Kampala Trip to the Doctor

The sickness marches on and since the symptoms have been so unusual and the availability of extensive lab work is limited in Mbale, we decided on Friday afternoon to go to Kampala with William (who continues to be sick every few days with fever and vomiting) and Benaiah (who wasn't responding to the antibiotics and malaria meds, at first).

We were able to find a doctor who seems committed to getting to the bottom of this with us.  We were also able to get lots of blood work done and the boys even sat very nicely for it.  (God gives so much grace when it is needed! :)  

We haven't heard anything yet, but we continue to pray that God will grant healing and answers as to what is making them continually sick.

While William has repeatedly tested negative for an usual strain of malaria, called Vivax malaria...we have chosen to put him on meds for it anyway.  His symptoms are similar and it is possible to get a false negative test.

Benaiah finally rounded a corner with the malaria, but his lymph node is still quite swollen.  (Although it has reduced some in size with the antibiotics)  If his blood work doesn't give us any clues, we will likely do a biopsy on his lymph node.  We would like to rule out the possibility of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis.

So thank you for praying for us!!  I continue to be so grateful that God has blessed us with the means of seeking medical attention for our kids.  So many brothers and sisters here, have no hope...they only can sit and watch their children suffer and often die.  God has been so generous with us!  I'm also thankful for the peace that he has filled our hearts with.  Even when we hear scary words like "TB" and "unknown bacteria", we know that God is sovereign and has everything under control.  We can't see it, but God can and we praise him for that and live our days in the joy that such knowledge brings.  God loves our children so much more than we do and this suffering is leading to their sanctification and their eternal joy, as well.

On a lighter note...

Not having time to do much research to find a "good value" guest house and wanting to stay close to the medical facilities, we ended up at a really nice hotel.  

The boys were so sad that we didn't bring their bathing suits!

This hotel had a 12 story tower on it, that had a rotating restaurant on the top floor.  We didn't eat there, but one of the workers was sweet to let us come in and take a peek around.

And here is where I have to digress and just make a note that Uganda doesn't quite do things the way we do in America...

...wide open windows on the 12th floor? (note Benaiah's hand being held in the above picture, much to his displeasure...)

And what about 7000 volts a few feet from the pool?

And one more funny moment...

The hotel gave us grapes for breakfast...a favorite, often-enjoyed snack in America, but something we haven't had the entire time we've been here.  While you occasionally see them they are cost-prohibitive for our size family. (I would guess about $40 for the size bunch we would get at Costco).

Benaiah took one look at them and said, "What is this?!?"  Ah, yes...it has been almost a year that we've been here and one year is a long time for a toddler!