Coopers in the Congo: Riding the epidemic wave AGAIN

March 24, 2020

A funny sight... chickens perching on the parrot perch in the house. They came in through the aviary window.

Riding the Wave

I have pinched myself a few times this last week as we read the news of the Coronavirus pandemic striking the world by storm. I keep hoping that I will wake up. Is this really happening? How is it possible that countries have closed their borders and people are repatriating home? It seemed at first like a disease that was only affecting China, and now the whole world is trembling. Even the Congolese border is now closed, as are many borders around us.. It feels like the world is riding some giant wave of unknown magnitude, with so many unknowns. The lives of so many people has changed overnight and we are scrambling to make our own medical masks! Even our jobs and livelihoods look less certain these days. These are crazy times.

This new pandemic has given me pause to look back on the last 1.5years. We have been living through an Ebola epidemic here in DRC for the last 1.5years. This epidemic has drastically changed our lives and caused us to mitigate risk. I (Lindsey) chose not to provide patient care so as to reduce the risk of exposure of our son. We were vaccinated against this terrible disease. We don’t shake hands. I still haven’t shaken hands with anyone for 8months since coming back. We don’t touch patients with ungloved hands anymore. Sometimes we have had to delay life-saving care due to the need to test patients. We have practiced social distancing and avoided large markets and public areas for weeks on end. We spend more time at home and less time traveling. Our daily lives have changed in significant ways. Ebola is not a forgiving disease-it is a deadly one if not detected and treated early. We have learned that vaccines and novel therapies are game changers for the prevention and treatment of Ebola. At long last, Ebola appears to be coming to a close. In just 2 more weeks with no further cases and they can declare the epidemic is over. It has been a long haul to get to this point and we are so grateful!

Some of the same principals we have learned from living through an Ebola epidemic may apply to treating coronavirus. Even some of the drug therapies may be similar. Let’s hope that we can properly put on/take personal protective equipment, wear N95 masks, dispose of waste properly, self-quarantine, wash our hands in bleach multiple times a day, and identify patients with this disease early. I am thankful in a strange way for everything we have learned. Probably the most aggressive thing we can do is test/isolate/trace and isolate contacts. We need to equip health care workers to do their jobs safely to protect their lives and the lives of others. Hospitals need to treat only essential conditions to avoid exposing people to the virus. Health care providers need to cohort care to limit exposures. We need to educate the general population from ALL angles on why it is important to limit contacts. People need to limit their movement and interactions and consider the essentials of life. On a community level in Africa this does not mean staying in one’s often very small house 24/7, but avoiding large groups. Here we need to consider things like food security and the possibility that goods could become scarce. For this reason we are planting more of the fields around us and considering how we can anticipate the needs of others.

Now life is back to basics. Many parents need to school their kids and find new activities together. This brings challenges, but also rewards. We are forced to slow down our frenetic life….unless of course you are in healthcare. If you are working in healthcare your life just got infinitely more complicated and risky and may separate you from family temporarily. We need to pray for those in health care and public service who care for others. We need courage for the tasks ahead of us. We need a way to surrender our worries to God, lest they overwhelm us. He is faithful and He hears our prayers and I believe we will see His intervention.

Let’s take care of our mental health-getting outside to appreciate nature. Let’s get enough physical exercise. Let’s check-in with the needs of others, help a neighbor. If possible, let’s limit our news intake as hard as that is.

A visiting doctor

Just before the DRC/Ugandan borders closed, we were able to welcome a visiting surgeon

Dr. Peter Stafford who was traveling from Togo. He and his family are trying to discern where they should serve as medical missionaries. There were a fair amount of obstacles affecting his trip: obtaining a “letter of invitation” with signatures from mayors/chiefs/important people in our province, a temporarily lost passport, a wife approaching her due date, the on-going Ebola epidemic, and then now the coronavirus epidemic. Somehow it worked out and he was able to get back to Togo two days early! We had a good time together and hopefully helped him to understand a bit more about Nyankunde Hospital, its’ history and vision for the work here.

Planting

We are getting ready to plant our fields as the rainy season begins. Warren loves driving

Dr. Peter Stafford with our family

around the tractor and Emmanuel loves to ride along. We are hoping to plant peanuts, soy, and corn in a couple of fields around us. I really am thankful that our vegetable garden is starting to produce okra, onions, tomatoes, squash, and beans among other things. Our gardener has been working hard to get things re-established since we were in the USA much of last year. I always gain greater respect for how the Congolese

Tractor shenanigans

live off the land around us. How would we all do if we had to grow almost verything we eat? That is how people live in this part of the world.

A few special patients

I have a lot of special patients. One in particular is a little girl with a protein losing kidney disease (a nephrotic syndrome). It can be a very serious problem to treat and cause a reduction in kidney function. She has been dependent on steroids which have not really controlled her disease. We needed to try something else. We have had a small surplus of a immunosuppressant drug called tacrolimus which was about to expire. Well she has been on that drug for the last month or so and seems to have better control of her disease. In the USA, this little girl would have had a kidney biopsy and countless tests to better define her disease. I would love to do that! We don’t have a pathology department and it is really challenging to send biopsies out. So we treat her disease using clinical measures and she is getting better! It is so rewarding to see her improving and getting off steroids.

One of our nutrition kids is almost 3years old and only weighs 6kg. As a point of reference,

Mixing a corn/soy blend for our outpatient porridge

this is usually the weight of a 6mo baby. She simply isn’t growing and is cradled in her mother’s arms most days. She has never walked or crawled. She simply hasn’t gained weight since birth. The mother has been displaced from a few communities over time and her father is no longer alive. She does not have an immunodeficiency like HIV/AIDS. She does not appear to have cancer or a heart condition. She does not have a thyroid deficiency. It is more likely that she could have tuberculosis which is effecting her weight gain. Many of the nutrition kids get better with just a little support and then there are others which confound us. We will keep working with this little girl whose Swahili name means “Looking for peace.”

I would like to close with a song called “It is Well With My Soul” written by Horatio Spafford

In 1873. It is a well-known hymn,a favorite of my grandmother. It is about our hearts being at peace because of the work of Christ on the cross for our sin. We can have a deep peace even when we go through great hardships. A little background on the hymn’s author: Horatio was a devout Christian and successful lawyer in the Chicago area. He was married with 4 daughters and 1 son. He was doing well, yet his faith did not spare him from adversity. His son tragically died and then he lost property in the Chicago fires. Then he sent his wife and children on a boat trip to Europe in the wake of this turmoil at home. The ship was shipwrecked and all 4 of his daughters died. He wrote this song when he was passing over the ocean to meet his wife, an ocean that had claimed the lives of his daughters so tragically.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul

It is well
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul

It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul

It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul

Weathering the pandemic storm from DRC. Let’s encourage each other while today is today.

Lindsey Cooper