Hospital Visits (or Why Titchies Climb Trees)

Living within walking distance of the hospital can be a good thing. Actually, walking distance is pretty crucial in my life, since I don’t have a car! That works out pretty well up here though.

Last week I found out that there are two babies in the nursery that have been abandoned. Monicah is a preemie, just over three pounds, and was brought in by some relatives. She is tiny, but not as small as some of the other preemies in there! The other baby doesn’t have a name. She is the only full-term baby in the nursery since hospital procedure is to place healthy babies in the bed with their mothers. The hospital staff went back to check on her mother and found the baby alone in the bed. I’ve been down to hold her a few times this week and she is possibly the cutest thing ever. Please pray for special families for both of these babies. Pray also for their mothers, and for whatever situation prevents them from being able to take care of them.

My other big trip to the hospital happened last Wednesday . . . student health at RVA schedules dentist appointments for the entire elementary school, and the nurses spent all day shuttling a class at a time down to the dental office for quick checkups. My class was scheduled to go right after lunch and I was looking forward to a good hour or so to plan for the next week. As I was ushering kids into the school van and reminding them to be good and bring homework, a group of third graders came running from the playground. “Miss Anderson, Penny fell from a tree and she’s SCREAMING!”

I arrived at the scene of the accident to see a very distraught student cradling an awkwardly bent wrist. Thus began a very long afternoon. First we had to walk to student health, which isn’t that far away but was kind of traumatic for Penny. It was on that walk as I questioned her about where her parents – who are both doctors – were that day and she realized with a wail . . . “They’re in NaiRObi!” After a brief inspection by the nurse, we left a very understaffed student health in the charge of one of the nurse’s husbands (all the nurses were either in Nairobi or at the dental clinic) and drove Penny down to the hospital. It was a short trip but every bump (and there are a million) brought screams.

Because this is Africa and things are different, I went to the dental office to get Penny’s patient number and nurse Jackie took my student to start the process of x-rays. And there was my entire class, chatting it up in the waiting room, updating me on their teeth and asking about Penny. Cute. =) Then back to the hospital to wait in a very long line for an x-ray. That process was quite painful for my girl, having to rotate her wrist for the technician . . . I’m sure her screams were not comforting to the 30 patients waiting in the hallway. About two hours later, x-rays had been taken that confirmed she needed surgery and her mom was almost back from Nairobi, so I met back with my class and drove back to school in time to pack up and pray for Penny.

It’s all in the family here . . . one of my student’s fathers was the anesthesiologist who put Penny under and another student’s father was the orthopedic surgeon who set her wrist. And the trooper was back at school the next day, anxious for access to my bag of Sharpies so that little cast was plain white no longer. So that’s why we let Titchies climb trees, because we live so close to a hospital that can patch them up.