Our Christmas 2010 Patients

 We want to take this opportunity to wish all of our friends and supporters a very merry Christmas season this year and to tell you all how very blessed we are to be medical missionaries here in the Philippines!

Thanks to your support and prayers and God’s abundant blessings we have been able to evangelize God’s word and deliver desperately needed medical care to the poorest of the poor! Lives have been saved, both spiritually and physically, severe illnesses have been cured and chronic illnesses are being treated!

These are just a few of our many patients seen this month! We are now seeing 15 to 30 patients almost every day. Some of them walk almost 10 miles to our home to be seen, though we are trying to establish a schedule to travel to the other villages so that care can be provided closer to their homes!

We pray that as you are preparing for this Christmas season that you remember the REAL reason for the season, that you hold your family and friends close, share Christ’s love and rejoice for the greatest gift we have ever received!

Thanks to your generosity and faithfulness to God’s word these patients and so many more have received the precious gift of good health and spiritual renewal, some for the first time in their lives! May God bless us, every one!

	This is a man who had chronic UTI symptoms but could not afford to be seen! He was found not only to have a urinary tract infection but  a chronic prostate infection. After receiving adequate antibiotic treatment, he is symptom free for the first time in a very long time!
	This is a very kind and humble elderly lady who lives up in the mountains without electricity or running water. She came to us complaining of severe right eye pain and decreased vision for a few days! As you will see in the following photos, that is an under statement!
	This is a close up of what her right eye looked like when we first examined her! We started her on topical antibiotics and arranged to take here to an EENT specialist on the next island the next day!
	Here she is being examined by the EENT specialist. He started her on two topical antibiotics and steroid eye drops. We are taking her back for her follow up visit today!
	This is an other very pleasant elderly lady who was found to have significant high blood pressure that was untreated and bilateral cataracts. Once we have her hypertension well controlled, we hope to be able to find financial resources to pay for here cataract surgery!
	This is a young woman who ask to be seen for  worsening eye sight. After examining her, we discovered that she had significant, untreated high blood pressure in addition to her complaint of worsening visual acuity!
	We began to treat her hypertension and took her to the EENT specialist who confirmed that, other than needing corrective glasses, her eyes were fine!
	Here she is after receiving her first and only pair of glasses! She now has excellent eye sight and can care for her children and husband and work in her garden and study her bible again! She asked we make sure that we thank all those who have generously donated to our medical mission and allowed her to have her hypertension treated and gave her back the gift of good vision and the ability to care for her family and to, once again, read God’s word!
	This is another elderly lady who asked to be seen for poor vision! We found that she had untreated hypertension and cataracts! We are now treating her hypertension and hope to soon have her evaluated for her cataracts!
	This middle aged woman has type II diabetes mellitus, however, she was often unable to buy the necessary  medications or have her blood sugars tested! We completed her examination, found that her blood sugar was over 300 and began treatment. She is now feeling much better, taking her medications regularly and keeping her follow up visits. Her blood sugars are now in the 120’s!
	This woman had a long history of type II diabetes with several complications due to her lack of financial resources to buy medications or pay for medical care or blood sugar testing. The reason she came to us for care was that she had injured her foot and it became infected!
	This is her right foot and as you can see she had previously had to have her great toe amputated due to severe infection as a result of the complications of here diabetes
	This is a photo of her left foot on the first day she came to us for treatment. The injury was infected, her blood sugar was over 300 and she was also hypertensive. She had not been taking any medications because she had no money! We cleaned her wounds, started antibiotics, diabetes and hypertension medications and scheduled her for follow up!
	This is a photo of her having a sterile dressing being applied to her infected left foot injury! She has been seen a few times in follow up, her infection is healing without problems, her hypertension is now under control and her diabetes is also under control!
	This woman came to us with a complaint of chronic pelvic and abdominal pain. She said that she had seen a doctor in the past and was told that she had pelvic inflammatory disease. She had been able to buy only about 1 week’s worth of antibiotic. We have been able to have her seen by a GYN doctor and a GI doctor on the next island. The ultrasound showed polycystic ovary disease and venous congestion of her uterus. She is now undergoing appropriate treatment
	This young mother has a history of hyperthyroidism. She was supposedly treated and required being started on thyroid replacement medication. She came to us complaining of headaches and palpitations. We have stopped her thyroid replacement medication and are treating her with a beta blocker and continuing to monitor her and will arrange for her to have her thyroid function levels checked.
	Here my wife, Rhome is giving this patient instructions on taking his high blood pressure medications, diet and exercise. She is also giving him the necessary instructions for his follow up appointments.
	This is  a young lady who wanted to be seen because she has had a mass on the side of her neck for a few years.
	Here is a close up of the right side of this patient’s neck. At present, my diagnosis is a branchial cleft cyst! We will need to schedule her for specialty consultation and possible surgery!
	We are continuing to see a significant number of patients, both young and old, with a variety of respiratory diseases. This is a young child with asthma that required nebulizer treatments. She is doing much better now, but will require ongoing asthma treatment for some time to come!
	Here is a teenage boy with asthma. He had a prior history but has seldom had the financial resources to be able to receive any sustained treatment! Hopefully, now that he is receiving care and medications through our Christian medical mission, he will be able to be treated appropriately and on an ongoing basis and to lead a a normal, productive life!
	Here we have a young girl who we have been treating for asthma. She is doing much better at this point, but again, will require ongoing medical care and medications if she is to have the opportunity to grow up healthy, attend school and become a healthy, productive adult!
	This is a young mother who is bringing her infant daughter back for a follow up appointment after she was treated for bronchiolitis! As you can tell from the mother’s smile, the infant is now doing very well!
	This is an elderly gentleman who has high blood pressure that is rarely treated do to his inability to afford medications. He also was a significant problem with arthritis in several joints. We were able to provide him with the necessary hypertension medications and his hypertension is now under much better control! We have been able to start him on ibuprofen for his arthritis symptoms now that his hypertension is under control and he is feeling much better!
This is a husband and wife who able to afford medications. Now blood pressures are under good	both have hypertension but who have seldom been  they are both on appropriate medications and their control and they are feeling much better!
	These next several photos are of a young girl with a severely infected skin rash! This girl lives on the far end of our island and had no medical care since the rash started about three or four days prior and had had no medical care! She had been carrying around a stray puppy who looked infected with the mites that cause mange! She developed a severe, itchy rash shortly after carrying this puppy around!
	These next photos are somewhat graphic so please be advised! This next photo is of her chest and abdomen and the infected puritic  rash. As you can tell by the expression on her poor face, she is a very uncomfortable and unhappy little girl!
	This is a photo of what can reasonably be shown of her groin area and you can see that this is a seriously infected rash that is very uncomfortable and need immediate treatment!
	This is a photo of the front of one of her legs which is also severely involved with this infected rash!
	Here is a photo of the posterior aspects of both of her legs and they are also involved and infected!
	In this photo you can see how wide spread this infected skin rash is and how severe it is, especially in this poor young child!
	This is a little broader view of this child’s back and again, you can appreciate how severe and wide spread this infected skin rash is and how urgently it needs treatment! We got her completely undressed, cleansed her all over with a antiseptic cleanser, thoroughly rinsed her off and then applied a light application of antibiotic and Benadryl cream! Then gave here some clean cloths that we had and started here on oral antibiotics as well. She is now doing a lot better!
	This is a young girl who came to us because she had developed a significant skin rash on he leg and it had slowly been getting worse!
	This is a close up of one of the lesions on here leg. I have a idea of the cause but I am also submitting the photo to other PA’s who work in dermatology for their opinion!
	This man presented to us with a significant swelling of his left cheek and jaw. it had been present for about 3 or 4 days and was getting worse! After examining the patient it looked as though he had a significant left parotitis! We started him on medications and appropriate ancillary treatments and will see him back tomorrow!
	This is a close up of his left cheek and jaw to try to give you an idea of the facial asymmetry and to the severity of his condition!
	This is  a local “medicine man” who sought treatment for a “constant noise” in his ear for the last several years. This, of course, was tinnitus, but because it was unilateral, this raised the question of a possible serious underlying etiology. We did have him seen by the EENT specialist on Leyte and he felt that, due to the duration of his symptoms, and the lack of other physical findings that there was no need for further work up at this time!
	This lady was found to be hypertensive and to have had a recent CVA with some facial residual weakness. She had not been on any previous medications. We started her on anti-hypertension medications and low dose aspirin daily. We have seen her in follow up and her high blood pressure in now under control and there has been some improvement in her facial weakness!
	This is my wife, Rhome doing some patient education with one of our hypertensive patients.
	Here we are using a glucometer to check the blood sugar of one of our diabetic patients. So far all of our type II diabetes patients are compliant with their medications, dietary restrictions, exercise recommendations and all have had markedly improved blood sugars and reduced symptoms related to their diabetes!
	This is a photo of me receiving “payment” for treating the two asthmatic sisters! As you can see the mother is very happy that her daughters are now asymptomatic! If you look close you can see my  “payment” is two live chickens in a plastic bag that I am holding and some fresh local bananas!

Well that brings us to the close of another update about our lives as Christian medical missionaries and our patients here on Pilar Camotes, Cebu, a small, remote, subsistence living island in the central Philippines!

We pray that you have enjoyed this update, that you will continue to follow our work in Christ’s name, for His glory and by His power! We also want to wish each and every one a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukah! We also ask that you keep us and our work in your prayers and that your blessings in the coming year be more abundant than you could ever imagine because you have certainly made our lives and the lives of all of our patients more abundant than they or we could have ever imagined!!!!

 

God Bless Us Every One!

 

Chip & Rhome Nuttall

pilarchip1@mac.com