Back to Work

This morning we had to say a very sad good-bye to Annie, who we hope is now safely back in the U.S. Duane flew in to pick her up, and came a little early to check out the progress on the construction. Pics below are of the progress that has been made on the fence, which looks pretty good. Matt bought paint and other supplies today to ensure that the work can continue over the weekend and while we are travelling to the Zona Reyna next week.

Yesterday's clinic at ASELSI was pretty routine, and today's at the Hospital Buen Samaritano was as well. We saw a few post-operative patients who are doing quite well, and even one lady who had her hysterectomy last May and was back in with her daughter for some minor problems today.

The more interesting news is about the patients who have shown up at the door this week, actually--

Little Tomas, the new cleft palate baby that Regina brought us a few weeks ago, was here yesterday with his very proud and happy parents. He has gained over a pound since we started him on supplemental bottle feedings just two weeks ago!! He looks so much better so quickly, and it was truly heartwarming to hear his parents talk about how "bonito" (cute) he looks. Unfortunately, this isn't a word used often to describe these babies. Please keep Tomas and his family, as well as all of the other cleft palate babies, in your prayers.

Today there was a man who showed up wanting to talk to the doctor about his wife. He was obviously very distraught, and it turns out he had good reason to be. The hospital here had diagnosed his wife with a brain tumor, which was almost 8 cm large by CT scan! He desperately wanted to hear that there were other options for her treatment.

Unfortunately, Heidi had to pretty much agree with the local docs that there is very little hope for her survival-- outside of a miracle, that is. So we prayed together for a miracle and for peace for the lady and her family. They are a very nice Christian family in crisis-- Please pray for Tomasa Tebelan and her husband and kids. We were able to offer some medications to help with pain and nausea, and assured them that our door is open if there is anything else we can do to help make her more comfortable.

We feel this is a good time to point out how we came to have medications to help this lady with-- From time to time, we will receive medications that are donated by family members of a deceased patient in the U.S. Often these are people that died of cancer or other chronic illness and acquired a large supply of meds. They are often very useful pain and anti-nausea medications which can make a big difference and otherwise be very hard to find down here. All this is really just to publicly answer the question that we receive from time to time about whether these types of meds/situations can be useful to us-- with a resounding YES! Just something to keep in mind...

This weekend will be our regular clinics in Canilla and San Andres, then on Sunday there is a new fourth year medical student joining us. Charlie will hopefully be flying in to Canilla to spend the night, since we are leaving early Monday morning for a village in Zona Reyna.

This trip will be to a village that is not reachable by any road, so we will be flying everything and everybody in and out. Lots of prayer coverage would be appreciated! Please pray specifically for the plane and safe flight, health (we are unable to take in enough clean water or food, so will be relying on local supplies), and our medication supplies-- We have no idea how much of everything to take, so we may be dependent on some "loaves and fishes" type action... Which is obviously not a problem for God; we've seen it lots of times before with our own eyes.

Our God is an awesome God.