Chapter 1
Chapter 2

4. Travel Documents

The next few days were a whirlwind of praying, packing, reading and making loads and loads of photocopies.
I went ahead and purchased flights for me and the baby, on the whim that we might be legal to travel in the next four days.

We spent a full day at the Tanzanian immigration office, getting Little Lion an emergency travel document – which also included a full hour of trying to get an appropriate photo to use.
It had to be a blue background, he had to have his eyes open and his face had to be turned toward the camera.
Pretty difficult to do with a young baby.
In the end, an immigration officer wearing a blue shirt held him on his lap as the ‘blue background’ and we caught Little Lion lifting his head, opening his eyes just before he started crying.
Not an attractive photo, but it will do.

I tried in vain to call the US Embassy in Tanzania. The office hours were off due to the holiday season. To reach a human being, I called the US Center for Citizens Living Abroad in Washington DC, and they connected me to the private phone number of the deputy of the US Embassy in Tanzania – who was on safari somewhere in Selous Game Reserve, I think.

—Can we take a moment to respect that international triangulation?—

Since he was out of the office he couldn’t actually do much to help me, but gave me an email address and said they would get back to me after New Years.
We couldn’t wait til then.

I called the US Embassy in Nairobi Kenya, just before they closed for the day. They answered the phone!
And I spoke with a human, not an automated machine. The officer said if it was urgent, just show up at the office and bring whatever paperwork I had.
Bless them.

We woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning and drove to the Tanzania/Kenya border. Passed into Kenya with Little Lion’s emergency travel document and the doctor’s letter.
Then, we boarded a local transport bus, crammed in the back and headed to Nairobi by bus. We arrived at the US Embassy just as it opened, and already a long line of people with scheduled interviews and appointments had formed.

In all my life, I have never been prouder to be an American.
The US Embassy Nairobi was fantastic.

I walked up to the gate, flashed my US passport to the guard and he waved us in, skipping the 20+ persons in line. No questions asked.

At the security checkpoint, we were asked for our appointment, again I waved my US passport, they smiled and let us pass the long line.

At the waiting area they told me it was a standard 20 minute wait. I said it was an emergency and they nodded and instructed me to press a bright red doorbell. In 30 seconds the door opened and we walked in.

The officer read the doctor’s letter, asked me a few questions and to fill out of a stack of forms. Twenty minutes later, they said “Don’t worry about the forms, you can do them another time.”
I’m not used to this people-first bureaucracy! What is this?
Instead, we had a quick interview where I verified where I was born, the school and college I attended and showed my school records and transcripts as proof.
(Thanks, Mom for saving every paper from ever! The officer especially loved my middle school ID badge).

“When is your flight?”
Tomorrow, noonish.
“Okay. We will have your passport ready in 2 hours.”
Wow. Amazing.
“No. Sorry, you don’t need to wait that long. We will have your passport ready in 30 minutes.”
And. They. Did.

We were at the US Embassy for a total of 3 hours, and left with an official (if temporary) passport for Little Lion.
I believe in miracles.

5. Brave

But, we still had a long journey ahead of us.
The next day I traveled alone with Little Lion to Europe, and Mr Mechanic returned to Tanzania and the rest of our kids.

I recall a sweet lady on the airplane encouraging me as we boarded our flight; “Wow! you’re brave, traveling alone with an 8-week old.”
I definitely did not feel very brave. There was no “Eye of the Tiger” playing in the background. I was barely holding back tears, and not walking with any sort of confidence.
I couldn’t NOT travel: we had to seek advanced medical treatment. But perhaps that is a type of courage, too; moving forward out of sheer necessity. Fear, worry, doubt could avalanche me after, there was no time for such frivolities at the moment: I had to go.

When our flight landed in the bitter cold I was met by a family member and we drove directly to the hospital.

We waited in a primary examination room, behind one of those dark curtains and watched the squeaky shoes of nurses and doctors pass around us. At last, a pair of shoes paused in front of us and a doctor poked her head in.

She initially greeted us, then she looked at Little Lion and exclaimed “That baby is yellow! WHY IS THAT BABY YELLOW!?!?”
Well… we were hoping you could tell us…

Chapter 4

Chapter 1

2. Hospital

The doctor (the same dude that actually pushed Little Lion out into the world), believed that our baby was having trouble breathing due to low blood sugars.
He immediately administered a sugar solution and wrapped him up extra warm and snuggly.
Soon after, we were transferred to the newborn intensive care unit (NICU).

Little Lion got the last available bed in the ALMC NICU.
Mr Mechanic told me after the fact that the NICU was full and they couldn’t accept our baby.
He stayed there at the desk, shook his head and said, “No.” And just didn’t budge until they relented.
Wonderfully, they moved things around and Little Lion got an emergency back-up bed, the last, LAST option available.

At the NICU they connected him to oxygen to monitor his breathing.
Shortly after, when I tried to give him another bottle, he began gasping for breath.

I watched on the oxygen monitor as his levels rapidly dropped to 45% and he changed color, though not as drastically as a few hours before.
Nurses came running and quickly connected Little Lion to a CPAP machine, and his oxygen rose to normal.
The doctor called it ‘oxygen desaturation’, as if somehow that’s less scary for a parent to hear.
Let’s all be saturated with oxygen, shall we? Especially the babies.

We remained at the NICU for two weeks.

It was a trying time; I was sleeping at the hospital while Mr Mechanic was taking care of me, being there to help with Little Lion, and caring for our family at home – incredible man!
I didn’t get any sleep (even less than normal with a newborn), and was eating the same hospital meal (chicken and rice) for lunch and dinner for the entire two weeks. I looked forward to the fruit salad Mr Mechanic smuggled in for me every afternoon.
It was two weeks of extreme exhaustion and constant worry.

After the first four days, Little Lion was taken off the CPAP machine and also began to have the oxygen removed. He continued to be monitored, but was breathing independently. However, he wasn’t eating/drinking enough and he wasn’t gaining steady weight.
A nasal gastro tube (NGTube) was through his nose to his stomach to push food directly into him.
Oh, I hated that awful thing in his nose.
He did, too. He grabbed it, ripped of the medical tape and detached the tube at least three times.
Pretty strong for a newborn. Especially a newborn that apparently isn’t drinking enough.

• 

The ALMC NICU and its staff are incredible.
It saves the lives of infants with medical issues, especially premature babies in and around the Arusha area.
There is even a backpack-toting, hiking-shoes-wearing NICU doctor who meets new moms wherever they are (sometimes that means the bush) and escorts them back to the hospital.
Please check out these links to learn more about this extraordinary facility.
You can also donate to their program and help save the lives of infants in Arusha, or assist a mother with a baby in the NICU.

• Facebook Page
• ALMC hospital website
• Instagram Page

After a few days, Mr Mechanic took over a feeding and I would (try) sleep for a solid 3 or 4 hours.
It was the beginning of hot season and there was no air conditioning. Also, a nearby church had started BLASTING Christmas carols (yes, in November!!! I know, ridiculous on so many levels…), so there was also that.
After the first week, Mr Mechanic arranged for someone to drive me home so I could see our other kids, have a decent shower and change my clothes. He stayed at the hospital with Little Lion for a few hours, and I would feel slightly brighter when I returned in the late evening.

It was hard, but together we managed.

Those two weeks were excruciating.
And, we didn’t get any answers.
The doctors didn’t know why Little Lion ‘desaturated’, and they couldn’t give us a clear answer for why he wasn’t gaining weight, and couldn’t remain awake for a full feeding.
But, he never turned blue again. He was successfully breathing on his own.

At the end of two weeks he progressed enough that we could go home, and follow up with a pediatrician.

We assumed it was something related to being a newborn and were just happy Little Lion was home and improving.

3. Yellow

Then, at 6 weeks, Little Lion appeared jaundiced. A yellow-ish tinge to his skin.
The doctor was a bit surprised, but encouraged us to get him into the morning and evening sun.

After a week, no improvement.
So, we had to run blood tests to see what was wrong.

It was horrible trying to get blood from him. They tried for two hours, poking and prodding him. They even tried in his scalp and shaved a bit of his hair to jab a needle in there (no luck, but a funny hair cut).
In the end, they only got enough to check for some infections, not enough to run all the tests they wanted.
Little Lion did not have an infection.

A few days later, we went for the needle-prodding and stabbing again, to run more tests.

Newborn jaundice is expected, unsurprising. Jaundice at 6,7,8 weeks? this is abnormal. It can be a sign of an issue involving the liver, bile ducts or gallbladder.
In Little Lion’s case, the test results showed severely elevated levels of bilirubin. Shockingly high, the doctor stated.

It indicated a major liver problem.

Something that this hospital, the best in Arusha, was not equipped to address further.
Possibly needing surgery.
Possibly needing invasive, specialized treatment.
Definitely needing more advanced equipment and testing than was available in Arusha.
And definitely needing answers as soon as possible.

The next day, we were sitting in the doctor’s office, and he was writing us a letter so we could travel internationally for medical treatment.

Chapter 3