Bones

Ok, so I didn’t realise it had been nearly 3 whole months of no blogging. Oops.  My days have been full – everything just takes longer here, and come the end of the day I haven’t had much energy for writing. Sometimes, something has to give and for the past few months – this blog has been one of those things. However, on this stormy Saturday morning I feel it’s a good a time as any to shake off the cobwebs and resurrect it with a bit of catch-up!

 

So, how is it that we can go nearly 17 years with not one of our kids breaking any bones (other than fingers, toes and noses!) then have two breaks within 5 weeks???

 

It’s definately been a month of medical adventures – starting with Josiah breaking his ankle while riding the motorbike and needing to get it screwed back together. Shortly after, kids in the village we help out in started coming down with typhoid and some a double dose of that combined with malaria. Some were really sick. So, lots of checking on kids, organising hospital care and doctors visits and treatment. Meanwhile at home, we treated one of our kids for giardia and are waiting on test results to see what parasites another has!

waiting for surgery

sign in hospital bathroom

Move forward to two nights ago - when I saw Rianas arm after putting her hand out to stop herself falling, I knew we were in for another Gordon in plaster! Funny thing was, just the night before when we’d been visiting friends, I’d made a splint out of sticks and bandaged up a boy in their village with a break in the same place as Rianas! It made me think about needing a sling for our first aid kit at home, so the next morning when Pete, Drew and I had boda’d into the city to get wholesale medical supplies for the village we help in (if you have a mental picture of us pulling our knees in as we narrowly pass between huge trucks and bulshy taxi vans, dodging traffic police, keeping tight hold of phones in pockets as we pass through densely populated market areas and praying we get there safely you’re on the right track - if you’re picturing a calm, leisurely motorbike ride to an ordered shopping centre you’re wrong, very wrong!) I had the supplier ringing round trying to find slings for me to no avail! Little did I know that one would come in handy that night!

waiting for x-ray

So, off to a close by hospital to get x-rays and a cast, or so I thought. But things aren’t quite that simple here. We chose this hospital because it’s close to where we live and when you’re driving over bumpy roads with an injury – you really do feel every bump and want the trip to be as quick as possible. Despite me having to point out the break on Josiah’s ankle x-ray five weeks earlier (which ended up needing surgery), I thought surely that must’ve been an off day for the doctor and was worth checking out again to avoid a longer drive. But no, even when I pointed to the fracture, I could see he thought the bones were meant to be like that (different Dr to the one Josiah had), and despite the obvious pain, dented arm and swelling said she could wear the sling for a few days if she wanted, take some pain killers and rub some cream on it. Don’t get me started! I wasn’t going to persist and end up with the arm being set wonky so took her home, bandaged it and made plans to find another hospital. Before the Dr at the orthopaedic hospital across the city the next morning even finished taking the x-ray out of the envelope he saw the fracture – so now we have one on crutches and one in a sling!

 

We were joking when I came back from the hospital with Riana that when we all go out together people will think we’ve been in some kind of accident – or have been beating our kids! Drew’s seriously considering wrapping his head in a bandage or folding and duck taping one of his legs up inside his shorts to give people even more to talk about!

Love my kids – broken bones, fake amputations and all!