November 23, 2005

  • Susan Goes Home!

    Susan Goes Home!!!!

     

     

    Sunday, November 20, 2005

     

     

    Susan was with us at the Sons of Thunder Medical Clinic for a total of 5 days.  After  IV’s and IV medications with ORS for the first 2.5 days and then oral medications and HEPS for the last 2.5 days…..in addition to the excellent care of her mother and a support visit from a woman surviving with HIV…..she was ready to be discharged.  This morning, after mama helped her dress in her Sunday clothes, we put her into a wheelchair and took her to Sons of Thunder church.  During prayer requests we wheeled her up to the front of the church and read James 5: 13-16.  According to the Word of God, the elders of the church along with her mother and brother and Sal and I anointed her with oil and laid hands on her praying in faith for total and complete healing.  After service, she stopped at the Children’s Home to see her babies.  When she and her family were packed up, Sal drove them home with instructions for continued care.  On Saturday, Sal had discussed ARV (antiretroviral drugs for HIV) and the government program for free drugs.  She would have to take a blood test to see if her blood counts are in the range to qualify her for the program.  Susan told Sal, “I want to live.  I want to see my babies grow up.”   We will be taking her to Livingstone Hospital on Friday for the test. Thank you for the prayers already lifted up….please continue to pray that Friday will only prove to be a testimony to the awesome God we serve.

     

     

    Well, if Susan was not enough…..We decided to hire Rona, the Community Health Technician, for Saturdays and special needs like setting up the Under Five program, working off shifts when we have overnight patients and going on house calls when available.  Saturday morning Rona came for us to discuss her employment and since it was Saturday it was decided that she would start right away.  I proceeded to start her orientation when Linda came to the door and said “There is an emergency…Joseph is very sick.  He is spitting blood, is having chest pain and can’t get here.”  Now Sal and I had gone to Joseph’s home on Friday and found him to have malaria after much attempted communication without an interpreter.  We started him on antimalarial medicine and ORS.  By the way, Joseph’s house is on John (the back 4,000 acres) so driving there in the Defender was quite an adventure! No roads…we’re talking about stony paths in the midst of alot of brush and even through a riverbed!  The riverbed was dry…I guess in the rainy season it would be driving through water.  On the way back to our apartment after treating Joseph, Sal looked over at me and said, “Did you ever in your wildest imagination think we would be in Africa, driving through the bush making house calls?”  We just smiled at each other… we both knew the answer.  Hearing the news about Joseph this Saturday morning, Sal took Rona (God’s provision) and got in the vehicle to get Joseph and bring him back to the clinic.  Since our only bed was taken by Susan, we put Joseph in the other room on the exam table.  Upon exam we suspected right lower lobe pneumonia…respirations rapid and shallow, no air movement on the right lower side and his chest pain was concentrated to the right side also.  After 2 nebulizer treatments (breathing treatments), he was able to breathe deeper: air, although still decreased was now heard over the right lung and he was able to cough up some mucous which was thick yellow with blood tinge.  We had to bring him to our apartment to give him the treatments because the power was out in the clinic. When we had finished the treatments and got him back to the clinic his temperature was 103.5 and he was starting to hallucinate.  We started an IV, gave him an IV antibiotic and fever medicine also IV.  We sponged him down and continued to monitor his temperature.  It was not coming down past 102 so Sal called Zimba Mission Hospital because there were Americans doctors there that we knew.  After talking with them and Joseph and his family, it was decided to take him to the hospital.  While we were packing things up to go and getting someone to get Joseph’s plow and chickens so thieves would not rob him while he was gone, two pastors came to visit Joseph.  We asked them to pray with him, which they did and we left with Joseph and his wife, baby daughter and brother. IV still intact and hanging from the sun visor, we also took an extra IV and his malaria medicine.  By the time we got to the hospital, which was a 45 minute ride, Joseph’s temperature was 98.9 and his pain was subsiding.  The doctors there at the mission hospital concurred with our suspected diagnoses and decided it would be a good idea to admit him.  After helping get him into a bed and assuring him that we would come back to bring him home, we left to return to the farm.  While we were gone, Rona was able to stay with Susan and give her medicine and monitor her temperature etc. 

     

     

    My pastor’s wife, Cheryl Beall sent me a little story about a doctor in South Africa and how God provided in answer to a child’s prayer…. The amazing thing was God started to answer that prayer months before the child ever prayed.  You see the answer had to come in a box from the States to Africa by mail for the prayer to be answered in time.  Cheryl often has had a prophetic word for me and this time she said in her e-mail “Thinking of you Renee. Maybe there is a box already in route.”

     

     

    As I write this update, her e-mail and that story keep coming back to me and I can see God’s provision even before we knew to pray….before we knew what we would need. 

     

     

    *We purchased the bed for the clinic a couple weeks ago and only

     

      recently got it all set

     

      up. (then Susan came)

     

    *We just purchased IVs last week before we had a need for them. (then

     

      both Susan and Joseph needed IVs)

     

    *Rona just showed up on Saturday (remember there are no telephones)

     

      and agreed to start

     

      work before we knew we would be needing her….(then not only did 

     

      we need her to go into the bush helping  and interpreting, but

     

      then to stay late with Susan while we took Joseph to the

     

      hospital.)

     

    *the wheelchair was in the clinic when we arrived in August and Sal had

     

      just turned

     

      someone down who asked for it (very unlike Sal since he had given

     

      one away

     

      back in September)…(Then we needed it to take Susan to the

     

      Children’s Home and church)

     

    *The type of vehicle we have because God knew where we would be

     

      going in it and who we would be transporting

     

     

    I really could go on and on boasting of our God and how He has provided everything we have needed right on time….even before we knew we were going to need it. 

     

    He truly is Jehovah Jirah, our Provider!

     

     

     

      Susan with mother, brother and babies at discharge