Vacation...Sort of

            So we have been looking forward to having a little over a week off for vacation for a little while now. A team of American physicians was scheduled to come to BMC this past Sunday for about 2.5 weeks, and we were going to take off that Sunday to go to church and then leave Monday to visit some of the areas within a few hours drive of the hospital. Plans changed a little on Friday night, 2 days before our vacation was supposed to start. I was on call for the hospital and was asked to see a new patient that was sick and had been admitted to the male ward. I won't go into full details, but the patient ended up dying from lung problems and bleeding problems. We were able to obtain further information the next morning, and it made us very concerned for possible Ebola. Blood specimens were obtained from the patient and sent to the capital city of Accra for tests. I also had to isolate myself from my family, monitor for symptoms such as headache, and check my temperature several times per day, as well as travel to Accra as soon as possible in case I were to get sick and needed more advanced treatment or evacuation. Therefore, at about 5AM on Sunday morning (the first day of our scheduled vacation), I left for Accra in our truck, along with a medical student that was with me when I saw the patient.  We had to keep ourselves isolated from others until all of the labs had come back okay. We were officially released from isolation yesterday after all of the tests for viral hemorrhagic fever came back negative.

            Fortunately, Lori and the girls had flown down to Accra a few days after I had left Nalerigu and were staying in a different location. We were finally able to see each other and, in essence, start our vacation yesterday. Please pray for us as we try to recuperate from this event and get some rest before we have to drive back to Nalerigu in a couple of days.