{"id":39,"date":"2011-09-15T17:18:55","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T00:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arroya.org\/?p=39"},"modified":"2011-10-09T00:25:42","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T07:25:42","slug":"in-my-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/?p=39","title":{"rendered":"In My Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a slow day in the clinic.\u00a0 We’re making little packets of a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, and a\u00a0disposable razor for the migrants to use when they land here after days of grime and sweat in the desert.\u00a0 There is plenty of sweat right here in this little cell-block of a clinic.\u00a0 100 degrees, 70% humidity, huge cumulus clouds developing in the South, and the clickety click of a fan trying its best.\u00a0 I dream of rain and relief.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

our taxes at work<\/p><\/div>\n

Two guys walk in , each holding the other up.\u00a0 They have been shot.\u00a0 One fellow shows us his thigh.\u00a0 The bullet has passed through his leg.\u00a0 The fact that it didn’t hit his femoral artery is grace from above.\u00a0 The other guy still has a bullet in his butt—and he seems the stronger of the two!\u00a0 The leg-wound guy is septic;\u00a0 he is glassy-eyed, delirious, feverish, and a bit out of his head with pain.\u00a0 He was shot “eight days ago on a train in Sinaloa.”\u00a0 Bandits attempted to steal their stuff (what stuff??).\u00a0 The men are from Honduras, and are trying to get to Oregon.\u00a0 Apples, pears, peaches are the lure.<\/p>\n

You have seen the old Western movies where the guy bites down on a stick and the cranky surgeon operates, after taking a swig of whiskey?\u00a0 Well, the Mexican nurse and myself were thrust in this scenario with no pain meds, and no way to adequately clean this man’s infected wound.\u00a0 He had been without care for 8 days.\u00a0 He was seen in Sinaloa by a doctor, we’re told, but our patient was allergic to the antibiotic.\u00a0 So he went untreated for 8 days.\u00a0 His leg was red, and swollen to twice the size.\u00a0 My nurse colleague pours hydrogen peroxide in the wound, and we try and squeeze the infection out of the open puncture from the bullet.\u00a0 Our man screams with pain—my colleagues try and control him and hold him while we do our best to cleanse this wound.\u00a0 It is a horror show.\u00a0 We give him a t-shirt to bite on.<\/p>\n

I say—“He must get to a hospital or he won’t make it. ”\u00a0 My Mexican nurse colleague shrugs and sez, “He’ll be OK.\u00a0 And if not, ….”\u00a0 She has seen so much more than I have.\u00a0 Plus—we cannot get him into the Nogales hospital because he is from Honduras, and is not a Mexican national.\u00a0 Yikes.\u00a0 Sounds like some US hospitals.<\/p>\n

So my Samaritan friend, a retired pilot, suggests walking to a pharmacy and seeing if we can get an antibiotic and some strong pain meds.\u00a0 After all, it’s Mexico—don’t need a script for everything, right?\u00a0 So we walk in the blazing sun about a mile, find a pharmacy where the owner speaks a little English.\u00a0\u00a0 We pool our resources ($14), and he gives us a potent antibiotic and a strong narcotic for pain.\u00a0 Thankyougod.\u00a0 There are angels everywhere.\u00a0 We hurry back to the clinic, and the leg-wound guy is sitting on the curb waiting for us.\u00a0 He looks bad—yellow, in fact.\u00a0 A film is over his eyes.\u00a0 We explain how to take the pills—he smiles weakly, crosses himself, thanks us.\u00a0 His friend, the guy with the bullet in the butt, assures us he’ll take care of him.\u00a0 (and I wonder, what about you?? What about your butt?? )\u00a0 First things first.<\/p>\n

So all week I stew about the leg-wound man.\u00a0 I dream about his screams.\u00a0 I light candles in my house.\u00a0 Everytime I pass a candle I think about leg-wound man.\u00a0 Next week I find out that the guy is “doing better”—much better.\u00a0 Omigod.\u00a0 The miracle of drugs.\u00a0 And youth.\u00a0 We pitch in and buy these guys a bus ticket home.\u00a0 The butt-wound guy still has the bullet in his rear end, but seems OK.\u00a0 He’ll have it taken care of eventually.<\/p>\n

Remind me to stay off of trains in Sinaloa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a slow day in the clinic.\u00a0 We’re making little packets of a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, and a\u00a0disposable razor for the migrants to use when they land here after days of grime and sweat in the desert.\u00a0 There is plenty of sweat right here in this little cell-block of a clinic.\u00a0 100 degrees, 70% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}