Nicole Barker jinxed us!

Less than a week ago I read Nicole Barker’s comment on our blog. (PS- try to be better parents than mine were and prevent your baby from contracting malaria whilst in Africa) I thought to myself – yeah we have done a pretty good job, 4 months and no malaria…not two days later, Thomas wakes up from a nap with a 103. 5 fever! We got a blood test where a doctor, sans rubber gloves, pricked his thumb, with what looked like a broken razor blade, and smeared three drops of blood on an unmarked microscope slide. As we are walking home, Seth virtually doubles over in stomach cramps. The test came back negative for malaria. After a couple of hours at home and a frantic call to our amazing doctor Rampton (who I might miss right now more than anyone else) We headed to the North Legon Hospital our Canadian sister Emily coming with because she is amazing. The following events are true I did not need to change any names to protect any innocent because nobody was innocent and nobody gave me their name 

So, we walk through the door at three pm. Reception, administration, and laboratory are closed. We make it down to the nurses’ station and explain the situation. They sit Seth down and ask a million questions while he is just trying to keep from puking on everyone. He pulls out a plastic bag and the nurse starts yelling at people in Twi and then try to take the bag away telling him to wait. They bring in a cereal bowl with about three ounces of bleach in the bottom for him to vomit in – wow, apparently they were not concerned about the projectile nature of vomit. They then take him into the treatment room and try to lay him down on a cot. He politely asks them to wait for a minute, grabs his plastic sack and starts some pretty violent vomiting, the nurse screams in Twi again and the cereal bowl with bleach reappears. Seth finally finishes and lies down and two large syringes show up. What is that, I ask, this one stops cramping and this one if for the vomiting is the answer. I don’t have time to ask anymore questions about what they are injecting into my husband because the deed is done and the dirty, used syringe has been safely stuck into the mattress that seth is lying on. I comfort myself by thinking this must be the first time she stuck a used syringe in this mattress. Next, an IV is administered with a bag of fluids. I am told that he is to sleep a while, then go home, and come back in the morning for a blood test. About an hour later a nurse brings in another bag of what I assume is fluids but it is packaged differently than the last one so I ask what it is- just so I can pretend I have a clue as to what is going on. She says, oh it is to make him heal faster and is a different composition than the other bag. (great, can I have one too? I would love to heal faster.) We stay in the hospital another two hours while seth sleeps…did I mention there were no rubber gloves used during this entire experience.
In the meantime…Thomas is also sick. They stick a digital thermometer in his armpit (I thought that was the least accurate way to take your temperature). Then give him a cold bath with stagnant water from a 50 gallon drum. He screams and throws such a fit that he is hotter than before. I hold him for an hour or so in a sleep/ sick state. When he wakes up he tries to walk but falls on the ground. The nurse tells me that he cannot sit on the ground – this is a hospital. So I get him up and he walks down the hall of the hospital to a garbage can that is full of – yep, syringes.

I could relay so much more of the story – there was an additional 5 hours of hospital time the following morning. However the experience ended with two positive malaria tests and a bag that read “party time” full of malaria medication. We are okay now although Thomas and seth can never donate blood again and, we are just as bad as parents as Nicole Barkers.

However, I must give credit to the North Legon Hospital as they were right on in diagnosing the problem and that both patients are doing fine now.