About 5 weeks ago John was at a Wednesday night fellowship
meeting and struck up a conversation with a friend, who quickly made known some
family health concerns, especially regarding his 10 month-old son. It turns out they had moved their whole
family to the city in order to seek treatment for an apparently incurable itchy
rash over most of his body. He had been experiencing the rash for the past five
months. They had been to a few different doctors, and each time they’d receive oral
medication and skin cream. The meds
quickly dried up the rash, but as soon as the meds ran out, the rash would
flare up again. The doctors’ best guess
was an allergy, perhaps to something in the water. Everyone in the family had some traces of the
rash and apparently hundreds of people in their home village suffer the same
symptoms.
John quickly offered me, Erin, up as a possible resource,
and they came by the a few days later. After taking a look at their son I consulted
all the resources at my diposal. A small
side note: it was emphasized throughout my schooling that nurses do not
‘diagnose,’ we asses and make informed decisions about patient care. But here as English speakers we have access
to many resources which the general public doesn’t. So I consulted books, notes, websites, and one
of our partners, a doctor, back home. I recommended the whole family treat for
scabies and picked up the treatment at a local pharmacy, which was about 4
weeks ago. According to the medication,
the “mites” would be killed immediately (if it really were scabies), but it
could take up to a month for the skin reaction to disappear completely.
Well they followed my advice to a T, but 3 weeks later they still
hadn’t seen any improvement. Alas, last Tuesday we got a text message informing
us their son’s skin was 98% better, and the rest were 100% back to normal. They are so happy as they all are more
comfortable and sleep much better at night.
Join us in thankfulness, for their health, and the encouragement this
has been to us, to be able to help friends in this small way. We are also seeking
wisdom on how we may be able to help their home village where “hundreds of
households” are still suffering from scabies.
