Tag: kwashiorkor

Measuring Malnutrition

“How sweet!  She looks so healthy with her chubby cheeks!”

Sometimes malnutrition is easy to spot– a three month old clocking in at only 3 pounds, her ribs prominent, her crying only consoled by a bottle of milk that she quickly consumes.

But in other cases, malnutrition can be very difficult to detect to the untrained eye.  Clothed and standing on a scale, a child can sometimes meet all the criteria to be deemed ‘healthy’, but through skillful assessment and observation, you can gain a more accurate picture of what is going on ‘beneath the surface.’  This type of malnutrition is silent and insidious and is claiming the lives of many children here in remote Guatemala.  Hope of Life is fighting daily to reverse the statistics.

So, heads up… NERD ALERT.  This purpose of this blog post is to give a little bit of medical perspective to what we see and treat daily here in Guatemala.  Today, I am only focusing on the two types of acute malnutrition we treat most often here in rural Guatemala– Marasmus and Kwashiorkor.

 

Continue reading Measuring Malnutrition

My Lucky Pizza Socks

In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35

I got out of bed and fumbled around in the darkness to get dressed for the day. I grabbed Bryan’s sweatshirt since mine was somewhere buried beneath two weeks of scrubs in my clothes hamper. Reaching into my drawer, I grabbed a pair of socks from the pile. As I sat down to put my socks on, I couldn’t contain my happiness. “My lucky pizza socks!” I thought to myself. These weren’t any ordinary socks, they were MY pizza socks that I once won $300 while wearing them. I happily wiggled my feet into the socks more than certain that it was going to be a good day. Continue reading My Lucky Pizza Socks

Be there.

Wherever you are, be all there. -Jim Elliot

As I sit here, I’m so torn about what to write about…  In one way, it feels like everything is exactly the same as we continue to press on and work hard.  On the other hand, so many new things have happened since I last wrote.  Sometimes, though, it is hard to put words to the moments spent giving therapy to severely disabled kids with your favorite short term group from California.  It is hard to describe the light in a child’s eyes after receiving several weeks of nutrition.  It is hard to describe the gratitude I have toward all the doctors, nurses, and administration I get to work beside in our hospital.  While so much of what we do feels like “you just had to be there” type of moments, I hope so much that this gives you just a small glimpse into our every day.

Lately, it’s been a mix of mountaintops and valleys here.  I am always so encouraged and filled with hope when our patients finally start to look and feel better… you wouldn’t believe the amount of love and care that is poured into them here from all the hospital staff.  However, this month we have lost a few babies and one teenage girl that I had become very connected with.  I’ve become better about dealing with the emotional trauma that I experience sometimes daily here, but I guess it’s something that you never just ‘get used to.’  Rather, you learn to process it in a healthy way and disconnect for a little while when it’s necessary.  We did just that this past weekend and headed to a Guatemalan beach on the border of Belize to celebrate our 6 year anniversary and catch up on much needed sleep!

One of my recent highlights this month, has been watching the transformation of Doris.  I will share her story below, but I want to warn you that her ‘before’ pictures are hard to look at.

Today, Doris is a happy and (almost) completely healthy 16 year old who was recently brought in on the verge of death.

Continue reading Be there.