My LONGEST Day...

This Monday went as all others:  schooling in the morning, a short break and then off to Isabel's American Heritage Girls meeting where I'm her Explorer leader.  We got home, ate dinner and was in the middle of putting the kiddos to bed when our world was rocked...

I was passing by the computer and saw that we had a new email AND it was from Barbara, the orphanage director!  In the adoption world this is always big news.  There was only one sentence in the email that said "Urgent call me NOW".

I jumped to my phone and called her immediately.

We were told that Sam's head had been swelling all day and that the doctor they took him to thought that it is Hydrocephalus.  I don't know much about that condition but I knew it wasn't good and I surely didn't want my baby to have it.  Barbara said that she thought it would be best if we came down to Haiti as soon as possible.

Fast forward 10 hours - past many phone calls & emails, online plane ticket purchases, 2 1/2 hour drive to Fort Lauderdale, ZERO sleep and an hour and half flight to Haiti.

I stepped off the plane in Haiti a little before 8am on Tuesday morning. What was usually an exhilarating feeling for me, when arriving in Haiti, was replaced with anxiety.  I did not know what I was walking into to, how my little boy was going to look or what was even going to happen.

Five minutes later, the truck pulled up to the airport to pick me up and I got to see Sam for the first time...

It. Took. My. Breathe. Away.

His head was about twice the size as normal and one eye was completely swollen shut.  All I could do was cuddle him and whisper in his ear that momma was here now and everything would be alright.

But I feared it wouldn't be.

He was very lethargic and running a slight fever.

We went directly to a local hospital.  We had been told that this was a great hospital, with many American doctors, and that people had good experiences with them.. Unfortunately, that would not be the case with us.

Sam and I were joined by a friend of mine, Tina, who happened to be visiting the orphanage during this time and Barbara's right hand man, Lucien.  Upon arriving at the 'hospital', I was surprised to see that it was mostly outdoors.  There were buildings here and there but the waiting and lines were outside.

We went to the office of the 'secretary' and were told that the nurse that specialized in hydrocephalus was not in on Tuesdays, so we were out of luck.  When I explained that was NOT an option, we were instructed to sit outside (actually we were sitting exactly in the spot at the top picture above) and we may get the chance to see someone else... once they called our name.

We waited.

After sitting there for too long, Tina and I decided to come up with a new game plan... stop as many American doctors as possible and try to find one that would help us.

And it worked!!!  Only he was Canadian and not American - but YAY!

We said that we were hoping to get a CT Scan of Sam's head to see where this swelling was coming from and what it was affecting.  He returned to us a few minutes later and said that there was a woman that may be able to help us out.  He led us to another building where there was an office with 2 desks in it.  She told us that she could have the CT Scan ordered for $150 US.  Alrighty then.

We were told to go around to another building to pay.  Apparently, you had to show a paid receipt for all care before anything was done.

While Tina and Lucien went to pay, that same Canadian doctor came over and said that they would look at Sam over in the triage/ER room.  This was the break we were looking for!

The room was no bigger than a standard living room.  It had one hospital bed and several chairs.  I sat in a form of wheelchair with Sam on my lap since there was a lady receiving IV fluids on the bed.

And then we waited.

 

An American doctor and several American student doctors came to look Sam over.  They seemed to be in a quick agreement that Sam did NOT have hydrocephalus and agreed that he needed a CT Scan and ordered blood work for him - which again we had to go stand in the payment line for.

While waiting for the CT Scan, they tried to draw his blood.  I don't know if he has difficult veins or if there was a lack of skill but it was close to torturous for them to even get a few drops out of him.  I think one of the main problems was that they were using adult-size needles and syringes!  But I bit my tongue.  For now.

Tina and I heard a commotion by the doors to the room.  One of the Haitian nurses was trying to shoo away a woman when a doctor stopped her and pulled a baby out of her arms.  The baby looked to be about 8-10 months old and in a pretty pink dress.  The doctor rushed over to a table, listened to her heart and then started performing chest compressions on her.

All I could think was to hold Tina's hand and say a prayer for that baby girl.

I remember hearing him count to 10 in French over and over again.  As they were bringing over the paddles to try and stimulate her heart, we left the building.  The mother walked out of the building immediately after us... with her receipt to go and pay.

I wish I was kidding!!!

Her little girl died while she was standing in line paying.

I was heart broken for her.  I had never seen anything like that before.


After at least another hour of waiting outside, we were told that the CT Scan was ready for Sam and that they were going to give him a sedative to calm him for it.  I was listening to the doctors discuss what to sedate him with and heard that they had decided on Ketamine.  My mind was racing.  Isn't this an animal tranquilizer?  Isn't this a street drug too?  But I decided to go ahead and let them treat Sam.  It took only about 15 seconds for him to be completely knocked out.

I was in the other room and saw the scans as they were taking place.  It was obvious, right away, that the fluid (the doctors thought that it was blood) was on the outside of the skull.  This was great news because that meant that there might not be much pressure on his brain.

We were instructed to go back to the triage room and they would come in to tell us what they thought would be a good plan of action.

And we waited.

More blood work was ordered -and paid for.  The doctor that performed the CT Scan came in and didn't really give us any answers:  he wanted to admit Sam to the pediatric unit and drain the fluid in his head.  I asked him if we could have a report of the scan and he told me that I would have to wait 3-4 days before his report was ready.  Fair enough.  How about a copy of the scan?  He told me that I could go and get a blank disc and they would burn it onto it.

Seriously.  Where was I going to find a blank disc?  For those that haven't been to Haiti, there is NOT a Walgreens on every corner there.

After waiting some more, a Haitian nurse came over to draw Sam's blood.  He was just coming off the sedatives and she was NOT gentle with him at all!  I kept on explaining to the nurse that knew English that she was using too big of a syringe and was just collapsing any veins, if she was even finding them and she was WIGGLING the needle back and forth in his arm!  Even worse was that she was pulling the syringe in and out.  Now I'm not a doctor but I do not think that his a good practice.  By the third limb, I screamed at her ENOUGH!  She was done and was not going to poke my son one more time. 

I was through.  It had been almost 8 hours and we had accomplished next to nothing.  Two rounds of blood work was paid for and attempted.  A CT Scan was paid for and done but we had no report and no copies of it.  All we had were some good-hearted Canadian and American doctors that were wanting to help us but were not in a position to make that happen.

Finally, we put our foot down and said that we were leaving.  There was no way that I was going to let them 'treat' Sam there any longer.  They had no clear plan of how they were going to treat him anyway.  So we asked if they would at least write us some kind of letter stating what they thought Sam's condition was so that we could share this with the US Embassy - as we were appealing for them to continue to review our file as quick as possible so that Sam could be seen here in the US (and receive proper medical care).

After waiting for another HOUR, we were told that the head Haitian doctor would not allow them to write it.

We were utterly deflated, infuriated and frustrated.  We left the hospital after over 8 hours with very little show for the day and Sam's head was continuing to swell.  Our only knowledge was that this fluid (maybe blood) was on the outside of his skull which meant that it was NOT hydrocephalus.

Once back at the orphanage, I could barely eat - even though I had last eaten at the airport in Fort Lauderdale.  I had a few bites of white rice and then just sat there with Sam.  I had not slept at all the previous night and had no energy to do anything else but sit on the kitchen floor and hold my boy.

That is where Ecefi found us.  Ecefi was Sam's nanny, until her retirement just 3 short weeks before.  She had loved and cared for Sam since his sickly arrival at the orphanage a year and a half ago.

Ecefi came in, sat on the kitchen floor and cried with me.  I love this woman.

I was scared for Sam.  We didn't know what was going on in his head.  Was there irreversible damage going on?  Was there going to be long term effects?  Could we even find treatment in Haiti for him?

I talked with Barbara and her right hand woman Mirlande about our plan.  They had heard of a good Cuban hospital about 2 hours away and suggested that we take Sam there early the next day.

OK.  We had a plan and I trusted them FULLY to lead the way.

Sam and I went back to our room for the night but sleep was not in the cards for me again.  The swelling was very painful for him and he couldn't sleep very well.  His best position was leaning against my chest as I sat up.  It was a VERY LONG NIGHT.

But at least we had a plan and tomorrow was a new day...