Doctor, Doctor, Give me the news

Given how frequently we seem to arrive at the Brighton Family Health Team it is remarkable to me that today marks the first time that we have had to seek medical attention. Even more remarkable is it is for Owen and not Aiden!

Owen had a mosquito bite on his hand which he scratched and scratched. I didn't think much of it, my legs look like I have chicken pox from all the bites and subsequent itching. Sadly Owen has inherited the yummy taste to mosquitos, and a low tolerance to bites, from me. Last week I noticed the bite  was looking more like a wound and less like a mosquito bite. At the same time he developed a raspy cough.

Right now the cashew nut tree is in bloom and it drops these amazing pink blooms everywhere, so I thought Owen must just be sensitive to it and thus is coughing  from allergies. However by Thursday the bite had tripled in size and now there was another lesion on his nose and on his elbow. I emailed the Cuso doctor in Canada for advice, he advised we get to a clinic.

Linda, a fellow Cuso volunteer, had been to a doctor here, so we called her for advice. The doctor she had been to also happened to be a pediatrician, so at 8:15 a.m. Brent and Aiden headed out to see Dr. Lowe. The clinic is maybe a 10 minute drive away, so they were the first ones there. Initially I was told (by the secretary) it opened at 8:30, and when they arrived they found a sign that said 8:30 and another that said 8:45. Neither was right it opened at 9:00. They were in and out within 30 minutes and a text home to find out what Owen's asthma inhaler contained.

Diagnosis. Impetigo. So a vigorous hand washing and sanitation campaign has been started! We have antibiotics and a cream for Owen. The doctors visit $80 XCD and the medications $90XCD. Which by Canadian standards is very inexpensive (less than $100 Canadian) but if you consider my salary is around $1200 XCD and my Hydro bill was $330 XCD you would quickly realize even this modest expense would be difficult to afford for many Grenadians.

Brent was really sweet and asked the pharmacist about my Chickungunya- it is really bad right now, with stairs being almost impossible to manage. It requires a shuffle to the edge and then I can ease my left leg down followed by the right. My colleagues were quite concerned about me Friday, but not so concerned that they couldn't poke a little fun too! Brother Saul was counting the stairs for me! But now I  have some over the counter medication  to try to relieve the joint pain so hopefully I can face stairs with confidence soon!

Here's hoping everyone will be better by the time my mom arrives in 9 days!