#89 The Gunk

That’s a medical term, right?

So “the Gunk” is what I’m labeling Lyol and Zane’s sickness that they are finally getting over.

Last Monday Zane was feeling a little warm. I took his temperature, but he just had a mild temperature. 100.4. Not even a technical fever. That night I made Olen help me poke his finger and did a home malaria test. I’m so thankful Wendy and Gary gave us a bunch of them. Now I don’t have to wait for the lab to open. (It’s only open from 8:30 to noon). He screamed. Lyol watched all of this while taking his bath. Even if he doesn’t say anything, he takes everything in.

Later he likes to tell Tammy and Jamie all of our secrets. He tell them when the cat brings in a half-eaten bat. When mommy screams because it is so gross. When we eat brownies or candy. When we poke Baby Zane’s finger...Really everything.

His malaria test was negative. So I wait. The next day his nose starts to run and he gets the cough that is going around.

Lyol also wakes up with eye gunk. It’s an eye infection that produces nasty yellow discharge. This then makes his eyes stick together.

At this he screams and cries and is miserable. We heat up some water on the stove and put a warm washcloth on his face to soak his eyes. They eventually open. I start him on amoxicillin just because it’s so nasty. Luckily he takes pills pretty well.

Tuesday evening Lyol is really acting clingy. Olen’s in a fancy four-hour-long hospital board meeting, so I’m left with two sick kids at home. Although honestly I’d rather be at home with the sick kids than in the board meeting. They are so painful (the meetings).

Lyol has been feeling hot today. I know it’s the eye gunk thing, but I’m ALWAYS worried about malaria here. We have Lyol on pills for prophylaxis, but it’s always a concern. I give him some Tylenol and Motrin.

An hour later, his temperature is still 102 F. I decide I need to do a malaria test. Lyol has had his finger poked before, so I decided that I need to sneak up on him and just do it or he’ll never sit still to let me do it.

I gather all of my supplies. The alcohol pad, the finger jabber, the little plastic thing to suck some drops of blood in (pipette), the malaria test itself, and the solution to add to the malaria test and blood.

I had let Lyol watch VeggieTales on the computer, so he was comfortably sitting watching it.

I take his finger, wipe it quick, and poked it. He starts to scream. I don’t let go because I need the blood now. I quickly suck up the blood into the pipette so I can do the exam.

He’s continuing to scream and crying, “Mommy poke Lyol!” I try to comfort him as I finish the malaria exam.

Negative. So how well do you trust an exam? The control was well lit up, so I know it worked.

Olen gets home later and we both agree that it’s just the viral eye gunk. We try to think of what else it could be. He has all of his vaccinations, but maybe it’s something else?

At 11pm or so Lyol comes to bed with us. He’s burning up. I hold him in our bed and get scared. I pray. I cry.

Olen, what should we do?

He is really hot, and though it’s most likely the eye gunk, it could still be malaria. So I send Olen up to the hospital at midnight to get some quinine. Olen comes back with the pills and a glass of water and wakes up Lyol. It’s nasty tasting, but he’s a champ and takes the pills.

The whole rest of the night he screamed and cried every thirty minutes, “NO POKE LYOL FINGER!!!” Olen finally held and rocked him to sleep.

The next morning he kept telling Olen that Mommy poked his finger.

We both decided that sneaking up on him was not the way to go. He was afraid we were going to sneak up on him to poke his finger. We have to reassure him that we are not going to sneak up on him again.

It’s now a week later. Lyol finished his probably unnecessary oral quinine and amoxicillin. Zane is better too with no meds, but has a little cough still. He went through the eye gunk thing too.

Both are now finally waking up without their eyes being crusted together.

Lyol is still talking about his finger getting poked.

We are grateful for the daily prayers!

love
olen and danae

missionarydoctors.blogspot.com

danae.netteburg@gmail.com.

Olen phone: +235 62 16 04 93
Danae phone: +235 62 17 04 80

Olen et Danae Netteburg
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