I am getting caught up Post from Feb. 20-22

Hey you guys. It is 4:15 on Thursday afternoon and I have guests coming for dinner at 6 but I had to stop and catch my breath and give you an update. Yesterday and today have been a bit crazy.

Yesterday I took Garth to a local hospital for an x-ray on his chest. He has been sick for several weeks and the nurse suggested we do that. Here are some pictures of that adventure.

We got the x-rays right away, one of our nurses scanned it and sent it to some American doctors. They all agreed that he had a collapsed lung. We didn't know about that until this morning. We got a call at 7:00 am telling us that Garth should go to the hospital and have the lung reinflated. So we drove to the "good" hospital that is an hour away  thinking that we will try and have that procedure done. We got there and spent several hours waiting and doing tests. They did an EKG, and blood work and took his blood pressure and weight and height and blood pressure again and again etc. and then they finally said that we needed another x-ray before we could do anything. At this point it was about 2:00. After the x-ray they told us that we could meet with the doctor on Tuesday after the results of the blood work, and the x-ray were in. Tuesday! What? Inside I am thinking a hundred thoughts-what if it is a collapsed lung? Shouldn't it be taken care of sooner rather than later? I am supposed to leave for OE on Monday! Do I still go? On and on as the inside of my head was screaming. SO, we asked if we could come and get the x-rays tomorrow to show to our doctor and they said yes. SO, tomorrow morning Garth and I will go back and get the x-ray and scan them for the doctors to look at again. IDK what will happen after that. I can't think that far. We have guests staying here that need me, Cale still has his fever, I still need to pack for OE.... one thing at a time. Breathe and trust. Breathe and trust.

Garth is not in pain. He has no fever. So that is all good. He has a bad, persistent cough, and very low energy and his oxygen level is down. The doctor can hear some rails when he listens to his lungs but they don't think it is pneumonia. This could be so much worse, I am well aware. And thankful that we have a hospital here that we can go to. This hospital was just built last year. Anyways, keep praying please. Also, one of our OE leaders just found out that his Dad is dying so he has to fly home to Malaysia and will not be able to go. That means we need to find a new leader that will be ready to go on Monday. Breathe, and trust. O.k. here are some pictures from the hospital we went to today. Quite different from the one we went to yesterday.

O.k. I have to go make dinner.

Bye.

Rachel

 

Feb 21

So... I finally have a bit of news regarding Garth. We got the second x-ray today, scanned them and sent them off to two American doctors and one Dutch doctor. Only two responded and they both had the same thought. Mainly, "This is not good and we need to do something about it." 

So if you look at the x-ray  I will explain what I have learned so far. Do you see below the R there is like a line down where it is lighter on the left of that line and darker on the right? Well, the thought is that the light part is air that has filled up the pleural cavity because of a hole in the lung. See on the other side the lung is all dark. That one is healthy and full of air. An American doctor is coming here on Sunday and wants to listen to Garth's lungs and check his pulse/oxygen level and then (probably) aspirate his lung-that means putting a needle in the top part of that air pocket to extract the air. They are hoping that once the air is gone, the lung with fill up the cavity and the hole will repair itself.

 Feb. 22

Hi guys. So I have some news about Garth. The American doctor seems to think that it is not a hole in the lungs. She wants  him to be on a steroid and see if it helps. We are trusting her judgement and he started the steroid today. Thank you for praying. That would be wonderful if he didn't need any procedures done while I am gone, and if I came back to a healthy husband. WOOHOO. Thanks you guys for caring so much!