So those of you who were all excited to follow our exciting adventures in India may have noticed that we haven't been quite as faithful in our narrative as we had advertised For those of you in Seattle or on Facebook you've probably also noticed that we came home a week early. So to get it out of the way we're going to tell you what happened - and THEN we'll have a couple posts about the exciting things we saw!
Like we said in our last post, we left for India with Luke having a little cold, which made our plane rides miserable. Little did we know how much we would hope he would get that well again!
After a couple of hours of sleep, we woke up the next morning to find Luke still coughing and feeling warm. We didn't think much of it, just that he needed to sleep and get some Tylenol. Even when he threw up we thought it was just because he didn't like his malaria medicine. So thinking that Luke's illness was fine if not slightly inconvenient we left the hotel and went to Amit's Mother's Cousin's house. For simplicity we will simply say Amit's Aunt and Uncle and Cousin Munu. They welcomed us warmly, and I excused myself to put Luke down for a nap.
Luke slept, and seemed bothered by everything when he woke up. He would give a few smiles to the new people, but over all he was getting more and more unhappy by the minute. He was also feeling warmer as well, so we busted out our pacifier thermometer and he had a fever of 102 F! Amit's dad and uncle went out to find pedialyte, while we continued with Tylenol and breast milk. He threw up another two times, but we kept pushing fluids into him ever 10-20 minutes. After a few hours it had reached 103.8F and he wasn't waking up or crying anymore. At this point Amit's aunt brought in a bowl with cool water and a wash cloth and Marinda worked on cooling down his head. She knew that the fever was WAY too high, and she knew that heat in the body focuses around the head, so she thought that if she could draw the heat out of the head then his whole body should cool down.
After a couple of hours of doing this, his fever began dropping to 102F, then 101F - and Marinda felt like a superstar. They got a couple hours of sleep with Luke waking up crying and them giving him more breast milk and pedialyte.
The next morning Luke was all smiles and laughing for his relatives! He put on quite a show and if they thought they were in love with him before, they were definitely his now! Believing the worse was behind us, we got into a car and got a grand tour of Mumbi from Amit's uncle. It was a great trip and we'll tell more about it later, but while we were out Luke started going down hill again. Soon we couldn't wake him, and we cut our afternoon short to try and get him healthy again.
That afternoon and evening things got worse again, his fever didn't get as high, but it stayed in the high 102Fs. We tried to do everything again, but he threw up two more times and wouldn't wake up. Amit and I began to get scared. We didn't have internet so we couldn't consult any sources or ask one of the fifty thousand people we knew that were in medical school. We had the Child Profiles Treating Childhood Illnesses booklet we got in the mail, but everything we read about his sleeping, vomiting, dehydration and fever made us all the more worried. Then we read about head injuries. He had fallen from the bed our first night we were in India onto a hard wood floor and had gotten a bloody nose. We didn't think much of it at the time, kids fall - it happens. He was acting normal - but now we weren't sure anymore. Then Marinda found a ridge on his head that neither Marinda or Amit was sure was there before or not, and the thought of smashed head plates and pressure on the brain causing internal bleeding was the only thing we could think of.
At that point we told Amit's parents and aunt and uncle that we would like to take Luke to a doctor. They said it wouldn't be a problem, their pedestrian was right across the street. We thought that was great! Until we got there.
Just a note, we know that this clinic is most likely doing great things and is amazing care for what the local population might have otherwise gotten. They are helping to vaccinate the population and are providing care where otherwise there would be none. But as two parents from America who's child was very sick, the clinic was less developed and the medical care was less current than we had hoped.
The doctor prescribed antibiotics (and four other meds) because Luke's ear looked a little red - and if we didn't give them to him then his ear was going to get infected and fill up with pus and burst out of his eardrum. Being good 21th century parents, we said ok, and then went home and turned Amit's dad's cell phone into an Internet hotspot. We found that the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer uses antibiotics right off the bat for ear infections. We found out that giving children younger that six years old cough syrup is dangerous. And that decongestants have been found to be infective in children younger than six. The other two were Tylenol and Ibuprofen. We gave him both, the numbing ear drops we also got, and gave him pedialyte every ten minutes for four hours. Around 3am his fever broke - and we could breath again.
We had now been in India two days.
The next morning was business as usual - Luke was all smiles like nothing was ever wrong, and Amit and Marinda were relieved, but exhausted. We enjoyed our last few hours with our relatives and then hopped on a plane to Goa. Luke's cough was still pretty bad, and he was still throwing up a little, but with his fever gone we were feeling pretty confident that things were looking up. Plus, the air quality in Goa would be ten times better than it was in Mumbi. Amit and Marinda's throats were actually hurting a little from the pollution and dust - going to a resort city was just what we needed. We would spend a day in the hotel to finish up Luke getting better, and then we'd have two full days of touresting.
At least that was the plan.
That night Amit got terribly sick with a cold (or whatever it was that Luke had) - then Marinda got it the next morning. Luke's cough didn't get better, he still kept throwing up, and he started to have a little bit of a fever again. And then the sleeping! I know parents shouldn't complain about their children sleeping, but he wouldn't wake up to eat or really for anything. He would cough constantly, and it started to sound like it was moving into his chest like when Amit had broncitious two summers ago. On the second day, we decided to just let him rest for the day and let him sleep instead of pushing food and fluids. By dinner time with him still asleep Marinda couldn't take it any more - but he wouldn't wake up to eat again! So Marinda did the only thing she could think of - she put her milk into a glass and spent 40 minuets pouring a little bit at a time into his mouth so he would swallow it. After this, he woke up and was able to nurse - but with everything that had happened and with Luke getting weaker (Marinda could see his individual ribs now), and with the air quality being worse in the next city they were going to, and his cough sounding like it was developing into something more serious, and with all the relatives he was going to be exposed to - and most off all the fact that Amit's sick grandmother was going to be exposed to whatever Luke had - Amit and Marinda decided that they should go home early and get Luke the medical care that he needed.
Could he have gotten care there? Perhaps. But don't judge us - it was what we thought and felt was the right decision to make. Until you are half way around the world and think that your baby is dying at least two times you can't understand the type of pressure we were under.
We made arrangements, and flew back to Mumbi where we said good-bye to Amit's parents (who were wonderful through this whole thing!) and got on the plane to fly home. Marinda made the mistake of looking in the mirror in one of the restrooms, and was horrified to see that somehow she had gotten two black eyes. It may have only been a week, but it felt like a month.
And of course Luke promptly started getting better somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. We went to Children's Hospital as soon as we got home, and Luke was looked over with a fine toothed comb and given a green light. They said he got a VERY bad viral infection, and was assured by the doctor that we had made good parenting choices. She was also impressed with how we responded to his symptoms, and told us that with another week of isolation and rest Luke would be good to go.
And that was why we came home early. Since we've been home Marinda's cold got worse and Amit got so sick the doctors thought it was pneumonia for a few days, but hey, Luke's ok! And honestly that is all we care about.
We did get a few good things out of this experience:
1. Amit and Marinda stayed a team. With all the pressure and fear and sleep-deprivation, they did not yell or lose it at each other once. Go us!
2. Marinda discovered that even though the past couple of months have been a struggle for her bonding-to-Luke-wise, on a deeper level she was still connecting with and growing closer to Luke even if she didn't realize it.
3. Marinda felt more like a mother than she had since she pushed Luke out of her. She had heard it said that Mother's have the right to divine guidance in the care of their children - and now she can say beyond a shadow of a doubt it is true.
4. Marinda also got over the fact that her life didn't turn out how she planned it. She had been struggling with this since she graduated from Case - a sort of perpetual morning for the life and dreams that her illness stole from her - but as she was holding Luke in her arms afaid that he was slipping away, she realized in her very core that she had Amit, she had Luke - and that her life was better than she could have dreamed. She had dreamed of going to India since she was a little girl and this was going to be her dream trip - but it fell apart and she didn't care. All she cared about was Luke. The connections were made and she saw that even though her life didn't turn out the way she wanted she was still young, capable, and had a loving family and a comfortable home. It was ok that she wasn't going to accomplish what she thought she was going to ten years ago - she had her family and the rest were just details.
5. Amit and Marinda grew closer to Amit's parents. They both feel that they are on a whole new level of trust and understanding that they might not have been if everything had gone as planned.
So that is why we came home from our trip early. Sorry it wasn't as interesting a read as we promised. We will be writing up some entries though telling you all what we saw - we just wanted to get this out of the way so we could now focus on the amazing things we saw in India. :)
Like we said in our last post, we left for India with Luke having a little cold, which made our plane rides miserable. Little did we know how much we would hope he would get that well again!
After a couple of hours of sleep, we woke up the next morning to find Luke still coughing and feeling warm. We didn't think much of it, just that he needed to sleep and get some Tylenol. Even when he threw up we thought it was just because he didn't like his malaria medicine. So thinking that Luke's illness was fine if not slightly inconvenient we left the hotel and went to Amit's Mother's Cousin's house. For simplicity we will simply say Amit's Aunt and Uncle and Cousin Munu. They welcomed us warmly, and I excused myself to put Luke down for a nap.
Luke slept, and seemed bothered by everything when he woke up. He would give a few smiles to the new people, but over all he was getting more and more unhappy by the minute. He was also feeling warmer as well, so we busted out our pacifier thermometer and he had a fever of 102 F! Amit's dad and uncle went out to find pedialyte, while we continued with Tylenol and breast milk. He threw up another two times, but we kept pushing fluids into him ever 10-20 minutes. After a few hours it had reached 103.8F and he wasn't waking up or crying anymore. At this point Amit's aunt brought in a bowl with cool water and a wash cloth and Marinda worked on cooling down his head. She knew that the fever was WAY too high, and she knew that heat in the body focuses around the head, so she thought that if she could draw the heat out of the head then his whole body should cool down.
After a couple of hours of doing this, his fever began dropping to 102F, then 101F - and Marinda felt like a superstar. They got a couple hours of sleep with Luke waking up crying and them giving him more breast milk and pedialyte.
The next morning Luke was all smiles and laughing for his relatives! He put on quite a show and if they thought they were in love with him before, they were definitely his now! Believing the worse was behind us, we got into a car and got a grand tour of Mumbi from Amit's uncle. It was a great trip and we'll tell more about it later, but while we were out Luke started going down hill again. Soon we couldn't wake him, and we cut our afternoon short to try and get him healthy again.
That afternoon and evening things got worse again, his fever didn't get as high, but it stayed in the high 102Fs. We tried to do everything again, but he threw up two more times and wouldn't wake up. Amit and I began to get scared. We didn't have internet so we couldn't consult any sources or ask one of the fifty thousand people we knew that were in medical school. We had the Child Profiles Treating Childhood Illnesses booklet we got in the mail, but everything we read about his sleeping, vomiting, dehydration and fever made us all the more worried. Then we read about head injuries. He had fallen from the bed our first night we were in India onto a hard wood floor and had gotten a bloody nose. We didn't think much of it at the time, kids fall - it happens. He was acting normal - but now we weren't sure anymore. Then Marinda found a ridge on his head that neither Marinda or Amit was sure was there before or not, and the thought of smashed head plates and pressure on the brain causing internal bleeding was the only thing we could think of.
At that point we told Amit's parents and aunt and uncle that we would like to take Luke to a doctor. They said it wouldn't be a problem, their pedestrian was right across the street. We thought that was great! Until we got there.
Just a note, we know that this clinic is most likely doing great things and is amazing care for what the local population might have otherwise gotten. They are helping to vaccinate the population and are providing care where otherwise there would be none. But as two parents from America who's child was very sick, the clinic was less developed and the medical care was less current than we had hoped.
The doctor prescribed antibiotics (and four other meds) because Luke's ear looked a little red - and if we didn't give them to him then his ear was going to get infected and fill up with pus and burst out of his eardrum. Being good 21th century parents, we said ok, and then went home and turned Amit's dad's cell phone into an Internet hotspot. We found that the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer uses antibiotics right off the bat for ear infections. We found out that giving children younger that six years old cough syrup is dangerous. And that decongestants have been found to be infective in children younger than six. The other two were Tylenol and Ibuprofen. We gave him both, the numbing ear drops we also got, and gave him pedialyte every ten minutes for four hours. Around 3am his fever broke - and we could breath again.
We had now been in India two days.
The next morning was business as usual - Luke was all smiles like nothing was ever wrong, and Amit and Marinda were relieved, but exhausted. We enjoyed our last few hours with our relatives and then hopped on a plane to Goa. Luke's cough was still pretty bad, and he was still throwing up a little, but with his fever gone we were feeling pretty confident that things were looking up. Plus, the air quality in Goa would be ten times better than it was in Mumbi. Amit and Marinda's throats were actually hurting a little from the pollution and dust - going to a resort city was just what we needed. We would spend a day in the hotel to finish up Luke getting better, and then we'd have two full days of touresting.
At least that was the plan.
That night Amit got terribly sick with a cold (or whatever it was that Luke had) - then Marinda got it the next morning. Luke's cough didn't get better, he still kept throwing up, and he started to have a little bit of a fever again. And then the sleeping! I know parents shouldn't complain about their children sleeping, but he wouldn't wake up to eat or really for anything. He would cough constantly, and it started to sound like it was moving into his chest like when Amit had broncitious two summers ago. On the second day, we decided to just let him rest for the day and let him sleep instead of pushing food and fluids. By dinner time with him still asleep Marinda couldn't take it any more - but he wouldn't wake up to eat again! So Marinda did the only thing she could think of - she put her milk into a glass and spent 40 minuets pouring a little bit at a time into his mouth so he would swallow it. After this, he woke up and was able to nurse - but with everything that had happened and with Luke getting weaker (Marinda could see his individual ribs now), and with the air quality being worse in the next city they were going to, and his cough sounding like it was developing into something more serious, and with all the relatives he was going to be exposed to - and most off all the fact that Amit's sick grandmother was going to be exposed to whatever Luke had - Amit and Marinda decided that they should go home early and get Luke the medical care that he needed.
Could he have gotten care there? Perhaps. But don't judge us - it was what we thought and felt was the right decision to make. Until you are half way around the world and think that your baby is dying at least two times you can't understand the type of pressure we were under.
We made arrangements, and flew back to Mumbi where we said good-bye to Amit's parents (who were wonderful through this whole thing!) and got on the plane to fly home. Marinda made the mistake of looking in the mirror in one of the restrooms, and was horrified to see that somehow she had gotten two black eyes. It may have only been a week, but it felt like a month.
And of course Luke promptly started getting better somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. We went to Children's Hospital as soon as we got home, and Luke was looked over with a fine toothed comb and given a green light. They said he got a VERY bad viral infection, and was assured by the doctor that we had made good parenting choices. She was also impressed with how we responded to his symptoms, and told us that with another week of isolation and rest Luke would be good to go.
And that was why we came home early. Since we've been home Marinda's cold got worse and Amit got so sick the doctors thought it was pneumonia for a few days, but hey, Luke's ok! And honestly that is all we care about.
We did get a few good things out of this experience:
1. Amit and Marinda stayed a team. With all the pressure and fear and sleep-deprivation, they did not yell or lose it at each other once. Go us!
2. Marinda discovered that even though the past couple of months have been a struggle for her bonding-to-Luke-wise, on a deeper level she was still connecting with and growing closer to Luke even if she didn't realize it.
3. Marinda felt more like a mother than she had since she pushed Luke out of her. She had heard it said that Mother's have the right to divine guidance in the care of their children - and now she can say beyond a shadow of a doubt it is true.
4. Marinda also got over the fact that her life didn't turn out how she planned it. She had been struggling with this since she graduated from Case - a sort of perpetual morning for the life and dreams that her illness stole from her - but as she was holding Luke in her arms afaid that he was slipping away, she realized in her very core that she had Amit, she had Luke - and that her life was better than she could have dreamed. She had dreamed of going to India since she was a little girl and this was going to be her dream trip - but it fell apart and she didn't care. All she cared about was Luke. The connections were made and she saw that even though her life didn't turn out the way she wanted she was still young, capable, and had a loving family and a comfortable home. It was ok that she wasn't going to accomplish what she thought she was going to ten years ago - she had her family and the rest were just details.
5. Amit and Marinda grew closer to Amit's parents. They both feel that they are on a whole new level of trust and understanding that they might not have been if everything had gone as planned.
So that is why we came home from our trip early. Sorry it wasn't as interesting a read as we promised. We will be writing up some entries though telling you all what we saw - we just wanted to get this out of the way so we could now focus on the amazing things we saw in India. :)
Oh my gosh! That sounds so stressful! I'm so glad everyone is okay! It really is too bad you didn't get to enjoy your dream trip, but you're totally right--nothing is more important than your family, and it sounds like they needed you badly! You'll definitely always remember it though! :-)
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