getting a medical diagnosis in Africa
Thursday, December 13, 2007
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
“How are you? This is Brian.”
“Yes, I am fine. And you?”
“Good, I’m glad you are fine too.”
“Yes this is the mzungu Brian who came into your lab an hour ago.”
“Yes, thank you. I am fine. Did you get any results from the lab work yet?”
“Oh, you did?”
“What is it?”
“You found something?”
“You have seen something in the test? Okay? What is it?”
“Yes, can you say that again? No, I’m not quite getting you. Can you repeat?”
“No, I’m still not getting you. You say that you have found some sickness in the test?”
“And it’s called what?”
“No, I can’t quite understand you. Can you spell it?”
“Okay, yes spell it.”
“Yes, I’m ready. Go ahead.”
“Yes, go ahead. Just spell it.”
“A. . . . yes, next. M. You said M? Okay, AM and what else? O . . . okay. E and what next? B? Yes, I have that. Yes - you started with an A and then an M. Okay, what is after the B?”
Dial tone. Line dead.
NO JOKE> that is how it went down just minutes ago. My squeeze B returned from a few days down in Maasailand checking on Sir Clyde’s girls high school down there. He walked into a house of sickies back here in Kitale. We’re still not feeling up to par and since the malaria microscope wasn’t working the other day and we had to use another lab --- I’m still not convinced of what’s wrong.
So I asked my dude if he could take another sample to the Mt. Elgon lab and have some more tests and cultures done. Which he did. He called them a while later. And the above conversation happened. After which, he tried calling them back and it said “Sorry, all lines are busy.” And then after 5 minutes of trying that --- he finally got through on a non-busy line only to discover that the lab technician had TURNED OFF his cell phone. So . . . after all that, night has come. The sun is setting. I feel like crud. And the best diagnosis I’ve got to go on is . . . a half-spelled word in a heavy Kenyan accent. Hmmmm . . . not sure which meds work best on something like that.
Guess I’ll wait until tomorrow.
At least I’m not puking.
Scovia came over to play today. Here is a photo of her and Kat mattress sliding. Little Amy came over yesterday to play. The girls are absolutely adorable together --- all of them. They have so much fun! Here are some photos of Kat and Amy. I also put up a Video-Introduction to Scovia online, go HERE to see it. It’s only 3 minutes long. My dad alerted me today (he’s a retired airline captain so he usually knows what he’s talking about when it comes to specifics) that:
PS: For our internet, we need to let the video load for appx. 10 minutes and then it plays through all the way. The way we do it is: First let it start, and then immediately hit the pause button and then do the waiting. If you wait until the video stops (after about 20 to 30 seconds) and do the waiting, the video has to restart each time. So for best results it is best to hit pause, wait and then hit play. Works great!
