to set an example and I don’t use those terms. Instead I use the phrase “she has nice features.” I think most would agree that she has nice features yet one very visible distraction. She has vitligo. I saw her last mission trip and vitiligo is difficult to treat, even in the States. She has brown patches of dark pigmented skin like tears of a clown with equally white skin. There’s a spot on her chin and around her lips. The hands and legs show more extensive vitiligo. Michael Jackson as this disease as is a well-known news anchor, Lee Thomas, of a Detroit news station. He recently came out of the closet with his condition and wrote a book, “Turning White.” Lee Thomas is Black. Imagine that.
So this trip I brought a mixture of make up with foundation and sticks of this color and that color and samples from my aesthetician and skin bronzer and body makeup to test on her. She was initially excited to try on the makeup. I am no makeup artist by any means but she allowed me to put it on her. I put the foundation and watched as the pigmentation disappeared. Then I applied a makeup with a natural color and blended the entire face. Her nice features became nicer. Her skin was more even and if you glanced at her you wouldn’t be distracted. It looked even better in photos and she was amazed at the difference. At first she didn’t know how to react. Do we make her skin fair or dark like her native villagers, which would have been more of a change for her. She did SEE the difference but I know it would take getting use to. She was embarrassed to see her friends at first because they would see something different which would bring MORE attention to her. I am sure she has the same issues as my plastic surgery patients. What will others think? Why did she do it? Vanity? Should I have gone darker? Will people recognize me? Rather than doing something to attract attention, she is doing something to lesson the attention. This is a major step for her and unfortunately, vitiligo often is progressive.
JUNGLE BOOK
We had time for some Rest and Relaxation. So we went to see the elephants again. We took a boat up north to the elephants. It was like going on the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland. The shallow water made the boat ride treacherous but the drivers negotiated the path well avoiding the bottom of the river. One of our boats we were in broke down in the middle of the ride. We waved at them as we passed by but don’t worry, we were going to get help AFTER the elephant ride. We saw another boat bailing out water to keep from sinking. He wasn’t about to abandon ship. We approached the petting zoo. These gargantuan beasts were tamed by banana or sugar cane and a little help chained at the ankle. Each had a “driver” that spoke to them in Thai. We passed on the 100 lb python that we could pose with. Some needed a lot of work on there tusks but the dentists were not up to the challenge. They just gave out tooth brushes. We had a nice stroll throughout the tourist-prepared street vendors doing a little window shopping. This time we went through alternative route through the river. These animals had no problem walking in the river although they did slow down as if they liked squishing the mud between the toes similar to those who had mud bathes before. As they defecated in the river, I was really happy that I chose not to drink the water. I was afraid of getting elephantiasis or something. Whoa, when they pee they could put out fires. My understanding is that a male Asian elephant have tusks, females don’t. Richard considered gluing tusks to the female Asian so there won’t be discrimination. Both the African elephants grow tusks. It is thought that if there is a male without a tusk, he might be gay. That’s a useful fact.
PRAISE THE LORD
Faith and Socorro have been saving for new church ministry. They built a church since the last visit. Several members of the FCBC) donated money to help support the church such as the Fungs (Foogey, Barbara, David) the Bill and Gail Ho, and Ben and Gerry Jues to name a few. To show their gratitude for assistance they made genuine Filipino dinner. Loompia,, thick won ton, pork chops, mango and sticky rice with coconut milk, chicken, sweet pineapple. That was quite a spread. The church was really big and modern. There were accommodations for sleep-over for out of town guests. It’s amazing what you can build from $135,000 US. Anyone want a retirement home in Thailand?
KEEP OUT!
Bill never gets his privacy or time to himself. He really spends a lot of time behind the scenes. I know people bug him from time to time (I have no clue who he or they may be) but he never shows his hostility. I worry about those people. Bill don’t get mad, he get’s even. Sometimes he’s needs time just to chill. I’m the keeper of the pharmacy bins at night. I saw him going through the pharmacy bin and I asked if he needed help. Oh, just trying to get something to help me sleep”, he says. “Find what you need?” “I think so,” he said sheepishly as he tried to hide some blue pill with the letter “V” on it. I said, “Okay, let me know if you need help.” “Sure.” Well later that night I needed to ask Bill something but he wouldn’t answer his cell phone. I went over to his room and there was quite a surprise. There was “Caution” tape criss-crossed across his door. There was this huge sign with flourescent orange letters saying “KEEP OUT!” On closer exam, there was another sign on it saying, “Please do not disturb.” He really wanted to get his point across. I thought there was some noise inside and was going to get security. Then it was quiet. So it must have been nothing. I am glad I didn’t get security; that would have been a boner. Bill is a good sport. We tease him because we love our team leader. Incidentally, after Bill took the KEEP OUT sign down, Gerry coyly walked over with a sashe strut and asked “Bill won’t be needing that will he?”
