First week- the last three days

The next three days were very busy with seeing patients. We see on average of about 70 patients a day. The “student” docs get better each day. Some are doing Prolo for the first time; others have same experience. The cases vary in the degree of difficulty.. In the more difficult cases, either one of the directors (Dr B or myself) would take the case and let the others watch. Or we would be in the room with the others to give them hands on directions. We also have a dentist in our clinic. Mainly what they do is pull teeth as there is no x-rays and after care. It is a hectic day as I am being pulled in many directions by the other docs to help them with cases. It is very rewarding as they improve their techniques as the week goes on. Every day at noon we give them a lecture so there are plenty of new questions all the time. We see just about every joint in the body and necks and backs too. Knees are without a doubt the most seen with low backs and shoulder being the next most commonly seen areas.

But there is not a joint of the body that we do not see. If there is an interesting case, then we gather most of the docs inot that room and show them hwo we do it. All in all the docs are very attentive and ahrd workers. There is an air conditioner here but it works only so-so. There are a few overhead fans, but with the 95+ temps outside, it is always a little warm inside.

On Friday all we had was a lecture in the am and then headed back to LA Ceiba (our base city) to catch a flight with the others to Roatan. Roatan is a small island off the coast of Honduras that is basically a resort island. Originally part of British Honduras, the primary language there is English (Caribbean style, that is).

More from the Island.

Peter A. Fields, MD, DC
“The Athletic Doc" and Ironman Triathlete

Day four- first day in clinic

After a 7am breakfast, we walked the half mile down to the clinic. There were over 80 people waiting for us there when we got there at 8am. Dr Ben (the co-director with myself) and I set up the working schedule. We put one new doc with one experienced doc. We each took two new docs plus would rotate around the other treatment rooms.

The am went fast. We have translators with us too. These are kids between 12 and 17 that go to the bilingual school in town. There they get an excellent education. We also have several docs form the US that are fairly fluent in Spanish. And we even have one doc that is from Puerto Rico, so he is our go to guy. At noon, lunch was brought to us by Erika, the woman whose restaurant we go to for dinner. After that it was lecture time. I gave the lecture today showing the injections for the knee. Each day at lunch we will present a different joint. Dr Ben and I will do most of the lectures but sometimes will ask one of the more experienced docs to do one too.

We closed the clinic at about 5pm. The day went well and we saw over 40 patients. Tom’w’ we should significantly more patient’s tom'w since Dr Jose was on local TV. He was interview for over an hour on live TV with call in questions. Towards the end of the hour several women called in asking if he was single or if they could have his phone number. This we kidded him about for the rest of the week.

All in all we have a great group of docs here.

That’s all for now.

Peter A. Fields, MD, DC
The Athletic Doc and Ironman Triathlete

PS

After closing we were taken by one of the translators to a local gym. Basically a one from gym but in this rural third world town, it was a blessing. Several bikes, one elliptical machine, one treadmill. Also a few (as in very) free weights and two machines. And it is housed in a one room concrete building hot!). But it will work for know.

3rd day in Honduras

local transport

Dr F & Dr Patterson- head of the HHF

Sunday I was finally able to gt to work out. It was an off day, so I went for a for a five mile run. Then I met up with a few other docs you wanted to go for a walk so they accompanied me to the waterfront and I went for a 25 minute swim in the ocean. Then it was a casual walk back through town, see the city and stopping at the local street market to get some mangoes. At 11:30 our bus to Olanchito (the clinic town) left with a third of the docs- the other two thirds are split between two other clinics. It was a three hour ride to Olanchito, which sits in a valley surrounded by small mountains. Once there, we set up the clinic. It is house in a building that is used for general functions (weddings, parties, town meetings and the annual livestock show- the animals are outside though!).

We leave support bars (actually piping) which must be laid out on the floor and put together and the lifted up and put into place as a framework. Along with these bars, we lave many other supplies here plus we have and lots more shipped down each year too. Then sheets are hung to give the individual rooms some privacy. All the tables and supplies must then be put into each cubicle. All in all it take a few hours and by then we all tired an sweaty. It was back to check into the hotel and shower before we went off to dinner. Dinner, and the lunches that are delivered to us at the clinic, are provided by Erika. She is the owner of a local café that serves excellent homemade food. She has been serving us for many years and her food is delicious. Then it was back to the hotel. Tom’w we start seeing patients!

Peter A. Fields, MD, DC
“The Athletic Doc" and Ironman Triathlete

2nd day in Honduras

Sorry for the delay of this post. The internet was down here for almost three days. I will not post more on a day to day basis if the internet works.

I arrived in San Pedro Sula on Friday March 2, 2012.. This is the 2^nd largest city in Honduras. There I met Mary and Dr Jeff, the head of the Hackett-Hemwall Foundation and over 100 of the other docs. From there it is a 3 hour drive to LA Ceiba, which is not only the city of one of the clinic, but our base city. After everyone got settled in to the Hotel Paris, there was time to meet and catch up with many of my colleagues who I know from coming here to Honduras (this is my sixth trip). I have two good friend sthat are docs in Italy, one of them I ahd not seen for over 5 years. And mnay from throught the US. It was good to see everyone. Then we had dinner at the hotel - around the pool- dr and since most of us were tired form the travels and we all went to bed afterwards. Breakfast was at 7am and the 8am the lecture day on Prolotherapy began at 8am. After a half an hour introduction from Dr Jeffrey Patterson ( the head of the foundation), the lectures began. I was the first lecturer (yes I completed my lecture last night after dinner). It was on the knee and it was well received by everyone. Half the docs ehre are new to Prolotherapy and the rest have some or lots of experience doing it. The rest of the day there lectures from different docs on many of the joints in the body. There will be morelectures during the week- half an hour of lecture and half an hour on marking and ijections shown on a live subject ( one of us0) There are about 35 new doctors here and the rest (otal 75) either have some or a lot of experience. I along with a colleague from Monatan will be co-direcotrs of the AOlachito Clinic. Olanahcito is a city of 50,000 people located in the mountains aboutthree hours from San Pedro Sula.

Take care,

Peter A. Fields, MD, DC
“The Athletic Doc” and Ironman Triathlete

Flight to Honduras

Hello. This is my first blog- so I apologize for any misspellings or grammatical errors.
This is my sixth trip to Honduras. Since one must overnight somewhere, instead of Houston, I fly via Miami on the red eye so I can have breakfast with my mom and brother, who live about 40 minutes from the airport.
This flight was not as quiet as most. Just as I was about to fall asleep, they asked for a doc on board. After identifying myself (with my state issued license too- the airlines can't be too careful!),
A woman was not feeling well. After determining that she had not eaten or drank for over 12 hrs after taking her oral medicine for diabetes, I was able to handle this without any problems. Unfortunately it took two different trips back to her at different times, so I barley got any sleep. Shades of residency days!
As usual, I met my mom and brother Norman at the airport hotel and we spent about three hours over a leisurely breakfast. At 86 , my mom is a fairly good shape and it is always great to see her and my brother. Then it was onto another flight to Honduras. Unfortunately I was supposed to work on the lecture I will be giving on Saturday for on this flight, but due to the lack of sleep on the first flight, I fell asleep. That's life. Next e-mail from Honduras.

Take care,

Peter A. Fields, MD, DC
“The Athletic Doc” and Ironman Triathlete

PS I have some pictures but have to get the adapter for the camera tom'w.