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Cholera

Patelma, the local town drunk,(I only write that because many of you know him) was found in his house this AM passed out laying in vomit and diar.  Lori trying to start an IV with Carole.

The lady on the cot covered with a white sheet stopped breathing last night when she entered. Lori got her going again.  She has literally filled two 5 gallon buckets with diar that is not counting her vomit.  She is on her 11th bag of IV fluids.

Some are coming in when they first get sick and we are giving them fluids to drink and watching them.  So many are scared.

I really do not know what to write today.  My emotions are all mixed up.  I am leaving Cazale for a few days with the kids and Enoch.  We had 17 people right in our front yard last night.  We are working to move them to the facility that was original set up for Cholera treatment.  Lori has not slept  yet.  The rest of us went to bed at 2am.  Today there are three of our nurses, Lori and another US nurse working.  Maybe (hoping and praying) this afternoon we will have a team of medical people coming in to help.  Someone is coming to test the water in the area.  From talking to those that came last night they are drinking treated water, but all took baths in the river.   I just went outside and someone was brushing their teeth in the river.  So some, even with all the education being given, are not getting it.  We do not want to get everyone excited and make this into something bigger than it is.  We just want to be prepared to help as many as we can.  I love Lori so much and we work so good together in these types of situation.  But…I have to think about my kids and what is best for my family right now.  It is so hard to leave for a few days.  We need your prayers right now.  I will try to have Casey or Mary update the blog as needed.  We are praying that things will calm down and there be no more cases.  But we also need to be prepared to take in more patients.  Especially as the larger facilities are getting full.  Reporting of Cholera under reported in many areas.  They are giving out list of places that are opened to receive patients.  Then some of these places are not opened.  The emergency numbers given are working now.  No results from the lab yet,  we have called multiple times but have not been able to get results.  They have told us several times that they will email us with form and info but have not yet done this.

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