FCO/HSM Belize Eye-Care Mission 2013

So this trip wasn’t exactly a triathlon, marathon, or cycling event, but I thought it was definitely blog-worthy. In a lot of ways it was almost identical to an athletic event………………..Waking up very early, monitoring hydration/electrolytes, and constantly eating cliff bars, haha. This trip was put together through a collaborative effort between the Fellowship of Christian Optometrists, His Servants Ministry (HSM), and Kentucky Optometrist Dr. Lee Peplinski and his wife Rayanne Peplinski. Having led the trip for the last few years, the Peplinski’s had a lot of knowledge and experience to share with us. The team included The Peplinskis, Dr. Jim Luckett and his wife Lois, and two 1^st year students and eight 2^nd years from our school. We were thankful to have much of our required supplies for the trip donated to us from various companies. These included all of the medical eye drops (steroids, antibiotics, allergy, tears, and glaucoma), plus readers, sun and safety glasses. The HSM organization did a lot of the work organizing and promoting the clinic sites well in advance. Each clinic site was located at the main church building within each village we went to.

Johnny, Emily, David sorting all of the sun and safety glasses

Kim & Erica sorting all of the drops that were donated

                                       

Within the villages we served, English and Spanish were mainly the languages spoken. At our 1^st clinic site in Maya Mopan, the patients spoke Mayan as well.

Throughout our week at clinic there was a trend in ocular findings within our patient population. This mainly included hyperopic astigmatism, pterygium, and nuclear sclerotic cataracts (all conditions associated with unprotected sun exposure). We also saw patients with diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma, averaging over 140 patients per day overall. The entire country of Belize has only 4 practicing Optometrists, so many of these underprivileged people do not have access to eye care despite the progression of various sight threatening diseases. Patients with advanced cataracts, pterygium, and diabetes were referred/scheduled to have surgery the following month when an Ophthalmologist would be available. 

Belize 2013!

                  Day 1: Assembly Church - Maya Mopan

Our first day……………..not sure what to expect, we listened to the advice of both Dr. P and David (came on last year’s trip) and dove right in. Upon arrival, we already had a fairly large group waiting for us. 

We figured out how to arrange the layout to accommodate each of our stations. Our stations included a check in/dispensary, visual acuity, refraction, and ocular health. Some patients didn’t need to visit each station, so we always had a team member triaging the waiting area in order to provide care more efficiently.

Our check in/out as well as dispensary where patients picked up
their glasses and any eye drops they needed.

Dr. Luckett managed to find some Kentucky fans,
all the way down in Belize!

Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscopy on a diabetic patient

Dr. Luckett holding down the refraction lane

Retinoscopes, lens racks, and trial frames oh my!

                                 

Quick slit lamp exam

Day 2: Nazarene Church – San Roman

Today went a lot smoother than last now that we had our rhythm down and a better understanding of teamwork & patient flow.

The Village of San Roman

Johnny & I hanging @ the dispensing station, a little slower pace
than our previous day @ ocular health

When the kids got out of school, we had a big group come to have their eyes looked at. Liz and Johnny making time to hang with a few of them...... 

Sunglasses separated by gender, artificial tears for all the dry eyes.

David taking a look in w/ the ophthalmoscope ".3 nerve, clear macula, good to go!"

Day 2's clinic was also about a 45 minute drive from where we were staying in Hopkins. Long, winding dirt roads, props to Dr. P for navigating less than ideal driving conditions!

Kim checking pressures

Dr. P doing a quick slit lamp exam

Day 2 down!

Day 3: Community Centers- Placencia and Seine Bright

(Team split @ 2 sites)

Today our team was divided in two, in order to serve @ 2 different clinic sites. Other than having to separate all of our limited equipment among the two groups, this day went very well.

"Team Marvelous"

Patients waiting for the next station........

Ok, what's the smallest number you can see w/ your right eye?

David checking visual acuity

Lots of massages were given on this trip, after spending long days in less-than ergonomic
positions giving eye exams..........

Yes, that's $12/gal for gas @ this particular marina in Belize ($6 U.S.)

Day 4: The Sentar – Independence

This day brought some of my most humbling clinic experiences. We dealt with several patients who had advanced Glaucoma (irreversible blindness), where all we could do was send them home w/ dozens of medical drops in hopes of preserving their last bit of sight for another few years. Had we seen them sooner, their slow loss of vision could have all been prevented. It was hard to tell these people their circumstances, especially because they were under the impression a simple pair of glasses was all they needed.

Upon arrival we had a nice crowd already lined up to greet us

Courtney taking case history

Johnny takin a closer look, getting far out into the periphery w/ the BIO. 

Emily taking pressures w/ the I-care Tonometer

Day 5: Pastor Herdie’s Church – Hopkins

This was our 5^th and final day, which we were all both happy and sad about. Seeing that we were staying in Hopkins, our commute time to clinic was all of 5 minutes, a good change from the 45min to an hour commute each day prior. One unfortunate case (interesting to us students) was a patient with Usher’s Syndrome (slow loss of peripheral vision accompanied w/ deafness). We also saw more severe glaucoma and diabetic patients as well.

Not your typical Optometrist's office : )

David double checking things w/ Dr. P 

Emily takin a look inside with her Oscope

Emily, Kim, Johnny, Erica, Kevin, Laura

Erica & her new friends

After our 5th and final day of clinic, looking forward to taking a breather!

Day 6 : Fun/Rest/Relax Day

So we ended up having the last day of our trip (Saturday) as an opportunity to explore Belize and partake in any fun activities we wanted. Some of the team went zip lining, some went rappelling down a 1000ft waterfall, and some of us just stayed at the beach and relaxed. 

David, Kim, Courtney, Johnny, and Dr. P, after their waterfall repelling adventure

After a week straight of 16 hour days, I opted to sit still on the beach and do absolutely nothing, haha. I wasn’t alone and joined a few others from our group doing the same. We also came across a few rare hamburger seabeans and which are “good luck” tokens washed in from sea, also used to make jewelry www.seabean.com . 

Sometimes the best activity to do is nothing at all : )

Later that afternoon, the ocean was very calm, almost glass-like, which made it hard to resist going for a swim (and trying out my new Garmin triathlon watch). I recruited Emily to be my kayak chaperone as I proposed a 1 mile ocean swim, parallel to shore (.5mi out, .5 back)

Map uploaded from watch, after the swim!

The 1^st half of the swim went great! I stopped to stretch and hit the Gatorade before heading back, all was well. Within just a few moments of swimming back out to meet my kayak leader, I felt a sudden, intense stinging sensation across my face, ear, and left arm. JELLYFISH!!! There was no second guessing if I was getting stung or not, this thing was as obvious (and invisible) as possible. Determined to finish, I continued to swim back, luckily avoiding any of his siblings. For the remainder of the night, I walked around looking like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer………..not cool!

Carla, thanks for cooking for us each night!

Overall, we had an amazing experience on this trip. Despite the relentless mosquitoes, sand fleas, scorpions and geckos, I feel like we all came back with new perspective. Several members of our team had asked me what I learned in the last week. Aside from the confidence boost in my clinical skills and judgment (and the fact that you can never carry enough cliff bars!), I walked away learning how to better appreciate life. 99% of the 700+ patients we saw, despite how poor or unhealthy, were always smiling and seemed so content, and happy.

The place we stayed @ was called "Jungle Jeanie's by the sea", here's our team w/ Jeanie herself, a former marathon runner. Also here is her husband John. Thanks for all the hospitality! And thanks Mrs. P for designing our awesome team shirts!

My front yard for a week.........

Another one of the beach huts our team stayed in

David, Johnny, and I on our 1st day there, Naive to all mosquitoes & sand fleas as we wear shorts. All proceeding days we wore pants and sweatshirts for protection..........

As a treat for our last night in Belize, the Peplinskis brought in some authentic Garifuna musicians to perform for
us

Dr. Luckett & Emily shopping with some of the locals selling their  jewelry and pottery
"Will you accept sunglasses & artificial tears over cash?"

We took a detour en route to one of our clinic sites and stopped to see what coconuts tasted like......

Care to try some coconut?

                                    

Sure! 

One just wasn't enough for Emily!

Back @ the airport on our way back, Kim coping w/ bug bites head to toe while
I embrace an extra large philly cheesesteak w/ fries

 I just wanted to thank both the Peplinskis and the Lucketts for all of their hard work in orchestrating a trip like this. Without them none of this would have been possible! Also a big thanks to all of the companies who donated supplies and/or money to support us!

Dr. Jamara, Tiffany Khong, Dr. Patel, Brian Nguyen and
VOSH, Heine, Keeler, Dr. Scott, Dr. Fisch, Barbara
McGinley, Camille Ruan, Dr. Farkash, Dr. Comerford,
Dr. Thorn, Dr. Potaznick, Dr. Contardo, Dr. Haney,
Hilary Mota (Absolutely Delicious), Matt & Kim©, Diana
Vivirito, Jungle Jeanie’s Hotel and Resort, Cindy Grant,
Kathy Kantor and Lombart Instruments, The Lions Club
and District 33K, Restoring Vision, Bausch & Lomb,
Alcon Laboratories, Allergan USA, Merck, The Home
Depot, The National Braille Press, Hilco/Wilson
Ophthalmic, Jennifer Daugherty/Thirty-One Gifts,
Chipotle, Starbucks, Zinga, Cafeteria on Newbury, our
classmates and fellow optometry students, the previous
teams and their leaders, the supporting friends, families,
and loved ones. Thank you for believing in this trip!