Two More Days in the Life

Yesterday was a good day for both of us-- Heidi was at the Hospital Buen Samaritano and saw five or six patients, which is an improvement over sometimes not having any! Word is spreading slowly, and we're pretty sure that soon she will have more work there than we wished for. (A radio ad that the administrator is running soon probably won't hurt, either!) Matt had the chance to be home working with his studio for the first time since we packed it up last March. This was, of course, a happy time for him. He is working on a solo album and on re-recording some things, and hopes to also help record a local Christian band here in town that he has played with some.

Today we were at Aselsi, where we saw more patients than usual (about 40)-- We are trying hard to increase our services there, since we are often turning many patients away at the door due to lack of appointments. We did lots of prenatal care, saw several return patients, and got hit with lots of new problems also-- making for a long, but productive and meaningful, day.

One new patient was a 75 year old man who had a stroke about a month ago. He has lost all control over the right side of his body, and his family really struggled to get him in the building for his consult. There's not much we can do for him, of course, except show that we care and try to help the family as much as possible to deal with this tragedy. We did send him to the Hospital to pick up a walker from Dr. Hoak, which we hope will help him get around some. We're also trying some medication to help his severe tremors, which he has had since before the stroke. Pray for the best!

Another patient is a 13 month old who weighs just over 13 pounds. There are very few months in one's life when those two numbers should match! She has a very loud heart murmur and has failed to gain much weight at all despite being in the nutrition/milk program there at Aselsi. We are planning to take her and her mom to Guatemala City March 27th for a cardiac evaluation at the hospital there. Please pray that they are able to help, as it does not appear that this girl will ever do well without surgery to correct whatever defect she has in her heart that is using up all her energy just to keep her alive!

Our little girl with the severe dermatitis and impetigo continues to improve. You might recall she was initially brought in by a concerned teacher, but we're happy to report that her mother has been with her on subsequent visits and seems to be taking good care of her. Importantly, too, she is staying in school-- Many children with any deformity or facial rash would be kept home by their parents in order to avoid ridicule. In a society where school is not mandatory, this happens commonly. We are quite proud of her and her mom for persevering.

We had two new diabetics to teach about diet and the diabetic lifestyle and start on meds. This is a labor-intensive process that will need to continue indefinitely, but we pray that we can help these women to live longer and healthier lives by controlling their disease. One was diagnosed two years ago, but has not had access to medications or doctor visits since then! You can guess she was pretty poorly controlled. No one had ever even talked to her about changing her diet or even what diabetes means as a diagnosis.

On the home front, please pray for continued good health for us both. We seem to both have been sick a lot lately, but we thank God that nothing has been as serious as it always could be. The pregnancy still seems to be going well-- We're 20 and 1/2 weeks now! Just under 20 more weeks for us to agree on our little boy's name... wish us luck. Also, up until about 10 minutes ago, we were blessed with two computers in our home (the laptop we brought with us and the desktop that has been used by Agape in Action for several years)-- The desktop just died, and we're not at all sure at this point if we will get it back. Pray that we don't tear ALL of our hair out trying to re-do stuff that was only saved to that machine.

Tomorrow we will work in a different village with a team that is down from the States in Chichicastenango. It's always nice to work with new people, but days tend to be very long when you are trying to keep up with a team that is only here for a week! We've grown much more accustomed to the Guatemalan pace of life, so please wish us patience and endurance for tomorrow. We'll let you know how it goes, of course...