It was raining when we first got up so most of the workers did not show up until about 9:30. Zorash brought a lady with her; she is Papa Painter’s daughter. Papa Painter painted for the Child Center for many years. He passed away a long time ago; probably 10 years ago. We don’t even ever remember seeing his daughter but a lot of people know us just because we are hard to miss! Ha! Papa Painter’s daughter is an older woman; her son is sick. He is in his 30’s. She said that his stomach has always been troubling him ever since he was a young boy. Now he is in the hospital and the doctors are giving him an injection every week that cost 500 Cedis (about 55 dollars); he has to have a series of 12 injections. The mother came looking for help because the family has spent all their money and the treatment is still going on. She did not know what exactly was wrong with her son. She said that she suspected it was an ulcer. We told her that ulcer medicine does not cost 500 Cedis per injection. Steve asked if Dr. Owusu was the doctor that was taking care of her son. She said it was so Steve called Dr. Owusu to find out exactly what was wrong with the guy. He has Hepatitis B and it is serious. The injections they are giving are Interferon and they are not covered under health insurance. Dr. Owusu said that he thought there was a 50 /50 chance that the guy would live but how long only God knows. We went to see the guy and he was bleeding from his mouth, gum, nose, anus and under the skin. It did not look good to us. The interferon was not the only medicine he was given. The man was confused and lethargic. Dr. Owusu had ordered a blood test to see how bad his clotting was; if it is not too bad he will give Vitamin K but if it is very bad he will be transferred to Tamale. We agreed to pay for the interferon injections; the mother was very grateful but she was very weepy because she too could see how sick her child was.
This morning 89 children passed through the Child Center. We have run out of all the boy clothes so this morning we were letting those that came pick clothes that they could share with a friend that had a girl child. No one seemed to mind; they were just happy to get a gift.
Zorash went with us to the hospital to check on the man with Hepatitis. While we were there she asked the doctor if he could prescribe some medicine for her teenage son Sharif that is attending boarding school in Tamale. His stomach hurts and when he tries to eat he feels like vomiting. We went to several drug stores in Yendi but could only find one of the medicines that the doctor wanted him to have. Zorash sent the name of the medicine to Sharif and he is going to look for it in Tamale.
Take care and have a great day!
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
