10/24/07
Joan’s Journal

Last Saturday, Oct. 20, Tim was in Cayes and decided to make a left turn to turn around.  After a quick glance over his shoulder he didn’t see anyone, so he started to turn. There was a guy on a small motorcycle right behind him who must have decided to pass on the left when he saw Tim slowing down and he plowed right into Tim’s motorcycle.  Tim’s bike didn’t even fall over, but he got a pretty bad cut on his foot that needed some stitches.  The other guy was fine, but his front fender was cracked and he was not very happy with the situation. Tim was bleeding a lot and the other Haitians who were around told the other driver to leave him alone so he could get to a hospital to get stitched up.  The other driver finally picked up his cycle and disgustedly took off down the road.  Tim tied his hanky around his foot and drove up here to the clinic close to home. At the clinic they washed it up and stitched up the cut and gave him a prescription for some antibiotics.  He took it easy on Sunday, and then Monday tried to get some work done around here.  By the evening, it was pretty swollen.  Beth came over that night, (when’s the last time you had a house call ) and checked out the stitches and redressed it. On Tuesday morning she told him she would really rather he had an x-ray done just to make sure nothing was broken.  Since the x-ray machine at the clinic was working now, it was not a big deal to get it done, so with some complaining he got it x-rayed. Beth e-mailed a picture of the x-rays to an American Dr. who was just here last week and has been an orthopedic Dr for over twenty-five years.  He responded the same day, (how many times does that happen in the States) with a diagnoses of possibly 2 broken bones in the ankle, but to make sure, he wanted some more x-rays at a different angle. So this morning we went back to the clinic to get the other x-rays done and this afternoon Dr. Belding answered back that these x-rays showed that the one fracture was nothing, but the other appears to be a lateral talar avulsion, which means a chip off of one of the bones in the weight bearing region of the ankle.  He said he should be completely non-weight bearing for six weeks to see if the piece would heal back on its own, but often it doesn’t and more aggressive treatment is needed such as possibly going in and removing the chip. A MRI would show better exactly what is needed, but they don’t have any equipment for MRIs here in Haiti, not even in Port.  Tim really doesn’t have 6 weeks to sit around to see if it is going to heal because the first construction team is coming in about 2 ½ weeks. 

At this point we are not sure what the best thing to do is.  He is in some pain, but not very bad.  He can get around with crutches, and he insists he can drive. The problem is that almost everything we have is a stick shift, so you need your left foot to push in the clutch.  Well, we will see how it goes, but we would appreciate prayers for healing and for wisdom to make the right choices.

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