Dead-of-night-trip to the hospital

On Sunday afternoon as we were returning from a birding trip in the bush, Johan phoned Grant to say that Thys had collapsed on the bathroom floor of his flatlet. His sugar levels were rock-bottom as he hadn't eaten that day. He also had severe lower back pains and was very feverish. 

Grant went over there and phoned for a doctor to see Thys at the hospital. Johan took Thys to the hospital where they did a series of tests, including a malaria test. Thys has suffered with kidney stones before and the doctor confirmed that this was one of the problems of his present condition. He injected Thys and asked Johan to bring him back to the hospital in eight hours. 

Meanwhile, Thys' wife, Elize - who lives in SA - was beside herself with worry. I kept her informed of the proceedings and also told her that I'd made Thys a Cup o' Soup, buttered - with lite margerine - a slice of brown toast, added a cheese puff (from a new batch I'd baked for Grant's supper on Sunday night) and sent this over to Thys with Michael. She said she felt better knowing that he would eat something. Although the men eat in the communal dining room, supper didn't include food fit for a person feeling as poorly as Thys did. 

Grant said he'd take Thys for his next injection which was at 2am on Monday morning. I set the alarm, Grant got up, drove over to Thys' house, and took him to the hospital. After administering the injection, the doctor told Grant that Thys' malaria tests were positive. As there is no emergency pharmacy in Africa in the wee hours of the morning, Grant stopped off at our house and collected one of the boxes of anti-malarial drugs that I keep on hand. Thys took the first day's tablets. When Grant got home again, we both lay staring wide-eyed at the darkened ceiling. I think I fell asleep mere minutes before our normal alarm sounded at 5h50am!

On Monday Grant popped over to see how Thys was. He'd survived the night and the first malaria tablets had greatly  reduced the fever and pain which goes with this malady.  

In the morning,  I cooked some oats porridge, toasted two slices of brown bread, which I spread with Marmite. I covered all with cling film and Michael took it across to Thys for breakfast.  I took a photo of it to send to Elize!

From left: cooked oats porridge, a jug of skimmed milk 

and two slices of brown toast and Marmite

According to Grant who took Thys to the hospital for tests and meds at 3pm on Monday, he should be up and about in a day or so.


Now for something different;  an update on the pups: day 20! (LOL!)

As mentioned in the quote from the link my friend, Sandra sent me, the pups should also be able to lap liquids at this stage. On Sunday, Michael and I put this to the test, with at 98% success rate and repeated the procedure on Monday with an almost 100% success rate! 

 

The link also talks about introducing the pups to toys (I've placed three soft toys in their hut, not sure if they know what to do with them yet) and different environments. On Sunday evening, once we knew Thys was settled and resting, Michael and I collected the pups from the hut. We were going to take them into the house, set them on a towel on the sofa, and with me on one side and Grant on the other, Michael would take the first photo. 

To keep it simple and safe, I took down a baby bath from the top of my spare room wardrobe. It used to belong to one of the Tanzanian cats, now living in Marquard with Mama Rina. Michael transported the pups easily in this bath with an anxious Princess close on his heels. 

We'd put the cats into our bedroom, so left the front door open. Princess was welcome to come inside, but she knows the Tanzanian Trio of cats live here and was too nervous. 

 A baby bath of pups

 Princess anxiously waits at the front door

Family portrait: Michael, Babu and seven pups in between

Family portrait: Bibi and Babu with seven pups in between 

And then it was time to load the pups into the baby bath again, and return them to their mama Princess! 

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