"Oh, by the way................."

During the last five years, here in Guatemala, I have enjoyed sharing my, "Oh by the way............." stories.  Today, I have another one for you.

Josue and I carefully made our way to Chicua this morning.  We continue to have the clinic in the home of Alicia, right on the highway.  It was a very cool morning and as we got closer to Chicua, we  had less sun and more wind.

No one was waiting for us as we arrived.  We set up clinic and waited until we had a few patients.

One lady, was walking with crutches, and was having a difficult time.  I did her consult upstairs, so she would not have to maneuver down the steep steps.

The patient after her, came to clinic due to having a history of high blood pressure and gastritis.  About two years ago, she went to the hospital in Solola because of nose bleeds.  They told her that she had high blood pressure, so from time-to-time she buys a pill and takes it.  We are not sure what medicine it is and she is not sure the last time she took one. We chatted for quite a while on how she needs to better care for her blood pressure.

Then we talked about her stomach problems.

I always end the consult asking a few times if there is anymore........or anything else.......that the patient would like to talk about.  As we were getting ready to conclude.......the patient says, "Oh, by the way.............a year ago, I fell in the highway and hurt my leg."  I asked her if I could look at her leg.  She then lefts her skirt to reveal this knee.........

I just took a nice, deep breath and continued to ask questions.  I could tell that Alicia knew nothing about this.  The patient then tells us that she had gone to a hospital after it happened and they told her that they would not do surgery, due to her high blood pressure.  They told her that they would not let her die in their hospital.

I will see if there is anything that we can do to help her.