We've physically been in Africa for 10 months. During those 10 months I've only sat in the driver's seat to drive around a compound. That's it. Any of you who have traveled here probably understand my hesitation for driving. Let me try to put it into words. There are rules here that are loosely followed. There are red-lights at some intersections that work some times. There are sometimes lines on the road, but they're not really followed. There's a few hundred motos (meaning motorcycles/scooters/two-wheeled vehicles) surrounding you at any given time, who also loosely follow any rules that might be there. Not to mention there are people walking/running across the road wherever they want and whenever they want. The only thing I have going for me here is that I already know how to drive a stick shift (thanks, Dad!). So, I think you can understand my hesitation.
Yesterday, everything that had held me back from driving had to be thrown out the window. I had to drive in Africa.
We had a bit of an emergency situation. First, let me say everyone is ok now. And it wasn't Chandler. Let me just take you through our morning.
Chandler woke up at 5:15 a.m. wanting to eat. I fed her and she was back asleep by 5:45. At that same time, Trey got up because his stomach was hurting him. He went to the bathroom and came back with no relief. He then started saying he was itching all over. I told him to see if he had a rash anywhere. He went to the bathroom again and was in there for a few minutes before I realized he was throwing up. I say to myself, "Hm, that's not good." At the risk of waking my sleeping beauty, I turn on the light and wait for him to come out of the bathroom. He says again that he's itching all over & that he feels like something is really wrong. As he lays down on the bed I begin to examine the itching, noticing a rash showing up on his legs... and his arms... and his chest. I immediately begin to search for medicine and find nothing that I know will help while Trey finds himself back in the bathroom. At this point we decide to take the chances of waking up our supervisors. We didn't have any medicine that I knew would help and his rash was spreading quickly. As I'm on the phone with Barbara, he continues to get worse. He's lying on the bathroom floor, trying not to vomit again and trying not to scratch the uncomfortable rash. Barbara gets off the phone to look for medicine and come up with a solution. She calls back and I tell her it's still getting worse and she says to get him over to their house.
Ok, get him to their house.... hmmmm... that means I'm going to have to drive. ME! DRIVE! WHAT?! So I change clothes, grab a shirt for Trey, and grab the babies bag (since I have no idea how long we'll be out) and run to the door. I decided to get everything to the car before making Trey get off the floor and waking the baby up. I went outside and told our guard, "Bonjour! Monsieur est tres malade." (see, my French is coming along.) He understood and began to help me get the gate open. I run back inside and get Trey & the baby. We all get in the car and off we go. Lucky for me it was only 6:30ish and there weren't many people on the roads. We get to their house and Barbara tells us to stay in the car we're heading to the guest house where the volunteer medical team is staying. At this point, Barbara drives. We get over there and see a doctor. He says Trey is having an allergic reaction to something. He gives us Benadryl and says to take Prednisone as well. We head back to their house and Trey decides he just wants to get back home and get in bed.
Off we go... I'm back in the driver's seat with lots more traffic. I go to pull onto the busy road and seriously, it probably took me 5 minutes to inch my way out. No one would stop to let me out.. the motos were honking at me, the cars were flying past me, and people were giving me dirty looks. I finally get out there and start on my way. Oh my. SOOOO STRESSFUL. And it was only for a few minutes. I needed to get about a mile on the main road before I could get on side roads. We turn on the first side road and Trey immediately says, "Turn around. We have to go back." WHAT?! BACK?! Luckily we knew of back roads that could get us to their house. The worst part of that is they are very bumpy roads with a very sick husband. We get back to their house and get inside. Trey crashes on the couch and I can finally breath.
After about 2 hours (and 2 other doses of medicine) Trey's feeling well enough to get in the car again. This time I was a little less stressed. We made it home safely & without hitting anyone. Trey crashed for the rest of the day. In total he took 5 different medicines to help with the symptoms. We are still racking our brains as to what could have caused this reaction. It was too long after he ate to be a food reaction (so we think) and can't seem to find any bug bites. We're not the only ones trying to figure out what happened, we have some nurses & doctors helping as well. He's doing much better today. And so am I now that I don't have to drive again!
No comments:
Post a Comment