Chapter Two

Chapter Two: First of all, I should mention that Yes, I did change my page to a prettier design thanks to Aqua Poppy Designs (free blog designs!! Yay!) and another blog I follow "Life in the Bend" who pointed me in their direction. I love this design, but it was difficult to choose because the designer has so many pretty choices!

So, on to chapter two of our Ethiopian trip! In chapter one, I noticed a lot of typo's (which I deplore!) but since I am typing this usually in the middle of the night, I will excuse myself a bit and realize that sometime grammatical errors will occur! (Esp. for mama's of virtual twins!)

Day two arrived in Addis and our 13 year old daughter started having a sore throat and muscle aches. Her head started hurting and then came the deep chesty coughing. By that evening she was bed bound with a temp. of 103.5 and refusing any solids. With the lethargy and no interest in food, we tried to keep as many liquids in her system as possible. Wendi, the guesthouse chef (not to be confused with Wendi our driver) concocted wonderful soups each evening, but this turned Chloe's stomach as well. Thank goodness they had fresh squeezed OJ and bottled water. I think we pretty much used up their entire water ration for the week. We were constantly asking for more. I'm pretty sure it was a little joke with the staff about how much water the Ferguson's drank as we each had probably two or three bottles of Highland each day!

Day three arrived and Andrew started feeling low. A sore throat, fever, aches, headache...coughing...Sound familiar? By that evening, his temperature had soared to 104! He too went to bed. At this point I HAVE to mention that a few weeks before leaving on our trip, Andrew got into one of his fatherly tirades about "staying well" and making sure to "take our vitamins"..."load up on zinc, Vit. C, magnesium, etc. etc. etc."...by the time we actually left town, we all had heard enough about supplemental intake!

So now with two down...Elliot and I were holding down the fort. I must say that my 10 year old was such a great help to me. He would go to the orphanage each day and hold Ruby on his lap while we drove back to the orphanage. They became great buddies! Very few people can make Ruby laugh like her big brother! I know at this point therapists will say that Ruby should only have bonded in this way (the way that she bonded with Elliot) with her daddy and mama, but we had to do what we had to do. I held Roman on my lap and off we went. In Ethiopia, seatbelts are optional and there are no child car seats. A crazy notion if you were to see how people drive there! Yikes! A car horn in Ethiopia is not only for letting people know you are irritated with them but also to let pedestrians & other drivers know you are within inches of running their heels over!

Saturday evening comes around and I've still got two very sick family members. I felt like I'd been carrying a family of six on my shoulders in a third world country. With Elliot and I the only two visible Ferguson's, I'm sure the guesthouse staff thought Andrew and Chloe were dead. That night Andrew took Nyquil. He also requested the sleeping pill, Ambien. I told him "No!!" because you're not supposed to take it with alcohol. We all went to bed. At some point a few hours later, Andrew awoke, feeling terrible, and found his coveted Ambien. The next morning, I realized that Andrew was sleeping much deeper than normal. He also was incoherent. He mumbled and slurred his speech. He usually wouldn't answer when I asked him questions or he would babble strange things. For instance, he started saying things about "there are flying batteries in the room! Get them down, get them down!" and "Catch the big fish! The big fish are the meanest, so get them first!!!" At one point he made mention to our Ethiopian attorney, Sintayehu and one of the drivers, Solomon. "Sinty called Solomon and said to come get us! Solomon, Solomon, where are you? Come get us!!!"...Although a little funny at first, I soon realized that my husband was not being his normal self. Then, he continued to ask for more Ambien!! At one point he attempted to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. As he was crashing into the walls and door jams, I knew I needed to help him. There is nothing scarier than taking your 200 lb., incoherent, babbling, hallucinating husband to go potty!!!
Elliot and I had to go and get the babies again so I woke Chloe up. I told her she needed to go in and sleep next to Daddy and babysit him. Since she wasn't hallucinating, she was clearly more capable of monitoring her father than he was of himself! But her temperature was still near 104 for the third day. I also told her that I had hidden all meds from her dad and if she had any problems with him acting weird than she would need to get up and go tell Muli or Wendi in the kitchen. The staff were wonderful and we are indebted to them for their hospitality. They cared for us so well.
We were quickly using up any meds we had taken with us, and with the only antibiotics on hand being the Malaria meds, I was trying to think rationally about what to do...as well as doing A LOT of praying!
By Monday midmorning, Andrew was starting to feel slightly better. The hallucinations had stopped (although I did resort to asking him who our President was, the names of our children as well as what day of the week it was, to which he was able to answer correctly the names, but got the date wrong.) He still slept most of that day and emerged a better feeling man on Tuesday. During this time, Chloe still was sleeping a minimum of 10 hours per day and still not eating a thing. She ended up losing enough weight (not sure of the poundage) for it to be noticeable. And this is a girl who can't afford to lose any in the first place!
Well, I guess I should stop there...for those of you who are still hanging in there and reading...please know how grateful I am!!! forget! This blog is not only to share our experiences but also to serve as a journal for us so we can remember our trip and all the interesting things surrounding it! We are blessed to have our health...to live in the USA where medicine is easily accessible!
In my next chapter, people get well...well, at least Andrew does. Chloe starts feeling better for a few days anyway & Elliot has a jaunt into the Eucalyptus Forest he will never forget!
Drubek