I woke up about 20 minutes later than usual but got started on my routine: making sure the kids are up, getting ready for their school day to begin, and preparing for my morning exercise. I usually do a 30-35 minute walk/jog outside and then come inside to do a work out video. As soon as I’m done with the video, I start preparing breakfast.
Today, as I was jogging pass the school, I saw Teacher Margaret walking with a student. I knew that she was heading to my house and the student must be sick. I kept jogging because I knew Floyd would be there to answer the door. Sure enough, as I made the loop back around and was on the trail nearest our house, Floyd was on the porch waving for my attention (he actually clapped loudly because I had head phones on). :) I removed my head phone to ask what he needed and he wanted to know how much time was left. I told him 15 minutes. He said, “ok, we’ve got to do a malaria test.”
I finished my 15 minutes and headed inside to find one of our girls laying on the couch. I had her come sit at the table with me and started talking with her. Some of the kids are very difficult when you need to test them, but this girl had done it once before. She was still pretty nervous, but it wasn’t too bad. I pricked her finger and quickly got enough blood to do the malaria test. It is no fun when Floyd has to squeeze the finger with extra aggression to get the blood.
The test results can take up to 15 minutes, but in barely 5 we had confirmation. She has malaria. Now, they had told me that she already vomited twice this morning, so I was worried about her keeping the medicine down. If they can’t keep down the tablets, we have to go to the clinic for injections. I listed a bunch of different foods asking her to take just 2 bites of something. The medicine does not absorb well without any food and does best when taken with something fatty.
She refused everything I offered her, but after explaining that if she didn’t take the pills, we’d have to go to the clinic for injections, she settled on a slice of bread. I cut one for her and she took the smallest little bite. Now, we had already given her a Tylenol to start helping with the headache, so that was in her stomach. She took a tiny bit of bread and then took the 3 malaria pills with water.
I was sitting straight across from her, almost with our knees touching. Just after she finished that 3rd pill, I knew the look on her face wasn’t good. I said, “is your stomach upset?” but she didn’t reply. I tried re-wording it; “are you going to vomit?” Still no response. As I watched her, I commented a few more times. “You look like you want to vomit. The look on your face doesn’t look good.” But at this point she was shaking her head that she wasn’t going to vomit. Sure enough, suddenly it was coming. I had just enough time to move my legs as she lurched forward. Fortunately, it was just the water she had drank with the pills and the pills themselves.
After we got that cleaned up and she was settled down, I began discussing with her. “Would you like to try again? You know, when I’m sick to my stomach, I cannot drink water at all. It just makes me more nauseous. How about you try sipping a little sprite?”
I had to get a small cup for myself and demonstrate how to sip and then she managed to do it just fine. Then we discussed, “do you want to try the tablets one more time, or go to the clinic for injections? If you get the injection, you probably won’t vomit again at all. If you fight the doctor, he’ll have to poke you every time you come for the entire treatment, all 6 injections. If you don’t fight, he can put in a cannula (like when you get an IV), and he won’t have to poke you again. What do you think?”
Of course, I realize this is a 9 year old kid, so she won’t be making the decision. But I think it’s good for them to hear the options. It does increase their cooperation. We decided to try the tablets again, but much more slowly. She ate a bite of bread, then swallowed one pill with a sip of sprite. We waited 5 minutes. No reaction.
She ate another bit of bread. 3 minutes pass, then we take the 2nd pill with a sip of sprite. Whew, only one more to go. This time we wait a bit longer. She’s nibbling the bread and seems to feel better about it already. Another 10 minutes pass and we have successfully taken all 3 tablets and kept them down. Now, I ask if she wants to go to the dorm to rest or stay with me. Of course, she chose to rest on the Stanley sofa. One benefit of being sick is that you get to lay down on the Stanley sofa. With 160 students, well children do not lay on the sofa because it would create chaos.
Now, I go to Raegan’s room to get a pillow from the extra bunk and come back to find my friend at the stove. I realize that I had forgotten that I put the milk on to boil while we were trying to take the last pill because I was already way behind schedule for cooking breakfast. The milk had boiled over the pan and she heard it. Fortunately, most Ugandan kids are used to dealing with things like cooking from a very young age, so she safely removed the pot and waited for me to come back in the room. I get her settled on the couch and go back to clean up the spilled milk.
Now, it is nearly 10:30am, I am starting breakfast but with only half the usual amount of milk and within minutes she’s fast asleep.
In case you’re wondering, I have to boil milk every day. We get 0.5 liters delivered every night, which I put in the fridge until morning. You have to boil it before using it because brucellosis is a serious illness contracted from the unpasteurized milk of contaminated cows. There is no way to know if your milk is clean or not, so you can’t take a chance. That’s why Ugandans take their milk boiling hot. They can’t imagine cold milk like we have in America.
*A final update, by 1:15 she was awake and feeling much better. I’m sitting at the kitchen table working on various things. She took lunch and is now sitting at the table across from me looking at books. She’ll have to finish her 3 day treatment, but I’m sure she’ll be back in class tomorrow.
Today, as I was jogging pass the school, I saw Teacher Margaret walking with a student. I knew that she was heading to my house and the student must be sick. I kept jogging because I knew Floyd would be there to answer the door. Sure enough, as I made the loop back around and was on the trail nearest our house, Floyd was on the porch waving for my attention (he actually clapped loudly because I had head phones on). :) I removed my head phone to ask what he needed and he wanted to know how much time was left. I told him 15 minutes. He said, “ok, we’ve got to do a malaria test.”
I finished my 15 minutes and headed inside to find one of our girls laying on the couch. I had her come sit at the table with me and started talking with her. Some of the kids are very difficult when you need to test them, but this girl had done it once before. She was still pretty nervous, but it wasn’t too bad. I pricked her finger and quickly got enough blood to do the malaria test. It is no fun when Floyd has to squeeze the finger with extra aggression to get the blood.
The test results can take up to 15 minutes, but in barely 5 we had confirmation. She has malaria. Now, they had told me that she already vomited twice this morning, so I was worried about her keeping the medicine down. If they can’t keep down the tablets, we have to go to the clinic for injections. I listed a bunch of different foods asking her to take just 2 bites of something. The medicine does not absorb well without any food and does best when taken with something fatty.
She refused everything I offered her, but after explaining that if she didn’t take the pills, we’d have to go to the clinic for injections, she settled on a slice of bread. I cut one for her and she took the smallest little bite. Now, we had already given her a Tylenol to start helping with the headache, so that was in her stomach. She took a tiny bit of bread and then took the 3 malaria pills with water.
I was sitting straight across from her, almost with our knees touching. Just after she finished that 3rd pill, I knew the look on her face wasn’t good. I said, “is your stomach upset?” but she didn’t reply. I tried re-wording it; “are you going to vomit?” Still no response. As I watched her, I commented a few more times. “You look like you want to vomit. The look on your face doesn’t look good.” But at this point she was shaking her head that she wasn’t going to vomit. Sure enough, suddenly it was coming. I had just enough time to move my legs as she lurched forward. Fortunately, it was just the water she had drank with the pills and the pills themselves.
After we got that cleaned up and she was settled down, I began discussing with her. “Would you like to try again? You know, when I’m sick to my stomach, I cannot drink water at all. It just makes me more nauseous. How about you try sipping a little sprite?”
I had to get a small cup for myself and demonstrate how to sip and then she managed to do it just fine. Then we discussed, “do you want to try the tablets one more time, or go to the clinic for injections? If you get the injection, you probably won’t vomit again at all. If you fight the doctor, he’ll have to poke you every time you come for the entire treatment, all 6 injections. If you don’t fight, he can put in a cannula (like when you get an IV), and he won’t have to poke you again. What do you think?”
Of course, I realize this is a 9 year old kid, so she won’t be making the decision. But I think it’s good for them to hear the options. It does increase their cooperation. We decided to try the tablets again, but much more slowly. She ate a bite of bread, then swallowed one pill with a sip of sprite. We waited 5 minutes. No reaction.
She ate another bit of bread. 3 minutes pass, then we take the 2nd pill with a sip of sprite. Whew, only one more to go. This time we wait a bit longer. She’s nibbling the bread and seems to feel better about it already. Another 10 minutes pass and we have successfully taken all 3 tablets and kept them down. Now, I ask if she wants to go to the dorm to rest or stay with me. Of course, she chose to rest on the Stanley sofa. One benefit of being sick is that you get to lay down on the Stanley sofa. With 160 students, well children do not lay on the sofa because it would create chaos.
Now, I go to Raegan’s room to get a pillow from the extra bunk and come back to find my friend at the stove. I realize that I had forgotten that I put the milk on to boil while we were trying to take the last pill because I was already way behind schedule for cooking breakfast. The milk had boiled over the pan and she heard it. Fortunately, most Ugandan kids are used to dealing with things like cooking from a very young age, so she safely removed the pot and waited for me to come back in the room. I get her settled on the couch and go back to clean up the spilled milk.
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| All the white that you see is spilled milk. :/ |
*A final update, by 1:15 she was awake and feeling much better. I’m sitting at the kitchen table working on various things. She took lunch and is now sitting at the table across from me looking at books. She’ll have to finish her 3 day treatment, but I’m sure she’ll be back in class tomorrow.
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