Last night Annie started to come down with a fever. Sunday she had not acted herself, but I figured she is just teething. By this morning she was burning up. Unfortunately, my thermometer is still on its way here. Hopefully we get it soon. I didn't know how hot she was, just that she was hot. Before we came we were warned and warned about the dangers of Malaria, and how serious it is. The doctor told us that if we get a fever to go straight to the hospital and get checked. I was really worried so I talked to our friend that has been here for a year or so. He told me about a clinic, "The Cradle" where his wife had recently had their baby. It also has pediatricians. Alan was at work so I loaded up the 4 kids and headed out to the clinic. I figured they would check her ears, and take her temperature, and probably draw some blood for a malaria test. I was right but...I was not prepared to go to a hospital in India!
The kids and I walked into the clinic/hospital and checked Annie in and then waited for a doctor to be available. Thanks again Grandma for the Nintendo DS's they saved our lives today. We waited there for about an hour. We went in and saw Dr. Nandini Nagar. She was very nice, but just looked at her ears and took her temperature. She then wrote up a prescription for some blood tests and urine tests, and for some Tylenol. (Her temperature was 102.9) She then told me to go to the lab and they would run the tests. I had to go pay for the tests, and then they pointed me in the direction of the lab. I ushered all the kids down to the lab and when I got there they asked me if I had gone to the pharmacy to get the urine bag and the stuff to draw the blood. (Isn't that suppose to be there job?) No, I had to take all my kids back down to the pharmacy and buy the instruments for them to run the tests. We got back into the lab and by this time Annie was really not feeling well. She was crying and laying her head on my shoulder and I could feel her burning up. I felt bad for her and I was starting to feel overwhelmed and really wanted Dr. Swensen. The 3 lab people took the stuff from me and then snatched Annie out of my arms and went into a room. I started to follow and they looked at me wondering where I was going. I asked "can't I come in?" The lady just looked at me, closed the door, and LOCKED IT!! I stood there listening to my baby screaming, not because they had poked her, but because she wanted to be held. I had a really hard time keeping it together. I started to tear up, and Ellie asked me how long they were going to take her for. All I could say was "I don't know". They came back out and gave her to me with a bag hooked up to her for a urine sample and a bandaid on her hand. They told me it would be an hour before the test was done so I took the kids back down to the pharmacy to get the Tylenol for Annie. I gave it to her and she quickly fell asleep. 45 minutes later she woke up and I took her back to give them her urine sample. Apparently the bag they hooked on didn't stick so it all leaked back into her diaper. I had to again go to the pharmacy to get another bag and back to the lab to get it hooked back on and then wait until she could fill it. By this time we had been at the clinic for about 4 hours. The older kids were starting to get board and hungry. I told them if they were good to each other and didn't complain I would stop and get them something to eat on the way home. The lab got the results back from the blood tests, and I had to go take them to the doctor. As I took them, I read them and was relieved when I saw NEGATIVE next to malaria, and NEGATIVE next to dengue fever. That's all I cared about. At that point I didn't really care whether we talked to the Dr. again or whether the urine test got done. (All it would show was if she had a bladder infection) I did meet with the doctor and she said that Annie does have an elevated level of something that meant she has a bacterial infection, possibly a bladder infection so she put her on amoxicillin and wanted to get the urine test to make sure. Annie still hadn't filled the bag so I asked what the difference would be. She said that Annie would need the medicine for 7 days instead of 5 so I just told the pharmacy to give me 7 days worth and I was off. The whole episode took 5 hours.
When we got home I quickly made dinner and then gave her a bath. We only have showers here in the hotel, so I made her one in the sink. I think she liked the bath. She hasn't been able to splash in a tub since we left Salt Lake.
P.S. By the time we got home I was feeling much better about India. I still think we'll survive, as long as no one else gets sick. :)
1 comment:
oh kerri...how AWFUL! i was tearing up just reading this!!! glad it's over!
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