This time it's my dad in the ER

My whole family is very familiar with the ER that we go to. Unless it is in the middle of the night, we go to station D, which is for the patients who are likely to have a faster turn-over rate. Each station has its own type of problems that it treats. And most of the rooms (all in station D) are single-occupancy, which is really nice.

Well, this time it is my dad's turn to go to the ER. He got up from a nap this afternoon when he and my mom noticed a nasty scrape on his elbow. The scrape looks bad enough, probably because he is on a high dose of coumadin, a result of his having had two pulmonary embolisms (the second one seemed to come out of nowhere too; he hadn't been traveling or doing anything to build up a bloodclot in his legs like he did the first time). But then, his elbow is really swollen.

Some of you may remember that last summer my dad had one of his knees get infected badly. It was a strep infection, and since he had a knee replacement, they had to go in and re-replace his knee, and it was very painful for him. Plus, he had to give himself IV antibiotics for 6 months!

My parents are supposed to go to Kenya in two weeks, so we're a little nervous.

Update: Just as I was about to finish this post, my mom called me and told me that my dad was diagnosed with bursitis. They drained the fluid from his elbow and said it didn't look infected, but they're sending it for tests anyway. They wanted to keep him overnight, but he really didn't want to stay, so they will give him a round of IV antibiotics and let him go in about an hour.

I just hope that he will be completely over this before he leaves for Kenya August 2. I started to write a little about that, but I think I'll make a new post.

Having never heard of bursitis in the elbow (my ignorance), I looked it up. You probably have looked online, too. Just in case you haven't, here's what I found.

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/elbow/a/olecranonbursa.htm

I hope all works out and they can go enjoy their trip.

Oh Gosh. I hope it will heal well, and well before your parents' trip to Kenya.
Sorry about that, no one ever needs any health trouble at any time, least so soon before the trip.

I will be keeping my fingers crossed for fast healing. Ultra fast healing!

btw Kenya - that reminds me- may I recommend an interesting books for you - it's about an European woman who went on a vacation to Kenya, and there she fell in love at first sight with Samburu warrior.
And just like that she dropped everything, and went to live and marry him, in a cow dung-and -earth build hut
in deep Africa.
She later wrote three books about her story.

Her story is here, look under "translations":
http://www.massai.ch/en/home.html


Risa

I'll post a separate thread on my dad, as he is having to go into surgery sometime today (or tomorrow if his blood needs thickening), but I wanted to respond to your link about the book. It looks really interesting! And the Maasai tribe is the group we work with too! They have historically been very closed to outsiders and still mostly live much more primitively than most of the other tribes in Kenya do. The ones we work with now have more long-lasting homes than the mud huts that they used to live in because we built them a well, so they don't have to wander as much for water. They used to move and rebuild their homes all the time while looking for a source of water. And it's the women who build the homes and do all the other work! Yet a Maasai man who was studying in the U.S. during the women's World Cup that was in the U.S. several years ago couldn't believe that it was women who were playing soccer because women couldn't be that athletic! He wanted to date me, but there was no way I could consider dating someone who had such ingrained negative ideas about women.

I think once you read the books Vicky, you'll be even further relieved that you refused.
The book is (are) really fascinating, written in fast, easy language. The kind where once you start, you can't put it down until you finish.

Only someone who fell head over heels with love, like Corinne, would withstand what the trials and tribulations of a marriage with a Masai warrior brings. It's something uncomprehending for regular American or European.


But I am very sorry I hijacked this thread about your Dad. I didn't mean to, I am really thoughtless at times.
I just blab whatever pops into my head without realizing the consequences, and I apologize for all that.

I am sorry he has to go into surgery and I will keep him in my thoughts for safe procedure and speedy recovery.
And you too Vicky, so you can be calm and confident during this time.

Risa

Don't worry about hijacking the thread. It gave me a book now sitting in my cart on Amazon. I have spent enough time with the Maasai (how they like to spell their name, although it is usually spelled Masai) in their home situation to know what they are like. The men in particular are raised to be very misogynistic. And as much as Steven tried to convince me that he is now very Westernized and doesn't view women the same way his people traditionally have, I could see signs of that attitude in him.

Among the Maasai, the traditional roles are that the young tend to the cattle; the young men are the warriors who protect the tribe; the women do all the work, such as building the houses, carrying water and wood, tending to the children, and being their husbands' play things when the men want them. They also traditionally "circumcize," which now is called female genital mutilation, their women, so they remove everything sexual that they can and actually sew the women up, so they barely have a hole to menstruate from! It's horrific! That's something that the African Christian church is trying to change among the people. Also the health services, which sponsor the full-time nurse for the village. They have posters up in the clinic about how bad it is to do this to women. They even use language such as, "Having sex with a circumcized woman is like having sex with a dead person!"

Oh, and I got sidetracked on my list of gender roles. The men's job is to sit and ponder the world. That's it. Traditionally, they might have done some hunting to protect their village (not to eat), but the animals are protected now, so they can't kill them. So they just sit. My dad in particular out of my church has done something to get some of the men to start taking a more active role in the lives of their families and in their village. The younger men have been taught to help support their families when they were in school, so slowly it is changing for the better.

But I still can't imagine how this woman could have survived living four years with a Maasai husband! For one thing, they believe it's a status symbol to have multiple wives, so she wouldn't have been alone for long!

My dad's youngest sister married a man from Ethiopia, who, she realized too late, was really only marrying her for a green card. His family didn't approve of his marrying a white American, so they told him to come back to Ethiopia, and they'd provide a wife for him. My aunt was even going to go back with him to be "his chief wife"! As if it would have worked that way! She finally wised up and left the man. And he stayed in the U.S. and married an Ethiopian woman here. He was a pretty bad father to their son too, although he has gotten better being a grandfather.

And as much as Steven tried to convince me that he is now very Westernized and doesn't view women the same way his people traditionally have, I could see signs of that attitude in him.

You are absolutely right Vicky, the traditions anybody grew up with, especially if those are traditions of power and condescension, they never ever die.
And whenever it suits them people regress to their old way of thinking at finger's snap.
You were very smart saying thanks, but no, thanks.

I had read other books that tell horrific tales of American women who married seemingly very westernized Arab men (with no offense to many good Arab men everywhere) who later did unbelievable 180' once they went back to their native country with their American wives or their American born and raised daughters.

Vicky you are going on the wild ride with "The White Masai" - it's how the book it titled.

But thanks for explaining how it should be spelled Maasai. I had no idea.

I recommend you buy all three books as the other two continue what happened to Corinne after she fled to Switzerland.
What happened next, how she survived, what happened to her daughter and if she ever went back to see her husband.

I really liked reading this true story and Corinne herself, as a woman.
What a brave, determined, strong woman she is!!!

Risa