Fever Pitch

Rumours of the scary-sounding Streptococcus A bacterial infection sent me rushing up to the Dodoma Medical clinic this week. Apparently, this nasty infection has been going around the children's school. I felt uneasy- the infection sounded horrible, with nasty far-reaching side effects. Since all 3 children have been ill these past 2 weeks with high fevers, sore throats and illness I felt I had better get them checked for infection levels.

I was holding off on going to the clinic, but when Ben came home from school yesterday with another fever and Joel woke from his nap with a fever, I was finally galvanised into action! My children's recurring fevers drove me into a fever-pitch of action! Up to the clinic we must go! I had been putting it off for 2 weeks, despite our awful Saturday night when all 3 children had high temperatures, Ben vomited and Joel was up all night with frightening croup! But with horrid bacterial infections lurking and fevers coming and going, the time had come to brace ourselves and head up the hill to DCMC...

I really do not enjoy going up to the clinic. Here are some of the reasons why:

• the long wait:

 This time I went prepared, with bags of books, pens, puzzle books, bottles of water and some chapatis for the 3 children to snack on.

• the lottery of which doctor we may see:

Somtimes, we get a doctor who is professional and helpful and you feel like they are giving you helpful medical advice. But yesterday, the doctor who happened to be on duty was unusual. He was very young and did not know how to behave towards my children, grabbing them, rubbing his face against their cheeks, stroking them, pulling them roughly into big hugs, pushing them to stand between his knees when he sat down and then picking Esther up, despite her reluctance, then swinging her around!! She was very upset by this, not surprisingly. I had to keep intervening to pull my children away from him, saying, "They don't like that! Please let them go!" It was all very awkward.
On top of this, he did not examine their throats or ask relevant questions about their health and I was so upset at his inappropriate behaviour that all the things I'd wanted to ask him went straight out of my head! I only realised later what a waste of time the whole appointment had been, as nothing was actually achieved. The young man simply recommended blood tests for all of them, including the unavoidable malaria test for Ben in light of him having a fever, even though I told him that Ben had been tested already and the results were negative. Which brings me on to my next point...

• the blood tests.   Inevitably, the children were to be sent to the laboratory for their blood counts to be tested, along with Ben's malaria test. As soon as the children heard this, Esther and Ben burst into noisy tears and Joel was confused and upset by all the noise and crying. The consultation room was transformed into a scene worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy! My children hate having the needle stuck in to draw their blood for testing. It is always so upsetting for them and therefore for me too!

 Fortunately it was over very quickly with a needle in one finger and the needle point was tiny, so the crying subsided fairly soon afterwards:

• the laboratory.  I have horrors of the lab, where the counter-tops are strewn with suspicious-looking vials of blood, ominous needles and strange bottles of medical solutions: 

I always feel on-edge in the lab, not quite sure whether everything is safely stowed and feeling over-conscious of the threat of contaminated blood. I do have a very active imagination, so I know I'm probably over-reacting, but being a Mum makes me very sensitive to possible threats to my children's health and an uneasy awareness of AIDS infection, rightly or wrongly, lingers in my consciousness.

• the uncertainty. Because the Doctor I had seen had not installed confidence in me, I found it harder to trust his diagnosis of the test results. I could see from the table of results from the lab that Ben did not have malaria, but I was in the doctor's hands to interpret everything else. I just found it harder to believe him when he told me nothing was wrong with any of the children, especially when I got home and Ben's fever went up to 40'C - for no apparent reason.

It was a frustrating afternoon.
Someone asked me recently what I will and won't miss about Dodoma when we move on. I'd like to say that I won't miss my visits to DCMC, but part of me knows that we will be moving somewhere less developed.... so I wonder if perhaps one day I will look back on this blog post and, in hindsight, miss the lab and the clinic and the fact that at least we had somewhere to go for blood tests and a certain level of medical support!