Poor Bugsy

Shit. Shit. SHIT!!! Henry's fever would come down, then spike back up as soon as the Motrin had worn off, so we decided to get him to a doctor. Bill spoke with Kim this morning and he advised us to go to the mainland, as the results of any tests done on the island would take a good week to get back. He arranged for a driver to meet us at the water taxi dock in Belize City and transport us to a private health clinic. Chester, our driver, took us to the Pediatric Clinic in downtown Belize City and left a number for us to call when we were finished.

We were pleasantly surprised with the clinic. It was very clean, brightly decorated with fresh paint, had a lot of toys for the kids in the waiting room and the staff was exceptionally friendly. It seems that a 3 1/2 day fever is taken much more seriously here than in The States! We did have to wait about 45 minutes, but the nurse gave Henry a private room to lie down in and hurried the doctor when she saw that his fever was rising while we waited (99.5 when we arrived, up to 101). Sitting in the waiting room, I kept thinking that it wasn't any different than going to Pedios when we were in Oak Park - seriously! This was definitely NOT the picture I had in my mind as we rode over!

Our doctor came in and was wonderful! He seemed very concerned and also very knowledgable. He examined Henry and told us that he is concerned that his symptoms sound a lot like Dengue Fever - a disease spread by mosquitos for which there is no vaccine and no medication. Of course, it is the one disease that we couldn't prepare for!!!! Now, we need to wait until the fever has been present for 5 days to do a blood test, because doing it any earlier could result in a false negative. Dengue Fever, itself, can go away on it's own after about 2 weeks with rest and proper hydration. However, there is a slight risk that it could develop into a more serious form. Oh, and the doctor told us not to let Henry get bitten by any more mosquitos (for fear that it would be transmitted to us through subsequent bites). Ok, Doc, no problem. If the fever continues, we are to bring Henry to a lab for a blood test on Monday. We should get the results back about an hour later. If the fever stops, we can assume that it was just a virus and move on. The doctor gave us another medication to help with the fever - something he said is a little better than Motrin - so we are trying that.

For now? We wait . . . and watch . . . and pray.