A Detailed View of One Day

I figured it might be fun to give you a more detailed view of one of the days from the week I mentioned in the last blog.  It was definitely not your normal day, but normal days aren't much fun.  We received donations to allow us to pay for braces for a young boy, Nishan, who was born with a cleft palate.  He has had several surgeries in order to correct the palate, but his teeth have never been corrected.  I have a friend who is a dentist in Shymkent and she agreed to help.  Since we were going to Shymkent anyway, we decided to make it a 2-for-1 trip.  The clinic in Shymkent has an apparatus to do hearing tests, so we took another young boy, Ayan, with us to determine if he has any hearing problems.

The trip to Shymkent was uneventful.  Although we got started a little later than we had hoped, we made good time.  There are new roads halfway there, so it makes at least half the trip really pleasant.  I sat in the back and played games with Nishan while holding Ayan (who was asleep for most of the trip).  We had lunch at a small cafe in Shymkent before going to the clinic.

The time at the clinic was when everything started getting exciting.  Nishan and Ayan were being seen at the same time.  While the Dr. was getting information about Ayan, I went to check on Nishan.  We came to find out he had actually been given a retainer after his last surgery (in January).  However, he had never worn it.  He needs to wear it for 3-4 months before we can look at getting him started with braces.

Once I found out what we need to do in Taraz, I went back into the room with Ayan.  His caregiver was trying unsuccessfully to hold him still while checking his ears.  He clearly did not like his ears being touched.  I volunteered to hold him instead, and ended up having to wrap my legs around his legs and one arm around his arms, while holding his head still.  For a five-year-old who doesn't walk, he was super strong.  I used pretty much all my strength just to allow them to get a good look at his ears.  After a short while, they determined that he needed to have some wax cleaned out of his ears.  He has such narrow ear canals and the wax had built up really badly.  We held him still again while they cleaned out his ears.  I have never seen so much wax build up.  We were still unable to actually test his hearing due to the water in his ears and an infection that had built up behind the wax.  We will treat him for an ear infection and then have him tested again.  Although in some ways the trip wasn't successful (we didn't accomplish anything we set out to accomplish), we were able to identify Ayan's ear infection and have found someone to adjust Nishan's retainer here in Taraz.

The trip home was a little more eventful.  It included a diaper explosion while Ayan was on my lap.  I was thankful to return home and get cleaned up just in time for a Skype call.