Last night we were feeling pretty thankful. (and annoyed, but I’ll get to that later…) Mitchell had a fever when he woke up on Friday morning, 102.6. This persisted until Sunday afternoon when it went down to 99 degrees. What was strange was that he had no other symptoms, we didn’t know WHY he had the fever. Monday he was fever-free again, but he developed a tight cough – ok, so that’s the reason for the fever! Then Tuesday he was fine most of the day, but at bedtime he was back up at 102.6. This could be something serious – a fever cycle.
Yesterday he persisted with the fever, so we decided to take him in to a lab for a blood test. Thankfully we had a veteran tropical medicine doctor passing through (one night only) yesterday afternoon and he gave me advice on which tests to ask for. Another mom here gave me the words (vocabulary) I needed to ask for the tests. I took one of my house helpers along to help explain for me if I couldn’t communicate what I needed – just in case. She’s worked for our org for 8 years and before that she worked for a different org, so while she doesn’t speak much English, she understands a reasonable amount.
We went in to the lab – wish I’d taken pics so you could see this place – you just walk in off a busy dirty street, give them your first name and age (they don’t really operate much with last names here) and then they show you to the back. Mitchell sat down in a chair, they used a dirty (actually had spots of blood on it but also grimy-looking) piece of elastic (like you’d find in your favorite pair of sweat pants, about an inch wide) to tourniquet his skin on his upper arm, and (I forgot to check that it was coming from a sterile wrapper, hope it was OK) they drew the blood. No gloves, no warning, just tied on the elastic, had him make a fist and stuck the needle in. Mitchell was SO brave – I tried to have him look away cause I never can look, but he said, “Mommy, I want to watch” – he was so pale and sick-looking after 6 days and coughing as well. They drew a bit of blood, I would say under 5cc, cause it was a thin syringe and they didn’t fill it very much, and right in front of us they smeared it on a slide and put it into the machine. We were about to leave when they had some of the results for us. Mitchell lay down on the back seat all the way home.
Josh had to go back after an hour to pick up the malaria test. We went home and our guest the doctor read the results and explained them to me. Basically, Mitchell’s hematocrit (solids in the blood) was in the safe range and though his platelets were on the lower side (154) that basically just confirms that he has a viral infection of some sort. If his hematocrit had been higher and his platelets lower, that would have meant Dengue Fever. The Malaria test came back negative. SO, we’re thankful to know that it’s NOT Dengue or Malaria and while it’s scary to have a kid with a fever for a longer time with cycles, we’ll just keep an eye on him, keep track of his highs and lows and pray! (Thanks for praying with us!)
Last night he didn’t have a fever overnight, and this morning it’s also almost normal so I sent him off to school. (He goes 2 mornings a week for 2 hours and is in a class by himself.)
Now to the annoyed part. Last night after dinner I whipped up a loaf of pumpkin bread as a thanks to the doctor for helping us with the tests –also they were leaving the house at 6 a.m. to catch a flight back to the U.S. and I thought they could use breakfast. I brought a few slices to them and left the rest of it on the counter to cool while I went and exercised. Later Josh went back into the kitchen and then called me into the kitchen as well. Seems some rats have chewed a hole in the screen above my kitchen sink and they decided to sample the leftover pumpkin bread (that was breakfast for my family!). Grrr.
They were also in my kitchen the night before and possibly the night before that. Apparently they also sampled the papaya and avocados in the basket on the counter top. That’s strange because they both were not yet ripe, which is why they were there. 
Usually they like the fruit that’s riper, like the banana they once ate, leaving the peel wide open on the countertop. We recently caught a number of them (they’re really bigger than mice but not actually rats, more like shrews, but regardless, I want them dead) and closed up the holes we found, but I guess they’re motivated cause they chewed another hole. Josh forgot to let his helper know so he could set traps yesterday but he already let him know today so it’ll be taken care of today for sure.
Yesterday he persisted with the fever, so we decided to take him in to a lab for a blood test. Thankfully we had a veteran tropical medicine doctor passing through (one night only) yesterday afternoon and he gave me advice on which tests to ask for. Another mom here gave me the words (vocabulary) I needed to ask for the tests. I took one of my house helpers along to help explain for me if I couldn’t communicate what I needed – just in case. She’s worked for our org for 8 years and before that she worked for a different org, so while she doesn’t speak much English, she understands a reasonable amount.
We went in to the lab – wish I’d taken pics so you could see this place – you just walk in off a busy dirty street, give them your first name and age (they don’t really operate much with last names here) and then they show you to the back. Mitchell sat down in a chair, they used a dirty (actually had spots of blood on it but also grimy-looking) piece of elastic (like you’d find in your favorite pair of sweat pants, about an inch wide) to tourniquet his skin on his upper arm, and (I forgot to check that it was coming from a sterile wrapper, hope it was OK) they drew the blood. No gloves, no warning, just tied on the elastic, had him make a fist and stuck the needle in. Mitchell was SO brave – I tried to have him look away cause I never can look, but he said, “Mommy, I want to watch” – he was so pale and sick-looking after 6 days and coughing as well. They drew a bit of blood, I would say under 5cc, cause it was a thin syringe and they didn’t fill it very much, and right in front of us they smeared it on a slide and put it into the machine. We were about to leave when they had some of the results for us. Mitchell lay down on the back seat all the way home.
Josh had to go back after an hour to pick up the malaria test. We went home and our guest the doctor read the results and explained them to me. Basically, Mitchell’s hematocrit (solids in the blood) was in the safe range and though his platelets were on the lower side (154) that basically just confirms that he has a viral infection of some sort. If his hematocrit had been higher and his platelets lower, that would have meant Dengue Fever. The Malaria test came back negative. SO, we’re thankful to know that it’s NOT Dengue or Malaria and while it’s scary to have a kid with a fever for a longer time with cycles, we’ll just keep an eye on him, keep track of his highs and lows and pray! (Thanks for praying with us!)
Last night he didn’t have a fever overnight, and this morning it’s also almost normal so I sent him off to school. (He goes 2 mornings a week for 2 hours and is in a class by himself.)
Now to the annoyed part. Last night after dinner I whipped up a loaf of pumpkin bread as a thanks to the doctor for helping us with the tests –also they were leaving the house at 6 a.m. to catch a flight back to the U.S. and I thought they could use breakfast. I brought a few slices to them and left the rest of it on the counter to cool while I went and exercised. Later Josh went back into the kitchen and then called me into the kitchen as well. Seems some rats have chewed a hole in the screen above my kitchen sink and they decided to sample the leftover pumpkin bread (that was breakfast for my family!). Grrr.
They were also in my kitchen the night before and possibly the night before that. Apparently they also sampled the papaya and avocados in the basket on the counter top. That’s strange because they both were not yet ripe, which is why they were there. Usually they like the fruit that’s riper, like the banana they once ate, leaving the peel wide open on the countertop. We recently caught a number of them (they’re really bigger than mice but not actually rats, more like shrews, but regardless, I want them dead) and closed up the holes we found, but I guess they’re motivated cause they chewed another hole. Josh forgot to let his helper know so he could set traps yesterday but he already let him know today so it’ll be taken care of today for sure. Update: Friday morning one of the rats passed away from unnatural causes. One down, one to go! :)
1 comment:
give me the shivers thinking of critters in my kitchen. Hope you catch the last one real soon. Glad Mitchell is feeling better, I hate when the kids are sick. - Kristin
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