Mail arrived today and what a treat it was. Brochures on breast cancer arrived (Thank you Kari), a huge box of puppy food and treats (Thank you Mrs. G), and treats for me (Thank you Richard and Lora). I made out like a bandit. :) We are all happy.
I still suspect customs did not release my 3000 brochures on betel nut. I ordered them in October and they were shipped (Thank you Fenny). But the betel nut survey is going strong and I have entered almost three hundred surveys into the database. More will be coming as there is now a Grand Prize of $100 to the person who submits the most. They must have a minimum of 50 to be elible for the Grand prize. One person has already turned in 67, good for her. Even our Chief Julie is surveying people.
On Monday we are meeting with the Chief of Nursing, she is in charge of the outpatient clinic and the hospital ward. She is in favor of restricting bettle nut usage in the staff, so maybe we can make at least OPD betel nut free for everyone and the ward betel nut free for the staff. This is an addiction worse than cigarette smoking and justified as cultural, but we are chipping at that excuse and finding out that there are limits to the culture of using betel nut. Chinks in the armour.
We had a really good meeting on 12.31 with staff whom Julie has told they must do a minimum of 50 surveys. I talked about being accustomed to betel nut in usage other cultures (Bangladesh and India) but that it was confined to the village and the homes - no one chewed in public like they do here. They chew everywhere and all of the time. I also talked about becoming aware that it may be a problem when I saw Mino's waste basket (he works in PH) with a sign that said no spitting in his basket. So we will let Mino take the credit or the blame, however one chooses to look at the current developments.
There is a chance that National paid our airfare and we will be going to Ulithi and Fais next Friday, but we will miss the Department of Health holiday party. Apparently it is a very nice event. But with the new brochures in hand, I can do a nice distribution in the outer islands.
The island is still in holiday mode.. Very few patients are in the OPD. Just wait until Monday - I suspect it will be packed.
While everyone knows I am a "people" doctor, I am now getting a lot of questions about how to take care of their dogs. They see how Shorty responds when he sees me and I think they want their dogs to do the same for them. (Daniel has been really taking good care of Shorty - now giving him three square meals a day. But I do miss my Chocolate who is lost again.) So I explain that some treats are to build strong and clean teeth, and yes, it is OK to give your dog a bath with shampoo or dish washing liquid. They also see Shorty "sit" and get a treat - few people train their dogs - at least until now. Maybe we we can work on "paw" next. He does not like "stay" as he wants to follow me home and I don't want him on the road. So I only give him treats by the hospital and not the road to reinforce he should "stay". There are two dogs that I have trained to sit and people stop to watch the dogs respond to commands.
If anyone has a friendly vet that would like to volunteer here for a couple of weeks, I would work on making that possible. We need a lot of dogs neutered - that could be another PH initiative. Just have them contact me to begin discussions.
Here is a picture of our betel nut brochure that is still at-large.
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