Joey's Day at Octavian Way with Dr. Phyllis:

What a roller coaster ride my friends... Octavian Way is small establishment in San Ignacio that serves men and women over 65. It's the closest thing in the country to a retirement home, although I can't imagine many in Belize plan on retiring. Phyllis and I hitched a ride with the group heading to the Good Shepherd clinic on the other side of the city. It was another long, slow, bumpy and unsatisfying ride led by the infamous Dr. Villereale. Phyllis nagged him the entire ride. When Phyllis and I arrived at Octavian we were greeted by the head nurse who was from Sweden. She oversaw the administering of medications to the residents and directed the daily activities. Phyllis, with me shadowing, was given a small storage room where saw patients in. I was expecting to stay out of the way and watch Phyllis do her thing with the patients, but I quickly realized that I would be getting a real "hands on" lesson in using the stethascope (taking pulses, blood pressures), and looking for "bruies"...

Our first patient only spoke Spanish so I attempted to translate. The language barrier and the fact that the man was def nearly were too much. Phyllis managed to deduce that the man likely had an ulcer based on what he was trying to tell us in Spanish.

The next patient was a women in her 80's who had an amputated leg, and an injured second one. Hearing the woman's story was very difficult. She was bitten by a red ant, and the ensuing infection continued to spread and worsen until the only option for her was amputation of all of her leg. She was a beautiful women but had such a sad and disconnected look in her eyes. Seeing her cry when the nurse pulled a bandage off of her thigh was almost too much for me to watch.

The next patients had similar unfortunate stories.

The next most difficult part of the day included making a house call to visit Tracey a 17 yr old paraplegic. Phyllis was asked to see her by the head nurse. I heard her story on the way:

She broke up with her boyfriend about a year ago. In his anger he stabbed her 5 times in the back and then sliced her throat. After doing such an awful thing he felt bad and took her to a hospital where doctors saved her life. Unfortunately the spinal cord was damaged by one of the puncture wounds, rendering her unable to walk. It wasn't until recently that a second x ray confirmed that the cord had completely been severed. It was surreal sitting in her room with Phyllis and listening to her tell Tracey that she would most likely be in her wheel chair for her entire life. Belize isn't exactly handicap accesable... While we were there Tracey's mother shared with us that her sister was shot last week in the leg walking home from work in Belize City for no apparent reason.

This was all very gut wrenching to hear.

The final stop was at the home of a women who was the victim of a head on car crash in which she broke nearly every bone in her body...pelvis, femur, tibia, fibia, clavicle, and parts of her face and skull. She lost one two family members who were driving the car. She was in the back seat. She was flown to belize and litterally put back together. Unfortunately the steel rods in her legs were not placed correctly and cause her chronic and excruciating pain almost 2 years after the accident. Sue to her immobility and diabetes she has gained a ton of weight and is now suffering from hypertension and high blood pressure. Her only son is still working to pay the medical bills from the incident...

Tough day...