This entry was started nearly 1 month ago. We have pretty much not had any internet at our house since then. Usually blog silence is due to my laziness, but not this time!!
Now, on to the story:
Sophia has been sick since we arrived in Malawi. As of now (April) she has missed about 7 weeks of school! It began with HUGE, huge tonsils and cold symptoms. Then she consistently has had long lasting fevers without explanation, sometimes with diarrhea, sometimes not, sometimes ending in head colds, sometimes not. About a week after Anna's hospital episode, Sophia got sick again and the Doctor here decided he'd had enough and sent us to South Africa for some tests.
Sophia had a CAT scan on her sinuses which showed that she had acute sinusitis on top of chronic sinusitis, inflamed adenoids, and possible polyps. She also showed a minor allergic reaction to dust(s). The plan is for her to take daily medicine (Claratin/nasal spray) and have a follow up CAT scan in 3 months to see if her sinuses have cleared.
Other than the allergy test, which Sophia hated, we had a great time in South Africa. Not sure how SA is on the same continent as the rest of the Africa that I know though. They have sky scrapers, malls, highways, McDonald's! Sophia is not embarrassed to admit that she ate lunch at McD's EVERY day we where there (which was a week!). The highlight for sure was Sunday in a shopping mall and CINNABON for lunch!!
Another interesting observation is nearly complete lack of shoes on kids in South Africa. Surely this must be where I was adopted from. I'm talking about shoeless kids in restaurants, shopping malls, the zoo!! I might even draw the line at being barefoot at the zoo. I finally asked our taxi driver what the deal was and he explained that shoes are completely optional until kids reach the equivalent of middle school. Shoes, optional? Ahhh, it's like Lynn heaven.
Speaking of Lynn heaven. I have mentioned before that all our dairy products here in Malawi are imported from South Africa. This means they are all expensive. I took full advantage of a paid trip to South Africa to load up an extra suitcase full of CHEESE!!! I mock expiration dates!
UPDATE:
It's now May and Sophia continues to be sick. She is currently on another 10 day course of antibiotics. She will have her 3 month follow up appointment this summer while we are in the States. Assuming her tonsils will come out????
