We celebrated Tom's first birthday!!! Last year he was brought by the police as an abandoned baby of 1 month old. So we gave him as date of Birth: 10/10/2023.. I wrote about Tom a couple of blogs ago... Tom was going to be adopted, but then he got the diagnosis "Sickle Cell" , the couple who was going to adopt him, changed their mind. So now we try to manage him as best we can and we pray and hope for a family who is willing to care for Tom. We decided to celebrate his life, complete with baloons, party heads and a cake!! It was great to see him grabbing in the cake and his face was full with the (very sweet) icing.
We had placed him sitting on the table and he loved it, later he shared the cake with his friends and with us, the staff!
After we got the diagnosos about the sickle cell disease, we were refered to a new research centre in Soroti, which only handle's the sickle cell patients. They gave us good advice and told us that we should come back when he is 1 year old, than Tom can be part of the 4 year research programme and receive medication to help him.. We were happy to hear that and yes, on his birthday, Immarculate (our nurse) and me went with Tom to the centre. After some talking they told us that Tom could not be part of the project yet, his weight was only 7 kg. and they required 8 kg.!!! We were very disappointed, Tom is sickly and he doesn't eat well, that is why he is only 7 kg.. We feed him extra food via the NG tube, It is a real struggle. He gained only 2 kg. in one year!! And now he needs to gain 1 kg. more before he can be part of the project.... Yes it was a big dissapointment, but we will go for it.!! We made a strict feeding schedule for him with extra feeding via the NG tube as well. But the problem is that when you give too much, he will start vomiting..
And today we had to go with him to the clinic because he had a fever, they tested him and he had malaria and a very low HB, so he was in need of a blood transfusion.....This is his fourth already in his first year!!
On the picture you see Lydia, one of our staff, sitting with him, while the bloodtransfusion is going slowly in his veins. It is sad, but we will let you know when he has reached the 8 kg. mark, we will have anothe party and we will go back to the centre to be part of that programme!!!
I want to share about one other little boy: Innocent.. He was brought to Amecet on August 14. He was 5 months old. The story is that his mother has a mental problem and she abandoned the baby with relatives, she left and up to toady, nobody knows where she is. Nobody knows who the father of the baby is. When he came to Amecet, his weight was 3.6 kg, he was weak, malnourished, deheydrated and aneamic. We started with a lot of treatment, but he took it very well.. It took maybe 3 weeks before he was going to pick up and his weight is now 7 kg.!! He is healthy, and smiling a lot..
You can see the differance between those 2 pictures! It gives us so much joy, seeing a child again healthy and smiling!!!
Innocent will soon go back to his Uncle and Auntie, who are willing to give him a home and family!!
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