Sunday, February 19, 2006

Gonna make you wait a bit longer

All the news that's boring to you, but day to day living here....

I do have a handwritten journal of my time in London and the surgery. Over the following week, I’ll type it up and tell you all about the fantastic medevac coordinators and the wonderful plastic surgeons who took care of me.
Last week, avian flu was confirmed in Nigeria (two countries away, but does Benin really count?). Post there is on authorized departure. Yesterday we had a flock of herons in our tree, something that’s never happened while we’ve lived here. Migratory birds are not high on our happy list at the moment. None were found floating in the pool this morning, so we count our blessings. Ian is duty officer and he received a phone call about a discovered dead bird yesterday morning. My first thought was “Birds die”. If there were a dozen birds laying about the yard, that would be a concern. But you know, even if there were, Togo doesn’t have the resources to test for bird flu. I’m not sure what the plan is should it need to.
Katherine has a cavity. Since it’s an obvious cavity and causing some minor pain, it’s something we need to deal with. I sure hope the clinic has a recommendation for someone local who can handle simple fillings. I can just imagine being told that she has to be medevaced for something so simple, and I’m not pleased with the prospect. Everyone cross your fingers that come Tuesday we’ll have a local gameplan.
On Thursday evening right after I returned home, Ian had a board meeting at the school. There’s some confusion over whether or not one of the teachers has tested positive for TB exposure. The current decision at school is to listen to the doctor’s diagnosis of “not positive for TB, but a rash that shows poor diet and weak blood”. Trust me, I’m looking up TB test sites to see if this is valid or pure quackery. I spoke with the school director and informed her of Katherine’s sensitivity to any TB exposure whatsoever, and suggested strongly that they call in another doctor to get a second opinion. We already know that treatment involves 6-9 months of daily INH, and while TB is a very slow developing disease, I don’t feel that waiting around for six months to retest is in anyone’s best interest. Well, certainly not my family's.

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