Abbi's Post- My Day at the Burn Clinic

Yesterday was a great experience for me. I had asked my mom if I could ask Mrs. Brumley if it was okay to go to the clinic with her. My mom said if I got all my schooling done the day before I could ask. When I finished I went over and asked Mrs. Brumley if I could come help at the clinic, she said yes! I was very excited. The next day I got up early and got ready to go. My daddy had to go to devotions that morning so my mom drove the mule over and dropped my dad off with the other workers and then dropped me off. I followed Mrs. Brumley inside the clinic. The clinic is just along the fence and road so it’s easy access to the patients. We unlocked the doors and some people came in and sat on the wooden benches in the waiting room. There are two exam rooms, a couple adult soaking tubs, and a room that holds almost all the supplies. The extra supplies are in a big orange trailer down by the repair shops. We folded some cloths and washed a couple buckets then we went out to the benches to pray and sing songs to the Lord. They do that every morning. That day the helpers were Mrs. Brumley, Mary, Madam Franc, and me. Next we got out soapy buckets and had the patients soak in the water for a while. They all had different stories like the garbage fire blew up because of all the gasoline or they walked in the floor fire, or spilt hot water. Some were worse than others because they weren’t coming regularly. While they were soaking we checked two older women who were diabetic. We gave them some rice and peanut butter, but they were all out of small jars and had to give them jumbo. After the people soaked, we wrapped their burns, and massaged their wounds with cream. There was this one man who had got an infection from an armpit hair. The whole inside of his arm from his armpit to half way to the elbow was open. It looked painful. Then a two and a half little girl named Sophia came in. She is very badly burned and dehydrated. She comes every day.  She pulled a pot of boiling water on herself. She is burned from toes to stomach and some on face and arm. She is weak. She laid in a bucked soaking for a little longer than half an hour. Her mom held her head and poured water on her. She also gave her water to drink. I blew bobbles to distract her. When she was done we brought her in and scrapped off some bad skin and bandaged her up. She got two lollipops out of us. We also gave her something to use to make it more fun to drink water. Last we had a pregnant lady come. She is due very soon, October sixteenth. But the baby is healthy enough to come any day. We gave her a checkup and a bag full of things for her and the baby, like soap, diapers, wipes, blankets and a couple other necessities that they don’t have. This is her first baby and she is twenty-one. She is excited and thinks it’s a girl. After, I gave a sucker to the lady’s little sister. Then we cleaned up and me and Mrs. Brumley went to the trailer and got some more baby food for the clinic. They give formula and baby food to some people who are taking care of babies because their mothers died. We brought the food to the clinic and grabbed a couple of small peanut butter jars that a friend donated, then went home. Mrs. Brumley asked me what I thought and I said I thought it was very sad but was very happy to help everyone and found medicine is fun. She said I can come back Tuesday because on Mondays I have to help with the elderly feeding program. I hope to be able to help out regularly, but it’s all in what God has planned for me to do. Thanks for staying updated in our blog and please pray for those at the clinic, and who help there and especially for little Sophia and her family.  Yours, Abbi :D