Grace gits to the Hospital

I am writing this blog after returning from the hospital, but I won’t be posting it until I break the news to the parents. A title including ‘Grace’ and ‘hospital’ would cause a heart attack. I also figure this will give me time to see if the medicine works and if the doctor was right, or if I need to go back.

So, I’ve kind of felt like an old woman for the past few days. It took me about 20 minutes to walk a few blocks and I was exhausted by the time I got home. Yesterday, I played hooky from work and watched the only movies that work on my computer – Hitch and Count of Monte Cristo- and took turns laying on the couch and my bed.

Well this morning, we decided that maybe I have appendicitis. So, to the hospital we went. We called a taxi at Nyali Cinemax and the taxi driver, after putting us in his car, remembered he forgot his license at home. Not wanting to make the situation seem urgent to encourage him to charge us more money, we went along for the ride, seeing all those “Swahili houses.” He happily took us the hospital- well almost to the pharmacy- but then to the right place. Aga Khan Hospital.

I’ll admit it; I had a little bit of an emotional breakdown. The idea of surgery in a third world country seemed daunting, but when we arrived at the hospital it was no big deal.

The clerk had a real hard time understanding my address in the US and basically any other thing I told her about myself. After they filled out my paperwork, I moved to the next waiting area (yes the never ending number of waiting rooms are in Africa too) and then I was called in for the “consultation”, I thought. (consultation fee was about 5 dollars.) This guy took my temp, blood pressure, and weight. I thought he was my doc so I told him all my symptoms. All he said was “sorry, sorry, sorry.” I guess he was just the intermediate step and I made him suffer by telling him my life story. It was nice to see on that scale that I had lost about 13 pounds in the last week-which is impossible. I told my doctor that and she matter-of-factly said well maybe it’s not accurate. So we now know that they weigh you just for kicks.

In my consultation, she decided that I had some sort of stomach infection, which makes sense. I’ll give her that. I did some tests and lots of waiting. Blair, Sam, and Andrew were there for moral support and for the experience. (I’m glad I supplied some entertainment for a Saturday.)

So I paid about 20 bucks for my lab fees and 8 for my prescriptions and we were on our way. (which makes for a total of around 33 bucks…wow.)

The hospital was much nicer than expected. It is a private hospital in a nice area but still had some “Kenya” to it. For example, the bathrooms had no sinks. I had to bug the janitor to use his. All in all, it was a fun 4 hour experience.