Nothando - June 8

This little girl’s name is Notando. She has TB, but not in her lungs. Her TB is in her lymph node on her neck. She is also HIV positive and eligible for ARV’s based on the fact that she has TB. She was hospitalized for about 2 weeks to begin her TB treatment. Both her mother and father are mentally challenged. She was discharged on TB meds, which she is supposed to take 3 tablets daily. When we tried to find out from the mother about the meds, she said that there were no meds. When I checked with the nurses at the hospital, they said that the dad had been trained about the meds and the meds were given to him. I had the teacher at the CarePoint investigate and we found the meds. It looks like none of the meds had been given since the child was discharged from the hospital, which had been about a week. So I had the teacher (Lindiwe) keep the meds and start giving them to Notando when she came to the CarePoint each day.

Now this little one needs to be started on ARVs also. This will be a big problem, because they have to be given 2 times daily, exactly 12 hours apart every day, without missing a dose. This will be next to impossible with mentally challenged parents. Lindiwe can give one dose a day, but the 2^nd dose will be difficult to ensure.

Notando has a younger brother. The mom brought him to me at the clinic this week. He was very sick, probably pneumonia. I knew that I could give her an antibiotic to give him, but it has to be given 3 times daily. This mom really does love her children and care about them, but she is just not capable of taking proper care of them. There is no way that she can handle this, so I told her to bring him to the government hospital the next morning, hoping that they would admit him to get him well. I sent them home with Tylenol for fever and nothing else. I didn’t feel good about my decision, but really had no other choice.

Please pray for me for wisdom. Sometimes I just don’t have the answers, but I know that I serve a big God that does have all of the answers!