Day 38, Seize the day…

It is getting hot, again.

Luckily, we have fans. At night, I just pop the fan on and point it right at us. The sweat evaporates, cools us off, and we sleep. Another benefit is that it keeps the bugs off.

Yep, sure love that ‘lectricity. I’ve often thought of some of the folks living up in the mountains around us, who go without it. Dealing with the heat, the bugs the dark, (and no Netflix…) I mostly take it for granted.

Mostly, but not entirely, because, about 1-2 times a week our power goes out. Sometimes it’s a planned outage, but often it’s a surprise. For the most part, it’s just an annoyance, not life-altering. At the hospital we have a generator that automatically pops on if the power goes out. (it takes about 10 seconds to initiate, which is sometimes a little awkward in the middle of a surgery or procedure…). In most of our homes, we have backup generators that we can use, for extended outages (hit us with your best shot, zombie apocolypse…). We can certainly deal with our minor electricity problems.

14 year old Milhouse (not his real name), also has an electricity problem. He has unwanted electricity. He gets electrical surges in his brain. Known as ‘convulsiones’ here in Honduras, the condition of chronic seizures are also called Epilepsy.

There is an art to treating Epileptic seizures, and it’s certainly not an exact science. Many challenges exist to treating this disease. Medication options and availability are sometimes limited. Compliance with the regimens are difficult, and a lot of social situations create barriers. There are stigmas associated with the diagnosis, as well, here.

For Milhouse, this diagnosis is a life changer. It affects almost everything that might be important to him in his life. Living in the jungle, there are not a lot of job opportunities waiting for him. He can work in agriculture, generally wielding sharp tools and sometimes having to climb up in trees. He can work in the sea, fishing and netting, sometimes diving. Or he can commute somewhere else, traveling along the dusty dirt road on a motorcycle, most likely. If one has an uncontrolled seizure disorder, most of these opportunities could literally be life-threatening.

Imagine having a seizure while driving on a dirt road on a motorcycle. That’s exactly what happened to 22 year old Nelson (not his real name). He subsequently fell off and broke his arm, which was actually pretty fortunate. It could have been much worse.

When I last saw Milhouse, he was struggling with control of his seizures. It wasn’t because the medicine didn’t work. It wasn’t because he was not willing to take the medicine. It was because his mom just didn’t make it a priority for him to receive his medicine. She sometimes bought it, but sometimes didn’t . Or she would go to the Honduran department of health clinic, and they would just give him whatever medicine they happened to have on hand. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t an efficacious regimen.

At any rate, I felt bad telling him he shouldn’t operate a Moto, or machinery, or even go swimming with his friends without extremely close supervision. He seemed very defeated. I’m hoping to get their cooperation with his regimen, and if we can get a year of seizure free life under his belt, his options will unfold.

Photo of the Day:

Sorry, Nurse Liz. I can no longer protect you. Your kleptomaniacism has to be exposed. The items that you have been stealing from the hospital are just too valuable to allow your pilfering. All the lies have to stop. Just admit your problem, and we can make it all better. There’s help to be had…