As we get closer and closer to our departure date, we are making our most valiant attempt at crossing all of our T’s and dotting all of our I’s. One of the items on the list is to get properly vaccinated against whatever diseases may await our family upon arrival in Senegal. One of the “biggies” in Africa to be concerned about is Yellow Fever. In fact, depending on what country it is in Africa, if you arrive at the port of entry and do not have your Yellow Fever Vaccination Certification card showing you have been vaccinated, you may be ushered into a vaccination area and receive the vaccine on the spot.
We started by making lots of phone calls to find out the best way and the most economical way for our family to receive our vaccinations for Africa. We spent an afternoon at the Travel Clinic here in Sherbrooke in order to get our typhoid vaccine and other vaccinations needed. During our time there, the nurse brought up the Yellow Fever Vaccine, which was not news to us, except that this vaccinations has a lot of EGG in it compared with other vaccines that contain egg. Oops, James and Jada are allergic to eggs, but they need the vaccine. The Dr. called an allergist at the local hospital and setup an appointment for the twins to receive their Yellow Fever vaccine at the hospital under the supervision of an allergist, with and IV in place and ICU on alert. This would take place over the period of 1/2 a day. The only catch is that this is free for Canadians, but…we are not Canadians. So we launched into the research phase. Do we HAVE to have this vaccination? How much would it cost to take care of this at the Public Hospital where normally everything is covered, but not for us? Could we find a Dr. in the United States who would do this for us, maybe while we are in Wisconsin this summer? Is the hospital and Dr. in network for our insurance? By the way, how do those deductibles work anyhow? What is the real risk of contracting yellow fever in Senegal? If you get Yellow Fever, what is the mortality rate, (i.e. what are the chances you will die) ? Can we find anyone in Wisconsin willing to administer the shot, or does everyone want to write and exception for us? If it is not a required vaccine for Senegal, why did one of our missionary friends get ushered into the “vaccination room” when entering Senegal without their yellow fever card in hand?
We are blessed to have a couple in French Language Study with us, Grace and Dale, who are both Doctors. They were a great help to us in even knowing what questions to ask when making the decision. We were calling all over the place and getting no real answers, just blank stares. Can you get a blank stare when speaking to someone on a phone? Apparently the type of Dr. to speak with is a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor. We launched an email to the prayer team to pray with us for wisdom in making this BIG decision. God has truly blessed us with a wonderful group of people who pray with us in during challenging times like this.
We came to the decision that the risks of the disease and the mortality rate, chance you will die if you get it, lead us to the decision that James and Jada in deed needed to receive the vaccination. The next question was where? Wisconsin or Quebec? We tried very hard to find someone in Wisconsin who could administer the vaccination before our departure for Africa. Froedert Travel Clinic and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin both referred us to the same allergist. When we started figuring out dates, we were arriving in Wisconsin on July 11th and he was leaving town from July 14th – August 1st. Oops, that’s a pretty tight schedule, but there was an opening for July 12th. He did some research into what the protocol would look like and also spent some time hearing James and Jada’s egg allergy history. We were praying for clear direction in the decision. Having the vaccination in Wisconsin would be free or closed to free whereas being vaccinated here in Quebec was looking like 2 to 3 thousand dollars if all went well. ICU is $7,993 per night if we ended up needing that. Another hurdle was that the hospital where everything was setup for was out of network. (NOT GOOD) Through many phone calls we found out that because there are NO IN NETWORK hospitals in our town, insurance would put the expenses as IN NETWORK. We continued to pray and ask for prayer. The last time I prayed about it before we made our decision I asked God for clarity. Within the hour I received a phone call from the allergist in WI saying that he felt like our schedule in Wisconsin had NO margin for error and that it would be wise to come up with another plan. How about that for an answer to prayer!
We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 8 AM for our appointment. We needed to get our hospital card, prepay the society of doctors and pay a bill in hospital accounting. Well, the only place open before 8 AM was the place to get the hospital card. I thought I would get ahead of the game and do all of this the day before. After spending the afternoon at the hospital, I found out that I would not be able to have my hospital card until the day of my appointment. I also would not be able to pay any of the other bills until I had my hospital card. The lady in the doctors society office told me that she could help me and allow me to pay early, but that I would need to return the next day to have a number changed on my receipt. There were two charges, one for James and one for Jada. After running the first charge, Jenny received a phone call at home to confirm that it was us making the charge and release a hold they had put, or intended to put on our bank card. Meanwhile, I was at the hospital totally unaware of what had transpired with the bank. God is in the details! This could have been a very difficult situation if I had waited until the next day and nobody was home to take the call from our bank. God also blessed us with a wonderful gentleman, Jean-Claude De Courcy from AXE21 (our church here) to go with us to the hospital to help with language barriers in case things we “wrong”.
James and Jada received their vaccinations with very little complication! The doctor and nursing staff were wonderful and compassionate during the whole process. James and Jada both needed IVs installed as well as 4 shots each over the course of the morning. The numbing gel they used for Jada caused her veins to collapse and so they had to try 4 times to get the IV in and finally installed it in her arm instead of her hand. This lead to many tears from both Jada and mommy, who was with her during this process. After receiving the vaccination there was a possibility of reaction for up to 24 hours. We praise the Lord that there was no major reaction. Jada had a large local reaction, but this was remedied by children’s Tylenol over the next few days. Praise the Lord for allowing us to come through this process all in one piece and for being in the details all along the journey.
Travis & Renee says
Wonderful!!!!!! Praise the Lord!!!! Thanks for sharing all the details!!! Very encouraging to read!!!! Love you guys!!!!!
kendra says
So thankful to hear how God worked out the details in this! And glad to hear that it is over! I am sure the kids are glad for that too! 🙂
Mike and Sue Wood says
Praise Him! Praise Him! We are so elated that all went well. 🙂
HIS plans are:
— still to move you all safely to another continent.
— provide for you along the way.
— honor your faithfulness to HIM.
— PERFECT.
Danny Sweet says
So glad to hear all is going well. Our Lord knows just how to prepare us, physically and spiritually for His work. We are praying for you guys. Thanks for all you are doing for my Lord.
God bless you. Give my kids a great big hug from uncle Danny.
Jeanne Ullenberg says
Indeed Praise God, our Great Physician. So glad to hear that all is well and the adventure continues. Looking forward to your arrival.