The Story Continues (Not for the Faint-of-Heart)

And the story continues….

After the first procedure of removing the pus, the docs proceeded to inform me that she was indeed a rather sick little girl and that it was God’s grace that we came in time.  Not that she would have died on the way, but her ankle joint was septic. “Septic arthritis” they said.  And that we were fortunate to get her to Tsiko before the infection moved from her joint and into her blood stream.

They took some of the pus and cultured it, hoping to discover if the infection was strep or staph.  And they started her on some heavy antibiotics!  She was on two or three different kinds, plus pain killers.

Todd and Kelly told me to bring her back at 9 pm that night (still Friday) to do the whole procedure again – suck out pus, and then irrigate the joint by putting three needles into her foot, and then basically flushing it with water.  The water goes in one needle hole and comes squirting out the others.

Here's Kylie's foot with the water coming out and hitting Todd's hand

We got settled in our room in the guest house and then returned to the hospital.  Amazingly, there was a man from the USA who was an anesthetist who extended his stay in Tsiko until December 29.  Gordon is Kylie’s hero!  He came to the treatment room and put her to sleep with some nice meds.  He called them “the milk of amnesia”!  They were able to do the entire procedure in less than half and hour.

Kylie's new Best Friend, Gordon!

Watching them do it to her made me feel a little queasy.  And Emily hadn’t eaten well on the trip down so by 9 pm we were both tired.  I knew that it was possible I could faint, but I stayed in the room but with my eyes down, in fact they were closed, just praying and praying and praying.  Emily had to hold Kylie’s other leg down so she ended up watching most of the procedure.  But by the end of it, we both felt like we were going to faint and had to put our heads between our knees.  Just after, Kylie came out of her “sleep”, took one look at the two of us sitting side by side, and in her post-drug-induced-sleepy and slurred voice, said “What’s the matter with those two??”  It gave us all a good (and much-needed) chuckle.

We went back to our room and I thought we would have a terrible first night.  But graciously, God allowed Kylie to sleep quite well, even though I had to wake her up in the night (and every night after) to give her meds.

That night I knew that people were praying, and my heart was so full of gratitude for those who were praying, for this hospital, for the kind staff and medical personnel, and for God’s goodness and mercy to Kylie.

At that point in time, Todd had talked to me about having to stay for about two weeks.  I was shocked.  When we left Mango that day I thought we’d be back in time to celebrate Christmas with Nate and the boys, as well as our team.  Bummer.  But we knew we had to stay so it didn’t take long to get over the disappointment. 

Saturday morning, we did the procedure at 9 am again.  A little less pus.  We came back to our room and she slept.  We went back again at 2 pm for more meds.  Returned to our room and she slept.  When we went back after supper for the procedure again, half way through it, the hospital lost power.  The room went pitch black and was silent.  The only sound was me, and I just whispered, “Oh my goodness!”  Thankfully, in just a few seconds the generator started up and we were back at it.

We went back to our room and Kind Dr. Kelly came to our guest house room at 11:30 pm to administer the last IV meds for the day!  Talk about great care – house calls!

Here's my sleepy head with her big splint/cast thing.  

And so that’s how the days went, back and forth to the hospital for meds, procedures etc.  Before each procedure, the docs and other staff gathered around Kylie and prayed.  Every time they did it, I almost cried.  Almost.  I was just so grateful for the care they give and the love they show!

On Saturday, Kelly came in with the lab results.  Turns out the antibiotics they had her on weren’t strong enough for the infection.  It was indeed a staph infection and staph was resistant to the medication.  They came up with a whole new plan for medication and we started again.  When she broke the news, I did start to cry.  I was just discouraged but at the same time thankful that we hadn’t been doing these meds for days and days before the lab results came in.  It had only been a day (but it felt like five!)

On Sunday, we did the same sorta stuff.  But they took the procedure down to every 24 hours rather than every 12.  And then another miracle!  Dr. Joanie came in to see Kylie and it turns out that Dr. Joanie’s job in the USA is to consult on septic joints in pediatrics.  I’m not kidding.  Dr. Joanie does a lot of other stuff, including internal medicine, but this was one of her areas of expertise.  God is awesome.

On Christmas Day, we did the procedure early in the morning so that Todd could be with his family for Christmas morning.  So Kylie, Emily and I were back to bed before 8 am!  We joined in the Tsiko team’s Christmas dinner and celebration and just as that was wrapping up, Nate phoned me.  Teddy was sick.  Nausea, fever, back pain.  And who was walking by just as I took the call?  Dr. Kelly – the pediatrician.  She told us what meds to give and said that if it didn’t clear up in the next day or so, to start him on malaria meds.  The next day all the symptoms returned and so Teddy was treated for malaria.

At Christmas dinner, I sat with Todd and his family and we had a heart-to-heart chat about Kylie’s condition.  It was a good.  And poor Todd, he’s a great doc and he’s tough and strong and treats things aggressively.  But as he chatted about our Kylie, he started to tear up.  He also let me know that she was getting pretty special treatment.  It wasn’t normal protocol that at a patient’s procedure that all the doctors showed up.  Every time she had it done there was Todd, Kelly, Dr. Dave, Gordon, Emily, me, (as if we’re part of the medical team!!) and sometimes John. We were receiving excellent care! Todd came over that night to change the dressings on her foot and then Kelly came at midnight for her late-night-meds.

 

Our real medical team.  Gordon, Emily, Todd, Dr. Dave and John.
Where am I?  Look at the next pic...

Like any good Momma, I'm sitting in the wheel chair,
just in case I faint at all these fun procedures!

On Wednesday morning, we had our first “pus free” day.  Yay!!  And Thursday it happened again.  Good news again!  Nate and the boys were coming on Saturday, so I only had to make it another day before they arrived.  I was getting really tired.  Late nights, early mornings, emotions, having to carry Kylie around the hospital (one day the truck had a flat tire, so I actually had to carry her TO the hospital).  I was done.

Here's the nasty foot with the drain still in, allowing pus to escape.

This is like a total "action shot" - look at the goo coming out her heel.

On Friday, Kylie had the procedure again and Todd really manipulated the joint, so sweet Gordon (by this time, everyone knew that Gordon was Kylie’s favourite!) gave her some morphine to help with the pain.  Wouldn’t you know that Kylie would react to morphine, so we had to stay at the hospital a little longer to make sure that she was okay (breathing is important, they say).

By Friday night, I was so done.  Tears were flowing freely – and if you know me, I hate crying!

This is Yowvi, the best nurse ever at getting an IV in!
Kylie loves this guy too.

Saturday morning, we woke up to a knock at the door.  There were two of Todd’s boys, with plates of fresh hot waffles for Kylie and I!  Can you believe it?  Waffle delivery is good medicine and heals all wounds.

Nate and the boys arrived mid afternoon and we had supper together.  It was so wonderful to be back together again.  We moved from the guest house to an actual house since by now, we were told that we would be staying in Tsiko for at least a month.  All the docs agreed that a LONG course of IV antibiotics was necessary to make sure that Kylie would regain full function of her joint. I was in no hurry to get back to Mango after all the love, care and kindness the Tsiko staff had shown.

I had a meeting with Todd and Kelly at 7 pm, so I took off to that shortly after we finished dinner.  The meeting was only about an hour and a half and when I returned home, there was Jack with a huge HUGE bandage on his head.  In the time I had been gone, he had decided to jump from the top bunk of the bed to the other bed in the room  – and didn’t take into account the ceiling fan.  Basically he was scalped.  Two layers of sutures (25 I think in the top layer) later, he was back at home bouncing around.

As I walked in the door and was told what happened, I sat down and uttered the words, “I’m going home.”  But Jack bounced around telling me he was just fine.  I guess he came out of the bedroom with blood pouring out of his head, so Nate sent Ethan running back to the guest house to find help.  Judy (an ex-EMT) came running and helped Nate get Jack to the hospital where Dr. Dave stitched him up.  Kelly’s parents are visiting from the USA, heard the commotion and came over the help, so they stayed with the other four kids.  By the time I got home, it was just Nate and the kids in the house, all the blood was cleaned up, and Jack was stitched back together.  All in an hour and a half.

Here are out two invalids!

The drain comes out!  Look at the hole where it was.  So yuck.

On Sunday night, Kylie began to have an allergic reaction to her antibiotics.  So the docs debated about what to try next.  I think Todd thought I was going to have a major melt down, so he tried to break it to me nice. They came up with a good option called Vancomycin.  It’s the strongest antibiotic there is. And it’s not available in Togo.  We called home to see if my brother could bring it out when he comes in mid-January.  Turns out he can, but it will cost us about $4000.00.  So we prayed about it. Todd had his pharmacists call around in country and amazingly they found it.  For just a few hundred dollars.  Yay – miracle number 11294958!!

And so we're at today - the new meds arrived yesterday and Kylie started them at this morning’s procedure (this is Thursday, I think....) She had a nasty reaction called “Red Man’s Reaction” (you can probably guess what happened to her) but it’s not an allergy.

Because this med is so strong, they have to slowly figure out how best to administer it to her, so we’ll continue to go to the hospital twice a day for IV meds.

Me and my Kylie-bear.  She's one tough cookie.  I'm one thankful Mom!

Kylie and Nate - so happy to have him here with us.  (My arms were getting so tired from carrying her!)

The Medical Team - kinda.  Me and Emily (the fakers) with Gordon and Todd (the real ones.) And Kylie
hanging on to her most favourite med!

One more gross shot.  This one is for my sister. She hates this stuff.

So that’s where we’re at.  There is actually MUCH more to tell, but you’re tired of reading already.

Thank you for praying.  Thank you for kind words, encouraging notes and supporting us through this.  We have certainly felt the LOVE!

We’re here in Tsiko until January 18^th or so, if all goes well.  We plan to enjoy our time here and consider it a blessing from God to be in such a beautiful place, settled nicely into a comfy and cute house, surrounded by some of the kindest people I have ever met.

God is good.  Yes, He’s good.

(Oh, and P.S., we celebrated Christmas as a family on December 31.  We now consider that date “African Christmas”!)