Angela arrives!

Long time since I have blogged. I wrote a nice long entry that was scrambled by my computer and then lost my momentum. Thankfully, after many months, angela has arrived just in time for the holidays. We have been enjoying getting her oriented with Swaziland. So far she is liking it and getting settled in. I am so happy she is here and the house is sold!

I had been seeing a lot of patients at the clinic prior to Christmas and continuing to really enjoy this difficult but rewarding work. Seeing such lovely children daily is a true pleasure. Their medical and social problems pile high and they are anything but easy medical cases. I am happy to try to tackle their problems with the help of their family, many times, their gogo (grandmother). So many of their parents have died and hardworking grandmothers are finding themselves in the role of primary caregiver, laborer, nurse, breadwinner, mother, father, cleaner.....the list goes on and on. Often they edure several hour public transit rides only to wait for several hours in our clinic and return via the same route. Looking into their eyes and the bright eyes of a lovely, parentless, eager, playful, resiliant young HIV positive child inspires you to give them the best care possible. Difficult but worth it.

One of my last patients before the holidays shocked me. The child was 1 and a half years old and weighed 10 lbs. He had not gained weight in a year. Never before tested for HIV. I asked the mother 6 different ways his date of birth because I could not believe it. Before even unwrapping the blanket so I could look at him I told her he needed to be in the hospital. He had a fever, pneumonia, probable tuberculosis, infectious diarrhea, rash, oral and probable esophageal candidiasis and beyond severe wasting/malnutrition. His skin was almost falling off and riddled with enlarged lymph nodes. His mother had tried. She brought him into other clinics with multiple ailments. She tried to get him to eat but he just kept getting sick. This is a child who can get better, who can live to play and be happy like other children. He has an uphill battle and may not make it out of the hospital but with earlier diagnosis and treatment with ARVs he would likely be a happy, healthy child. Looking at him was probably the most shocking site I have seen since being here. It made my gut hurt, inspired me to work harder, learn more, frightened me, made me sad and hopeful all at the same time. These experiences seem to keep rolling in.

I am thankful for my life, my family, friends and all of the opportunities we have. I miss everyone back home and hope the holidays are treating all of you well. We are especially missing everyone during this time and think of all of you frequently.

Some friends, Angela and I will spend new Year's eve in a cabin in a park called Malolotja. It is a beautiful park with some African wild animals. Hiking and stars will be in our new year. We go to Mozambique for a few days in January. It is a short drive from Swaziland. We hope for some beach time there and some seafood.

Take care and Happy New Year!