You never want to hear the pediatrician say the words, “tuberculosis,” “mumps,” or “cancer”…. but that’s what happened this morning. SPOILER ALERT: J is fine. He has none of those terrible things. But he does have a hugely swollen gland in his neck, so swollen that his jawline appears lopsided. Lydia and I had noticed that he hasn’t been his usual bundle of energy for at least the past week. He’s been a bit lethargic, cranky and basically not himself. So yesterday when I noticed the enlarged gland, I knew something was wrong. We decided not to go out right away because the Westgate mess was still going on, but this morning (Tues), I braved morning traffic to get J to the doctor.
Going to the pediatrician in Nairobi is much like the ped in the U.S. J has now seen doctors in Tucson (2 different docs), Fort Collins (a few different), New York City, Portland, and Nairobi – did I miss any? His doc here is located at the renowned children’s hospital and I know he’s getting great care. They took blood to rule out any of those big time illnesses that I mentioned earlier. Seems as though he has a virus. We’ll keep a look out for anything else suspicious. Cross fingers that we don’t have to return to the doc for anything besides the routine checkups and vaccines.
(For all you concerned parents out there: J is vaccinated to the hilt. We are on track with all his shots and added yellow fever and meningitis to regular American-recommended schedule. Given our travels and the recurrence of polio, meningitis and other nasties here in Kenya, we are taking all precautions.)
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