eeyyyyaahhh

I realize that eeyyyyaahh is an interesting title for this blog. But I am in an interesting place. This week so far has been rather eventful. Let's start with Obama.

So Obama has been a craze here ever since he visited in 2006. He is a "son of the soil" and loved by every Kenyan I meet. You would think he was running for office in Kenya the way all of the country is talking about and campaigning for him. In fact every day this week he has been on the front page of every newspaper with no less than 6 articles inside the paper about him. Immediately following McCain's concession speech President Kibaki (Kenya's president) declared that tomorrow will be a national holiday to celebrate Obama's victory.

Which brings me to my next point. Let me first give a disclaimer here. Those of you who don't like reading/talking about bodily functions or medical stuff can skip the next two paragraphs. For the last seven or eight months I've been having all sorts of gastrointestinal issues. Every two to six weeks they come on and last for 1-4 days and then go away. Sometimes I play doctor on myself. Once I had a malaria test. But the entire time I've been rather baffled at what the source is. I've had several friends recommend a tropical medicine specialist in Nairobi. But ever time I'm in Nairobi I feel great and thus I don't go. Well the interval between episodes has decreased. And I'm getting ready to make a trip back to the USA for the holidays (yes, there will be more info on that one) so I decided I better get this taken care of now. Especially since I have no health insurance.

So today I decided it was time to go to the specialist. The doctor was wonderful. He is married to a mzungu (white lady) from Europe. They have been married for 28 years! When he heard I was a medical missionary he gave me a discount. After some basic tests we discovered that I have a chronic infection of some sort (my WBC's are off for those of you medical people out there). But unfortunately I was not able to produce THE sample that was needed to determine if I have worms, parasites, etc. They are also strongly suspecting that I have an ulcer. So they want to do a test for the bacteria which causes ulcers. Unfortunately said test also requires the above-mentioned specimen that I could not produce. All day I tried. I walked several miles, and ate salad and fruit. When I got back to the lab I was told "try coffee, really strong coffee". So I went to Java House and ordered a mocha with an extra shot of espresso. Now I probably won't sleep tonight and I wasn't able to produce the desired specimen. Due to this fact I now get to spend two more days in Nairobi. That's right, TWO days. Because tomorrow everything will be closed to celebrate Obama. So Friday I'll finish my workup and get the meds I need to hopefully cure what ails me!