Banana Bread Minus Bacon

So excited to see this 3 year old little boy walk for the FIRST time!

 

“I keep the Lord before me always. Because he is close by my side, I will not be hurt.” Psalm 16:8

Hello friends and followers,

Fixin A Stroller

Today we were all back to work in the clinic. The day started off with some amazing banana bread and delicious drinkable yogurt. After this nutritious meal, we had a short meeting and headed via bus through the busy streets of Arequipa. Wow! Talk about the craziness with all the drivers and the thousands of cars on tiny roads. It is amazing that we make it there every day as driving in this city requires amazing precision and skill. We don’t believe any laws exist for drivers in this country. After traveling to the clinic, patients began to roll in around 8 and the students were all split with different therapists ranging from pediatrics to wheelchair fitting. Our first patient of the day for Nate² was a young girl diagnosed with cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia (brain disorder with resultant loss of movement in legs and arms). It took over an hour to fit her for her wheelchair from the donated chairs that were available. After casters (small wheels in the front) were exchanged and seat heights and arm rest were adjusted she was happy with her new chair.

Courtney sewing up a thumb splint

 Later on in the day Nate F. examined a patient who complained of pain in her ankles, wrists, and knees with swelling in all of these joints. After evaluating and diagnosing her with rheumatoid arthritis she was given new shoes and wrist braces for her condition. To give an idea of how severe her swelling was, she developed a sore on one of her ankles from the inflamed ankle from her worn out slip-on shoes that were compressing her skin. After lacing up the Nike’s that were donated she had a smile on her face and finally said she felt great and could walk multiple miles each day to market and assist in taking care of her parents in need. The braces also helped her wrists and she left the clinic with tears of joy from the help she received. It is amazing feeling to see how much of an impact a small act of kindness can make on someone after they have been suffering for months. The day also proved to me that I have much more to learn and am excited to add the new techniques and treatments to my tool box used by the amazing PT’s here in Arequipa.

I (Nate B.) had lots of great patients all day and had many great experiences on my first day in the clinic.  I had one really cute baby that was 5 months old that had been born at 27 weeks and has been recently diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.  Our team worked for two hours making foot/ankle braces and braces for her hands to help facilitate normal positioning.  We also worked with a young boy who was also diagnosed with CP who came to the clinic to get a wheeled walker.  He was not excited to be there for the first hour and cried continuously until we finally got him outside and fitted with his new wheeled walker.  This was the first time he has ever walked without assistance and he walked about 100 ft with a big smile on his face.   One of the most memorable events of the day is when one of the mothers told us we were “angels sent here to help them”.  Every family we worked today was extremely grateful and left us with a big hug and kiss.  

And now Chris Brown is fixin’ to give you a personal story about a patient encounter he had today. Chow amigos and amigas.

Nate x2

Hey y’all! Great day at the clinic today woooo weeee! Anyways I wanted to get serious for a second here if I just may. Today I worked with Tejal treating patients, which was so decent, had a totes good time. One of the patients we treated really touched my heart, and made me think of how lucky we are to have people like this in our world. The patient we treated was an 80 year old woman who came in with her son to receive treatment for a stroke, which occurred 8 years ago. For those of you who do not know all that much about strokes and recovery time tables here’s some info. After suffering a stroke it is absolutely crucial to receive treatment in physical therapy immediately after the stroke occurs. The earlier a patient participates in PT the more likely they are to get back to their prior level of function. Our patient waited 20 days post stroke to assume PT, which was advised by the doctors associated with treating this patient. Obviously waiting three weeks she missed out on valuable time to allow the brain to make vital connections to resume its normal functioning (neuroplasticity). Her son was by her side the entire time throughout it all, he was so interested and wanting to know exactly what he could do from the time his mother had the stroke to today, even eight years later. Recovery following a stroke is normally limited after one year following this unfortunate event, but none of this information was given to this patient or her caregiver (her son). Sharing this info with him today was tough to do, but it had to be done one way or the other.

In evaluating our patient she was pretty well debilitated overall on the entire one side of her body. She had basically no ability to use her arm, having to move it with her other non involved arm. Her leg was a bit better in terms of being able to make a muscle contraction and being able to sense sensation, but the strength of her lower extremities as a whole was not enough to even support her enough to stand without complete assistance from her son. In assessing how her son picked her up from her rough shaped wheelchair, it was all him doing the work because she really was too weak to help. During our session we did as much as we could to provide strengthening exercises, pressure relief strategies, and tips to keep her son safe in transferring (moving) his mom. Even some of the most basic stuff we provided to her was new according to her son, which makes me wonder what the heck they’ve been doing in PT all along. The session took 2 hours and 30 minutes, which didn’t matter at all that it was an hour and a half too long based upon our one hour schedule because of how dedicated and determined her son was in helping his mother.

Praying for one of our patients

He would ask question after question, try the exercises himself, and encourage his mother all the while. Towards the end of the session this awesome fella told Sam (our translator) something that made me think of how lucky we are to have mothers and fathers that care, love, and would do anything in the world for their children. He said, “My mother has took care and loved me and my siblings, it’s my job to do the same for her in return.” This just got me on the spot, as I came close to tears during the entire session as she took her son’s, mine, and Tejal’s hands and gave them sweet little kisses with a beautiful smile that lit up the room. What we all can take from this is cherish the time you have with your parents, tell them that you love them, do little things that mean the world to them, spend time, laugh. We don’t know what life has in store for us and our loved ones in the future, but we can never give up on each other no matter how difficult or impossible the circumstances may be. Through sickness and health love one another, and be loved in return. Please keep this man and his mother in your prayers, the situation may seem dark and hopeless that she’ll one day be able to walk, but remember God made the lame to walk and the blind to see, never never give up, there is always hope.

In Him,

Christopher