We first had a pre-departure meeting with Dr. Campbell who spoke of what to look for regarding physicals and was trying to promote EKGs as our next project. He spoke extensively about making sure we listened to the heart sounds and lung sounds and to "watch, teach, and do one" for the male genital exam.
I think for future trips, we should also get someone who will physically SHOW us what to do and what to specifically look for ( i.e. HOCM murmur increases with vasalva and standing, etc.)
We met at 4 p.m. in front of the libary on Saturday and left around 4:15, but didn't get to Robstown until about 7:00. One of our fealress leaders really enjoys traveling and he decided to take us on a tour of I-37 and its foliage as we were looking for a water closet. For people going on the next trip: look for the Three Rivers exit, as that is where you will find a Valero on the right side of the highway going towards Robstown. We ended up going to the exit after that and stopping at a historical post office where the country folk hang out. There was only one ladies and one men's room, so it served its purpose.
Once we arrived to Robstown we checked into the Best Western, which is very nicely surrounded by farm land, the highway, and a BBQ restaurant. The hotel was nice and clean with a pool, small gym, wireless connection, and breakfast. Other than our shower knob coming off, we had no issues with, at least, our room.
Later on Friday night, we headed to the church to make an announcement during whatever activity they were having that night. Jess invited everyone to come to the health fair where there would be vaccinations for kids (all for $10), glucose and BP checks, sports physicals, audiologists, and social workers to sign people up for Medicare/ Medicaid/CHIP - and that everything was free.
We had dinner at the Cotten's BBQ next door - this is a CASH only (no checks or credit cards) and a very laid back place with waiter who wore a bowtie and a vest. They serve only 4 kinds of meat that come as a sandwich or laid out on a paper plate (the plate is a sheet of wax paper). And for the herbivores, there is a salad available and potato salad and beans. The food was a little expensive for the quality we got, in my opinion. ($125 to feed 14 of us).
We got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed off to St. Anthony's Catholic church on the corner of Dunn and Tex Mex Rd. We were greeted by a 100ft tall cut-out of the Virgin Mary at the entrance to the parish (which was a gym before). We set up four tables for BP/glucose/health screening and two areas were partitioned off for the sports physicals. In the other areas of the gym were the audiologist, social workers, and vaccinations. There was plenty of room in the gym, plus it was airconditioned. There was a "registration" table for people to pick up the health sheets and fill out their name, age, address, PCP, etc. Jess also went to make an announcement at a second church that is also associated with St. Anthonys - this really helped get more people coming to the fair as it was very slow early on.
The ladies from Catholic Charities came as well and brought us food as usual. Mr. Lopez is still active in the community and expressed his appreciation. Dr. Smith treated us to Friday and Saturday's dinner and is as optomistic as ever about our group. Dr. Campos helped out at the fair and recommended that at the the next fair we have more tables set up so that the patients couldn't hear each other ( i.e. be "HIPAA compliant"). Father Williams was also nice enough to make some of the announcements about the fair as well.
Highlights during the fair/trip:
- a few people were able to sign up for CHIP
- one of the MS4s heard a kid with PVCs and got him follow up
- we saw 100 patients!!! (some of you might remember that time when we had 23pts at Tierra Grande)
- Dr. Campos (who practices in CC) will fax over the health sheets to the patients' doctors (if they listed one) if there were pertinent findings
- comments were made that this was the best organized fair they had every been to; a pt said that they had never had their illness explained to them before until the fair
- effort to provide follow-up care for patients was the best I have experienced on a Corpus trip (with social workers and Dr. Campos)
- next time the table should be spaced further apart so patients don't hear each other
I don't know if this flies for a post-trip blog but the main thing about this trip is it has gotten better with every trip. Kudos to the current board members on continuing to carry and strengthening the
tradition of Frontera.
Peace out,
Tira
(Photos contributed by Johanna Preston)
