The Fence

So this was the view from the upstairs window the other day.  That is my son on the monkey bars looking over the wall and barbed wire at the villagers living behind our house.  The mother and baby are waving to him.  

Ken and I were wondering what he was thinking about as we are on one side of the barbed wire fence
and they are on the other.  They have no shoes, and run in play in this very different environment. They don't even have a good ball to play with.

When the children noticed him they called out in the local language.  They were waving for him to come and play with them.  No one understood each others words but they communicated all the same.

He then came to me and wanted to know how to get to the other side of the fence. "The kids all seem to be having so much fun together and they want me to come play." We were about to start dinner so we simply told him not now and we would see about playing another day.

After much consideration we are planning to let him play with the kids from the other side of the fence, once we figure out how to get there.  We will have our driver with us to help with the language issue and ensure safety but we decided that in the long run, he will learn a lot and likely, so will we.  Wish us luck. 

My first CVID treatment in India

I have had some people ask about my treatment and how it is done here versus in the USA so I thought I would give you some specifics.

My treatment is receiving IgG intravenously.  In the US I had a nurse come to my house and administer the infusion.  All the supplies would come directly to my house, the nurse would come stick me with the needle and I would sit and watch TV for the 6 hours it took to administer the medication.  I will assume you know how most hospitals work in the US for this topic.

This was my first infusion so there were some problems that hopefully will be solved after doing this a time or two but some things are just strange to me.

When we arrived no one knew I was suppose to be coming.  We had discussed it the previous week and all the doctors agreed but I did not call the hospital the day before to remind them I would be coming.  This is standard procedure it seems.  I will need to call the hospital each time the day before my treatment so they can try to reserve a single room for me and be prepared for me the next morning.  They do not have an infusion suite like most places in the USA.  I could go to the place that has an infusion suite but they only deal with rheumatoid arthritis and would want me to use IgG from India.  My doctor works both in India and for a University in the USA and does research on my condition.  She insisted on continuing with my current medication, even if that meant having it shipped from the USA.  This is a huge deal as each IgG product is different and there really is no such thing as generic IgG.  So for me it is better to be in a hospital bed with a doctor I trust than to be in a more comfortable location with doctors unfamiliar with my condition.

It took two hours from the time I arrived until the nurse tried to start the IV.  During this time Ken had to go to the cashier and put down a deposit on the estimated amount of the procedure.  They decided we needed to put down enough to cover a stay of two days even though this is an 8 hour procedure.

When the nurse went to start the IV, she also needed to draw blood for lab work.  She did not hit my vein on the first try, which is not unusual for me, so she had another nurse come in and literally hold my vein still so she could start the IV easier.  Then they took the cap off of the blood collection tube, held my arm toward the ground and let gravity do the work in getting my blood from my vein into the collection tubes.  I felt like I was taking part in a blood letting from centuries ago.

The infusion finally started and things went pretty smoothly for about 4 hours.  Once I felt comfortable I told Ken he could leave because the boys would be home from school soon.  Of course that is when the trouble started.  The infusion pump started getting errors and the nurses were not sure why.  It was doing an error code that there was air in the line when clearly there was not.  One of the nurses decided to let some of the medicine flow onto the floor(along with some of my blood) to try to clear the line.  Sometimes that is necessary but what shocked me was that they literally let it drip on the floor and did not clean it up until I asked them to an hour later.

When we were done the nurse told me I needed to go to the pay station to settle the amount due before she could give me the discharge papers.  So I had to go downstairs and wait in line to get my refund before I could get my papers.  It was all very different.  At least I now know what to expect next time.

Update

We have now been here for over a month.   We still do not have our sea shipment but we do have everything from the air shipment.  After a week of searching they finally found the missing box in storage and sent it via Fed Ex.   We are starting to settle in and get into the beginnings of a routine but it will still be awhile before we really feel settled.  Currently, the boys leave for school about 7am and arrive home between 3:30-4:30pm depending on if they have extra curricular activities that day.  Ken leaves for work around 9:30am and returns home about 5pm most days.  We all have dinner together, read a book as a family and then Ken goes to his office to make work calls for 3-4 hours while the kids do homework and get ready for bed.  We have been going out on Saturday and Sunday to shop for things we need but this weekend we did what I hope will be our new routine.  We spent Saturday at home playing games and Sunday we spent doing something fun.  This week we went to Sunday Brunch, then we went to a mall and went bowling, did some shopping, played in the game room and had dinner at Chili's.  It was a full fun filled day.  We also plan to do some weekend trip to near by attractions.

I promised a picture of where we live but right now this is all I have.  This is the view from my front bedroom window.  Ours is pretty much identical.

Here is the view from my back bedroom window.

We live just outside a village north of Bangalore.  We will try to take some pictures when people are up and the chicken and cows are around.

That is our backyard with the monkey bars and next to it is a single swing.  They are very sturdy and the boys enjoy them.

I will try to write more soon.