The end of last year, Cirila was struck by a car and had her right leg and knee injured. Her knee has been increasingly painful since then, so we decided to take her into Cusco to see a doctor. Because of the way the public health system works here, there are many hoops to jump through to receive free medical help.
Alicia went in a few weeks ahead to make an appointment. That was its own small circus. They said they could not give the appointment without Alicia supplying the names of Cirila’s parents and the date and location of their births. Alicia called me, but of course, I did not know, so I hopped into the van and headed to search for Cirila. In the meantime, Alicia was able to reach Cirila by phone, but she also could not remember her parents’ full names and other data. Thankfully, her niece was with her, and she remembered. Appointment secured.
Kenton and I took Cirila for that appointment. I was thankful many times throughout the day to have a second person to run for all the little things asked of us. We were able to see a doctor; she was quite kind and started us on the long process of heading toward a knee-replacement surgery. It will likely take three to six months before that happens due to the way the system works.
I was able to schedule an appointment for x-rays for Cirila a few weeks out. Esmeralda took her in for those and scheduled the following appointment. The x-rays from that day and the MRI from the first trip show that her kneecap is essentially no longer there. Esmeralda is scheduling another appointment this coming week for a follow-up with the doctor. They would not let us schedule an appointment for last month because Cirila had already seen the doctor once in that calendar month and would be required to wait until June.
In the meantime, I wrote up a schedule for Cirila’s medicines, most of which are for pain management. We shared that with her niece who is also a nurse. Since Cirila can’t read, it is hard for her to know which medicines to take when. Steph has been going each Friday for the past couple of months to do Cirila’s shopping for her, since it is so hard for her to walk. Dane and I found some pieces of furniture in Izcuchaca (table, chairs, pantry), and the church purchased them for Cirila. She says she has never had such nice things before, though I felt badly that they were so few and simple.
We continue in the waiting process, helping where we can, as Cirila deals with the pain. She is now using two canes to get around a very little bit.
In other news, another of Kenton’s pigs died the death. We turned it into sausage and bacon with which we comfort ourselves and Kenton in his loss.
Juan David 