#6 Kanesa Part III

So Thursday night around mid-night he was still throwing everything up. He looked really really bad so Tesfanesh told me to give him an injection of glucose. I did. I gave someone, for the first time, an injection. I was nervous while I did it because all the nannies and Ilie were watching me. I did an ok job at too. But it wasn’t enough so we ended up taking him to the hospital around 1am. The doctor ordered an IV and we started him on that. They took a blood sample as well as urine and stool samples. Tesfanesh had a cold so I told her to go back home and try to get some sleep while I stayed with him all night. I laid down around three but kept waking up because Kanesa was either thirsty or was trying to pull his IV out. I think we both slept about 2 hours that night…the same the night before. After the IV was done we went and saw the doctor again. He said that the fever and vomiting is caused by a virus, but since his spleen is enlarged and his neck has some stiffness he wants to do more tests for malaria and meningitis. So we went to get more blood work done…he is such a trooper he doesn’t cry at all when they prick his finger or give him a shot. The results came back as I expected negative for both, but the doctor was positive he had malaria and told us to come back when he had a fever. I said, “That’s it? You aren’t going to give him anything for the virus?” And then he wrote out a prescription for antibiotics, anti-vomiting, and iron drops because he is anemic. I was so mad and him and it was probably due to lack of sleep. We stopped by the pharmacy on the way home and got him all of the meds. He and I both slept the day away. When I got up at 5pm he was eating and looked so much better. I was kicking myself for not taking him sooner but we were told not to spend money when we don’t have it. He hates the flavor of the iron medicine and sometimes refuses to take it. I don’t blame him at all it’s gross. Saturday night came around and I was getting him ready for bed I noticed that he felt hot. I took his temp and he had a slight fever. I told Tesfanesh that we needed to go to the hospital right away. Alizare came an hour later and I took his temp in the car…it was below normal…but we were almost to the hospital. He got the blood work done and it showed up positive this time. He has malaria. I told Tesfanesh she was right. Luckily it is the easier of the two and we caught it in the early stage. It has been a week since we found out he has malaria and he is back to normal, although the virus has now spread to all the babies except three.