First Term Review - Health Issues (by Thom)

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to start a series here on our blog writing about the things we’ve learned during our first term in Mali. We’re getting set to return to the US next week for our first furlough. Ironically, I intended to write about health issues in the first entry and ended up getting delayed by a serious illness that knocked down both Amanda and me.

The way we treat and approach health issues here is quite different from the US. First of all, we take an anti-malaria medicine daily. Forgetting even one day can cause the on-set of Malaria – the number one killer in Africa. We were blessed in the handful of times that we forgot that we didn’t end up with the parasite. We did come down with other ‘fun’ things, though. We both have gotten the flu here. Amanda got a tape worm in her foot. I’ve had internal parasites. Of course, the typical developing-world problems have also caught up with us, too.

There is a lot more self-diagnosis here. While quality medical care exists in Bamako there is a language barrier as well as certain hygiene issues. The best example I can give of this is from my tooth problem last October. I needed a root canal. The dentist I visited was French but he worked in a very inexpensive clinic. He spoke no English and spoke much better French than I could understand. He would look at the tooth, break pieces off, patch it up and send me home only to come back in a couple of days. This process repeated itself a half dozen times before he finally gave me the root canal. He only used pain-killers after he had already started drilling into the nerve. Also, he wore gloves but would walk in and out of the office with those gloves, touching the very, very dirty door and shaking hands with other doctors and patients. Trust me, I tried very hard to not think about this while his hands were in my mouth. He also ended up prescribing me a pain-killer to which I am allergic. I noticed, though, so nothing bad happened.

Last fall Amanda fell into an open sewer. We were afraid that she might have broken her leg so we went to the hospital. The doctors were NOT gentle with her painful leg, but fortunately it was ‘only’ a couple of leg, ankle, and knee sprains and bruises.

Of course, none of this compares to the health problems of Miriam and, especially, Hannah when they were first born. Hannah’s milk allergy nearly killed her. We did find a great pediatrician in Bamako who saw then regularly and gave them their first baby shots.

So what have we learned? First, God is big. We prayed a lot through our sicknesses and the early problems of Hannah. We saw answers to prayer that brought us the healthy girls we have today. Second, Google is our friend! You can learn a lot by searching for your problem. Thirdly, we’re going to stock our personal pharmacy a lot better this next term. With all the dust in the air we weren’t prepared for the need for allergy medicine. Also, we didn’t pack nearly enough of the basics – like Tylenol. Finally, I’ve learned that if I want to avoid root canals I should probably lay off the corn nuts. (So sad…)