We wanted to give an update on our humanitarian medical trip to Nicaragua, since we received a wonderful response to the write-up that Ivan Garcia did in the Monterey County Weekly a while back. Vein Specialists of Monterey was so honored to be part of this humanitarian medical trip to Nicaragua in July. Dr. Mowatt-Larssen and his team performed procedures to treat varicose veins on 170 patients in six days. It was crazy. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, after Haiti. The patients had severe vein disease and had been waiting a long time for treatment. We had patients who had traveled seven hours by horse and then bus to get to us. Patients were queued up outside the clinic at 4am. We really felt the pressure to try to treat as many patients as possible. They were so grateful, and they paid us in hugs, kisses, and benedictions. We really didn’t have time to process emotionally what we were hearing and seeing. We took all the medicine, supplies, medical devices, and equipment such as ultrasound machine and laser fibers. The drug companies didn’t cut us any breaks. It is expensive but in the end it’s more than worth it. We feel so lucky to be able to touch people’s lives in this way, in an extremely targeted, high impact fashion. There were a lot of people who responded to the Monterey County Weekly article and dropped off donations for us to take with us to Nicaragua. Thank you. We are sustained by the good will of this community and see that the circle of grace and gratitude stretches from the doctors at the Fara Clinic in Matagalpa Nicaragua who qualified and followed up on these patients, to our Nica patients who moved heaven and earth to get to us, to our community here in Monterey which has so many interested and compassionate people.