Like pulling teeth

Sometimes working in the village is like pulling teeth.  This past week it literally was pulling teeth.  Healing Faith and the people of the Wakisi Village were blessed beyond measure by a medical team that visited from the States.  On that team was a dentist and two assistants, who donated their time, efforts, and supplies to provide teeth extractions for those suffering in the village.  I was amazed at the operation!  There we were in a mud building with a dirt floor with a full on dental clinic set up.  They were able to provide numbing medication, extract the bad teeth and provide pain medication and antibiotics for after care.  What an amazing blessing!

The team was also equipped with multiple nurses who stood beside Healing Faith and worked on the large group suffering with malaria like symptoms.  With rainy season in full affect we saw many people with signs of malaria.  We identified 8 cases of malaria and were able to get them started on the proper treatment regimen. I am usually in the middle of things and never really get to see and observe what is going on.  On this day I was able to do a quick rundown of testing for malaria and the nurses took over.  I was able to stand back and watch the full scale of what God has orchestrated in the village of Wakisi.  As I stood back and watched I saw a team of three literally pulling teeth in one area and another group testing and treating malaria.  It was awesome to watch and a blessing to be a part of. 

One of the villagers brought her grandson to us who had a large abscess on his leg.  It was about the size of a baseball.  It was hard on the edges, soft in the middle and really hot.  We made the decision that it needed to be drained.  I was able to needle aspirate some of the infection but we could tell it needed more.  I will spare you the gory details (although I love them, I know some people don’t want to hear about them)  We were able to make an incision and drain the infection inside.  With the medical team there we were able to get him started on a two week course of antibiotics and pain medication.  We were able to follow up with him today, while it looked so much better, there was still infection that needed to be drained.  We drained more and this time it required two sutures to close.  We will follow up with him later this week to make sure he is still making positive progress and remove his sutures.

It was an amazing blessing to be a part of what was going on in Wakisi for these two days! Thank you to the medical team that spent two days with Healing Faith working in Wakisi