A Little More Info

The days have been hectic but so far everything is going well. The place that we are staying is nice and comfortable but we have been trying to find a constant food supply that saves as much money as possible. We've been living off eggs and MRE's.

Yesterday, at the hospital, everyone was quickly humbled. The hospital we went to was the biggest hospital in Ghana and it was incredibly busy. We walked in to the waiting room which had over 300 people in line. Luckily we had all our information and they considered Curtis' case an emergency so he was sent to a much shorter waiting room that took only 2 hours. Janie and I (Michael) were able to go with Curtis in to see the doctor. I think he took the case a little more seriously simply because of our presence. He checked Curtis' vitals and felt his stomach and asked many questions about his health. We told him everything we knew and explained that everytime he ate, he would throw everything up an hour later. We also stressed the fact that he is 6 years old and weighs about 25 lbs. His heart rate was extremely high at about 140 bpm when he was practically sleeping on Janie.

The Doctor spoke to us for a bit and admitted Curtis into the Pediatric Emergency Unit. We walked Curtis over to the area which was on the other side of the hospital where he was taken in to see specialists. The hardest part was watching him get his IV and hearing him scream. They took his blood and injected him with something quickly after. After the examinations the Doctors said they were suspicious that it may be Tuberculosis or a congenital hear problem; neither of which are good, but the latter can be treated much more easily.

Last night he spent the night at the hospital with one of the people from the orphanage, Nelson. In the room next to him, there was a baby getting a spinal tap that had meningitis. Because the hospital has no closed rooms, we were able to watch the entire process. During the night Curtis slept extremely well but could not hold food down as he threw up what was given to him twice. I asked to stay the night with Curtis but Nelson told me only one person should stay with him and that I needed to go back to Obuasi to get his health card. After six hours at the hospital we returned to Obuasi for the night.

This morning we woke up early again and returned to Kumasi after picking up one of the mother's at the orphanage. The drive wasn't too bad today and everyone seemed pretty comfortable. The hospital was once again filled with sickness and suffering so it was emotionally draining even for the two hours we stayed today.

As soon as we got to the hospital I walked into the Pediatric Unit to see Curtis laying on a table having an ultrasound of his heart. It was clearly working much too hard. The Doctor then sent Curtis to have an x-ray of his lungs to check for tuberculosis. I took Curtis across the hospital where he again threw up all his breakfast. We waited a short time and the Doctor allowed me to see his x-rays after they were developed. His lungs looked clear, but his heart looked very big for his body size and the Doctor confirmed that his lungs were clear and that they weren't entirely ruling out TB but they were going to focus more on his heart. The doctor who performed the ultrasound requested a more detailed scan of his heart because he said it looked as though his heart had an abnormality in the blood flow. After speaking to the doctor more about it, I still don't fully understand what they mean but they literally said: "blood is flowing abnormally through his heart."

We left Curtis again with one of the mothers and took Nelson back to the orphanage. Tomorrow he will have more tests done to confirm what exactly is wrong with him. He is so strong yet I know how hard this is on him. Last night, Nelson told me they were both awoken by the screams of parents, twice throughout the night, because two babies, one hour apart, died. I can only imagine how scared he is. Thank you all so much again for your help. I will try and update the blog whenever we hear more information.

Michael, Janie, Genna, Laine, John, and Kerri