diori's abscess

During the last week of October, we had a medical group come down. They checked out a few of our students and were able to provide medicine and other treatments for the kids that needed it. During their time here they also taught the Makarios staff specific medical and first aid information and tactics. This included things from how to treat a burn to dealing with seizures and infections. They spent their last day with us teaching us this basic must know information before their beach day.

The very next day when we were at the school, we found a large abscess on Diori, one of the neighborhood kids who is always hanging around the school. Though this medical group had already left Puerto Plata, we were able to help Diori because just the day before they taught us the exact procedures for getting rid of an abscess.

An abscess looks like a giant pimple on the skin. It's middle is filled with puss and debris and apparently is very painful. It cannot be cured by antibiotics alone, but must be opened and drained.

Elizabeth and I popped his abscess. Sorry if this is a little grotesque, I just wanted to share with y’all the neat story of being able to use what we had learned from this group just the day before.
And, I will have y’all know that Diori’s arm is no longer big and swollen and is healing rather nicely. Elizabeth and I have given each other several high fives since that day.

On a side note, for those of you that have been here and know Diori, he is now enrolled in our classes and comes every afternoon to our program. On another side note, there was a little girl the very next day who abscess I was able to pop.

Pictured is Diori's abscess before it was popped.