Medical Issues and Cholera Hit Home in Oriani Haiti

Sept.23

On Candace’s infection.... It is on her side, half way between her armpit and her waist. It was very swollen and tight. The red area was about 6 inches across and now is about 10-12 inches, and spread around her back. Wed we went to Bernard Mevs hospital. That is the Lebanese twins hospital behind HayTrac. They had some Canadian drs there. They cut and cleaned it out. They don’t culture it because they say it is next to impossible to determine why these infections come, but they are generally Staph infection, sometimes MRSA that somehow enters the area. It could start with a spider bite or even just a prick or wound. We personally think they all started a certain way because of the unique pain of the small pimple that it always starts with. I still worry that she could get septic and then she would need IV antibiotics. She felt sick all day today. It is HUGE, about twice as big as the two infections I had, and the hole is about an inch deep and quite rotten. But she is on 2 antibiotics now that just kick into effect tonight. So we pray.

Last night on the way home (Candace and I spend night in Port), we waited for Dallas and Se Jeremy to arrive at the Fond Parisian hospital. There we fought for se Jeremys life in the hospitals (both FP hospitals). She had no detectable pulse, and no blood pressure. She had IVs put in both arms, and then the American DRs used a drill to get IVs straight into the marrow of each leg. They pressurized all these IV bags to be able to get the liquid in faster. Today they say she had cholera, and now they think she may live. When I helped carry her into the hospital she was running diarrhoea that left a trail all the way in and was on our clothes, shoes and hands. Everyone ended up contaminated and had to use lots of Javex etc.  We left FP last night at 9pm. Dallas had several brethren with him in the Isuzu pickup, (the Toyota had the rear end  totally seize up and skidded him to a halt a few days ago),  and Candace and I were in our truck. It took us 4 hours (till 1am) to get home. The whole Fond Verrrete valley was in flash flood mode. We waited till it went down and then started into the riverbed. We had no road left and spend alot of time stopping and wadeing thru the knee deep water searching for a route that didn’t have large rocks or washouts. Dallas got stuck once. We made it home last night, but have 3 holes in our tires today.  Had a 4 hr nap this afternoon while it poured rain. The lightning was smashing all around us, making it hard to sleep.

Last week Dallas’s house got hit by lightning and they saw the blue arcs in the house. The Orange signal booster is fried. This week a Oriani man got struck by lightning. It ripped his hat off, burned holes in his shirt and slammed him to the ground. His heart was acting funny for the rest of the day he said. Said it didn’t beat right. Haven’t seen him since so we assume he’s ok.

Our next door neighbour, Mirani, is pregnant, 3 children, husband left for DR, and she has no garden or money. Very sad, but we cant let her starve.

So thats the last couple days news,Love to you all, and keep praying

Sept.24

For Candace... Kim rebandaged it today and she thinks its going to be ok. The area on her lower back is no worse today and Candace feels better. SO maybe the antibiotics are starting to work properly now. This is the 4^th day on them.  We are still worried, but going to a hospital is no easy thing either, so we feel the best now is to just watch it closely.

Sister Jeremy is not doing well and they feel she will die soon. The brethren here are in abig stew and are all giving ideas on how to go down and help Jeremy. They have 6 children. We still don’t have conclusive answers on what her problem is, or even what they are trying to do for her. Haitian hospitals are all so crazy. Even the so called “white” hospitals are basically run by Haitians, the Haitian way. Double Harvest hospital is one of the better ones and they too often just give us a run around when we take people there. Sometimes people get help, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes a week later they come back up the mountain and their eating money is gone and nothing was done.

Sept.26

Today the Cholera epidemic is hitting Oraini area. We have had several deaths now over the weekend, and we have several church members and converts families who have it now. Sister Jeremy is still alive, and still in the Hospital in Port. We are in high alert at the clinic and are stopping all diarrhoea and vomiting people at the gate. We cannot risk contaminating the whole clinic. All cholera victims HAVE to be treated at a separate site!  We are treating them outside, but they cannot come into the clinic.

We are talking to World Vision today to see if they can come set up a CTC, (Cholera Treatment Center). We are hunting for a place to put up a tent and trying to put a plan in place.

More on that all later….

Candace’s MRSA is getting better thanks to Gods help. We were pretty worried a couple days ago, but the infection has shrunk, and even though it could rebound…. We have faith that God is healing now.

Life is serious here. Prayer is something that is real and a source of confidence in these times. Troubles like these kinda take away the petty things away that we sometimes tend to fret and concern ourselves with.