Meeting the wonderful world of MMI

The first couple days... all of our hard work and preparation was being taken to the next stage.

In preparation for the mission, at our own homes around the US, Canada, and Peru, we had fundraisers, prayers, collection of medicines and supplies, medical reading, travel and Peru reading, gathering other needed supplies for exams, tests, etc, many emails going back and forth.

The first couple days of the mission, the Cuzco team made their arrivals and we got acquainted with one another and then we worked together to prepare for the two challenging weeks and hundreds of patients we were going to see...

This is Yelina!!! She is a dentist from Peru... Here she is helping with the major task of setting up all the supplies before the mission starts...

These are the bunkbeds we stayed in.

The room was very warm and the blankets, alpaca wool and all, kept us very cozy at night, despite the freezing temperatures at night in the mountains! We had to walk outside (VERY COLD AT NIGHT) to get to the bathroom which had limited hot water in only 3 showers for many women!
But we soon learned that our situation was a luxury compared to all of the patients situations we would be seeing in the next two weeks...

Here is Yenny, a Peruvian optometrist, and Alice, our multi-talented translator and helper
putting together patient education hand-outs we all printed out from home. Topics included:
-parasites (VERY COMMON)
-asthma
-allergies
-fever management
-arthritis and osteoporosis
-preventing and treating dehydration
We glued these handouts to the back of old used greeting cards that some of us had collected from family and friends...

Here is Danielle, an ICU nurse and travel nurse, who is preparing the supplies for triage and screening patients.
-Finding out what the patient needs!
-Vital signs
-Height
-Weight
-Checking Hemoglobins, urine dips, blood glucose etc..




Here we have Sharon, a trauma/ICU nurse and Julie, an ICU nurse and an acute care nurse practitioner student, as well as Amy, a labor and delivery nurse... Here they are preparing medications to put in packets with labels... such as tylenol, ibuprofen...

And of course our many water bottles ... it was very important to STAY HYDRATED in the high altitude of Cuzco..