It has been another eventful week. First, to be clear, Thanksgiving is an American holiday, so no it wasn't that kind of event. For us, Thanksgiving was a normal day, but we did start it out with scrambled eggs and I made homemade pancakes and maple syrup for the first time. Everyone loved that. This year, Thanksgiving was also the same day as mine and Floyd's 16th anniversary.
The teams from the US left last weekend, and we were back to going through everything on our own. The clinic in Kifampa has been a place we visit way too often, but we're also grateful that it is there.
 |
| Imagine going here for you medical care. |
 |
| And when it's raining, they even bring the bodaboda inside the clinic. So sanitary! ;) |
Our little friend Lucky finished her treatments for Malaria on Sunday morning (you can read how she ended up there in
this post). However, on Tuesday morning I was back at the clinic with another little girl, Kisakye Prescious (Kisakye means grace...I love Ugandan names). :)
On Sunday evening, Precious wasn't feeling well and I tried to give her a malaria test then. Her only symptoms were stomach pain and fever and the test didn't show any malaria. By Monday afternoon, her fever was really high - 104.3 and another girl, Zaynab had gotten just as bad very quickly. Her fever was 104.0. I was suspicious that the malaria test had been wrong, either I did something wrong it was a fluke. There has been a lot of news about increased malaria due to El Nino and the extended rainy season. We had some malaria treatment remaining from the medical clinic, so I decided to go ahead and start both girls on the tablets.
By Tuesday morning, Zaynab was showing significant improvement but Precious was vomiting, which means her tabs weren't staying in the system. So, Makline and I loaded in the car and went to the clinic in Kifampa. He did another malaria test and it showed severe malaria. Precious was putting up quite a fight, so he could not give her an IV. Instead, he had to do the injections in her bum. This girl is strong. She was trying to bite, kicking, and screaming the whole time. Fortunately, the mother of one of our other students lives next door, so we called for her help. She came in to assist in restraining Precious. By the time we got in the car, Precious fell asleep from exhaustion.
Within a few hours, we saw that Precious was having what appeared to be an allergic reaction. It began with her eyes swelling up and then splotches all over her body. Fortunately, her temperature was completely back to normal. Back at the clinic, they decided that the allergic reaction was only on the skin, so they would continue treatment. I drove her back to the clinic twice a day for the 3 days and every time, she put up another fight and fell asleep when we got back in the car.
Fortunately, on Thursday, she was completely back to normal and got her last injection in the morning. Every day this week, I have put some small board books on the porch and the children have been reading them. Sometimes, I read to them and other times they read alone. Since Precious was so sick, she hadn't participated. So, on Thursday, she called me, "Madame Tamra, you first come." (This means, I want to ask you something in person, so I want you to come close to me.)
 |
You can see that she is still holding
the little book. :) |
She had one little book in her hand and asked if she could take it to the dormitory to read it in her bunk, then she would bring it back the next day. I asked her if she promised to take care of it and she did, so I agreed that she could take it with her. She jumped up in excitement and ran to the door, and I went back to preparing supper. Moments later, Troy called out to me that Precious had "wiped out" in the street. Apparently, she was running so fast in excitement and tripped over some road gravel.
I went outside and started to walk toward her. Another little girl had come to her and was walking with her toward the dorm. Precious was crying so hard and limping a little. As I got within about 20 feet, I could see that blood was running down her leg. I went to her, picked her up, and carried her back to our porch. I called for Floyd to bring some supplies to clean her knee.
I felt so bad for her because she had been sick all week and now that she was finally well, she tripped and hurt her leg. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad. We got it cleaned up and put a bright turquoise bandage on it.
We had tried to reach her guardian, but did not hear back. On Friday, the Auntie arrived. She has her own two girls plus two nieces that are boarding students at our school. Since the girls were already done with their exams, the Auntie went ahead and took all 4 girls home. I gave them all a hug and told them to enjoy their holiday break. We'll see them next year. I was glad to send them all home healthy. :)
 |
| Hilda, the oldest of the 4 girls |
 |
| Prosper, the second oldest. |
 |
| Precious, who I've been telling you about. You see she was back to normal on Friday. :) |
 |
| Blessing, the youngest. |
Comments
Post a Comment