Our First (real) Doctor Visit

I say "real" only because it involved one of the kids. Mark had been once in March and had gone in again the night before with another stomach bug--not a flu bug but something like giardia. But this one counts because I took Noah in today.

Most of you were (thankfully, believe me) spared the gruesome details of a bite that appeared on both Noah and Ava a couple weeks ago. They started out looking like mosquito bites but grew alarmingly quickly, becoming bright red/purple and hard. A friendly doc at church said it was either a boil or a bite and to let them go until they popped or until they caused pain. "Exploded" would have been a better word. Anyway, once they opened up the swelling was gone in 2-3 days and things were fine. (I told them it was from petting the neighborhood dog in a (vain) attempt to keep them away from this rather mangy, but friendly, pooch).

note--The above is an incredibly sanitized version of what went on with these bites on the kids. Trust me, it wasn't pretty.

So two days ago another one popped up on Noah's elbow, and this morning he has two more on his body that look suspiciously like these other yucky things. Those of you who know Noah and his "energetic" responses to events should pity me.

So off we went to the clinic today to see if the doc could tell us what was causing the problem. I was happy to see the clinic was bright and clean. It was an old house at one time, with 2 or so bedrooms divided into exam rooms and another couple bedrooms with 4-5 beds if you need to stay overnight (God forbid--I could just imagine being in a room with other sick people with possibly contagious--or at the very least gross--ailments. And since all you get is medical care, you have to stay with the patient to provide personal care and food, etc. for them).

The doc looked at Noah and said, "Boils, bites, or abcesses." They took a blood sample (I watched the tech to make sure there were new gloves and equipment--everything was OK) but can't really tell what it is. In good old-fashioned American style, he couldn't let me leave without antibiotics, though. In the event that there is some infection inside that's causing the trouble.

In an un-American twist, however--I was handed a box with a bottle of powder, which included directions on how to add water to make the solution myself. No one offered any further information until I asked about dosage. Then the nurse told me, but didn't write anything down. Everything was in milliliters, so I had to ask for a spoon or cup to measure it out (that stumped them for a minute). Also very un-American--the price. About $45 for the exam, labwork, antibiotics, and cream for the sores.

So if my kids are beseiged by strange bugs or typical illnesses, I feel like we'd be OK. However, there's clearly nothing in place for anything serious other than airlifting to Nairobi. Heart attacks, serious injuries, etc. would be a very serious issue, particularly if they happened out in the bush or on the road somewhere. I know adequate health care in the States is a serious problem, and I never thought I took it for granted there, but now I realize how much a part of your life it is to count on good health care.

Hopefully we'll knock these things out.

Let's see-- medicine twice a day for five days + Noah= well, you really don't want to know!