Roadtrip to Kijabe

Last week was quite an adventure. After being told by two doctors that Dinah’s shunt wasn’t working we headed to a town called Kijabe on Tuesday. We decided to take Moses along after being told he had a problem with his tongue because the doctors there are able to get right to the point and are quick to fix any problems they find.

We set off on the six hour drive. The kids did great in the car and were so excited.

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Moses all dressed up and ready to go

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Dinah and Senge were excited too.

 

We planned on just going to Kijabe, but when we got there we learned that we had not been given the right information and had to go into Nairobi to get the CT scan that they would need to see if Dinah’s shunt was working properly. So we took a little surprise detour into Nairobi and the kids were excited to make themselves right at home on the floor of the restaurant (both of them are too independent to let us feed them so the floor was the next best thing). Moses also loved standing outside and watching all of the cars and people rushing by in the big city. And at the end of the day Moses went right to sleep in preparation for all the things the next day would bring.

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The next morning we woke up early and took Dinah to get her CT scan then headed to Kijabe and waited to see the doctors.

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The doctors confirmed that the shunt was not in the right place, but the neurosurgeon said that she has no new symptoms of hydrocephalus and is not even sure that she had it in the first place, but the shunt will stay in place because it would be complicated to remove. We were relieved that the shunt wasn’t a problem and the doctors also looked at Dinah’s back. She has spina bifida that has not been corrected and it is getting bigger as she grows. The doctor said that in the future it will give her problems sitting and the wants to remove it and place a bar in her back to help her to be able to sit up straight. When Dinah was born her birth weight was low and in her first few years of her life she did not receive the best care, so she is small for her age. The doctor was worried about that because the surgery will be very hard on her little body. He said that once she gets to 15 kgs she will be at a good weight to have the surgery. So we put Dinah on a new nutrition plan to help her bulk up so that she can hopefully have the surgery in June.

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Dinah enjoying her PlumpyNut that we are using to help get her some extra proteins to bulk up a little faster.

 

Moses mostly just came along for the ride. We had him see the doctor and they said that his chewing difficulties and speech delays are most likely from the damage caused to his brain by the cerebral palsy and not because of any issue with his tongue that can be remedied. We are glad that we were able to rule out any problems and Moses was thrilled to spend a few days hanging out in a new place.

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It was great to be able to spend a little time with Moses and Dinah. They were thrilled to be the center of attention and we had lots of fun and were excited to get some good news and the next steps for Dinah and Moses

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