On Wednessday the 10th, we got up and prepared for a full day of teaching and preaching. We were excited to see everyone hungry for the Word. Phil was scheduled to teach three lessons and Leah, one.
Phil taught the first lesson on the importance of "Preparing to study the Word." The second lesson was giving 5 simple steps to "Studying the Word."
After the second lesson, Phil commented on how his shoulder was hurting. Normally having an aching muscle is not a concern. But after looking at the shoulder, he immediately called the Doctor who had been taking care of him in Kijabe.
There was a swollen area which felt like a rock under the skin. The whole shoulder was blue and had spots of dark red areas. After calling the Doctor, Phil and Simon did as instructed: get an immedate blood test.
They drove to the nearest town - Meru. In Meru, they had to go through a couple different clinics to find one that could run the right blood test. Finally, they found a clinic that could do the blood test and give the results within an hour. The results from the test were shocking!
In order for you understand the weight of the situation, we need to explain a few medical things. Phil was taking blood thinners in order to clear a blood clot. Now, the thing about blood thinners is that it makes your blood really thin (as it should), but if you get a cut or experience some kind of trama to the body, you run the risk of bleeding to death because your blood will no longer coagulate.
The reason why Phil needed frequent blood tests is because the doctors needed to monitor how thin Phil's blood was. When the test is run, a safe number to see on the result is somewhere between 1-2 (at the high end, 2.8).
Now, when Phil got the blood test in Meru, the result came back as 34. According to the doctors, this isn't really even possible for Phil to be living and at that number. But the doctors in the clinic confirmed that the test yeilded those results. So, Phil called the Doctor in Kijabe. He was instructed to leave immediately to go to Kijabe.
So, Simon and Phil returned to Kaithe, we all packed our stuff and left for Kijabe. We sadly had to cut the seminar short, but better to cut the seminar short and to let Phil's life be cut short. It took us 7 hours to make it back to Kijabe.
We arrived in Kijabe at 10 pm. We saw the Doctor and he assessed Phil. But because of the complexity of the situation, Kijabe Hospital did not have all the necissary equippment to treat Phil. So, off to Nairobi to the nation's best hospital. We were leaving Kijabe around midnight and were seen around 1 or 2 am in the Aga Kahn Hospital in Nairobi.
After being seen by a nurse, Phil got another blood test. We waited for the results... Wondering if this test would confirm the results of the first test that day. After an hour and a half, we were called into a hospital room. The test results were somewhat releiving. Instead of a 34, this result showed a 4.
Now, as I mentioned above, 3 is considered a high number. So, when the test came back showing 4, it was still a concern (but we were glad to hear that he wasn't dead yet). After hearing the results, the Hospital staff decided that I needed to talk to a few doctors. So, we waited - and in the course of 2 hours, we were seen by four doctors.
We were sent back to Kijabe with note for our doctor here. We arrived around 5 am. After taking a cup of tea, we all crashed into bed to rest after such a long day!
The Seminar didn't turn out the way we thought, we had a bit of crazy day with running around the country of Kenya, and we were going on very little sleep. BUT, God was glorified. In being a missionaries, we knew that it meant we would face these things. We knew that it meant sacrificing comfort and convenience for the sake of preaching the Gospel.
We don't know what is in the future, but we know Who holds the future! And this is our peace, this is our rest, and this is our motivation to keep going. We are serving the living God!
Phil taught the first lesson on the importance of "Preparing to study the Word." The second lesson was giving 5 simple steps to "Studying the Word."
After the second lesson, Phil commented on how his shoulder was hurting. Normally having an aching muscle is not a concern. But after looking at the shoulder, he immediately called the Doctor who had been taking care of him in Kijabe.
There was a swollen area which felt like a rock under the skin. The whole shoulder was blue and had spots of dark red areas. After calling the Doctor, Phil and Simon did as instructed: get an immedate blood test.
They drove to the nearest town - Meru. In Meru, they had to go through a couple different clinics to find one that could run the right blood test. Finally, they found a clinic that could do the blood test and give the results within an hour. The results from the test were shocking!
In order for you understand the weight of the situation, we need to explain a few medical things. Phil was taking blood thinners in order to clear a blood clot. Now, the thing about blood thinners is that it makes your blood really thin (as it should), but if you get a cut or experience some kind of trama to the body, you run the risk of bleeding to death because your blood will no longer coagulate.
The reason why Phil needed frequent blood tests is because the doctors needed to monitor how thin Phil's blood was. When the test is run, a safe number to see on the result is somewhere between 1-2 (at the high end, 2.8).
Now, when Phil got the blood test in Meru, the result came back as 34. According to the doctors, this isn't really even possible for Phil to be living and at that number. But the doctors in the clinic confirmed that the test yeilded those results. So, Phil called the Doctor in Kijabe. He was instructed to leave immediately to go to Kijabe.
So, Simon and Phil returned to Kaithe, we all packed our stuff and left for Kijabe. We sadly had to cut the seminar short, but better to cut the seminar short and to let Phil's life be cut short. It took us 7 hours to make it back to Kijabe.
We arrived in Kijabe at 10 pm. We saw the Doctor and he assessed Phil. But because of the complexity of the situation, Kijabe Hospital did not have all the necissary equippment to treat Phil. So, off to Nairobi to the nation's best hospital. We were leaving Kijabe around midnight and were seen around 1 or 2 am in the Aga Kahn Hospital in Nairobi.
After being seen by a nurse, Phil got another blood test. We waited for the results... Wondering if this test would confirm the results of the first test that day. After an hour and a half, we were called into a hospital room. The test results were somewhat releiving. Instead of a 34, this result showed a 4.
Now, as I mentioned above, 3 is considered a high number. So, when the test came back showing 4, it was still a concern (but we were glad to hear that he wasn't dead yet). After hearing the results, the Hospital staff decided that I needed to talk to a few doctors. So, we waited - and in the course of 2 hours, we were seen by four doctors.
We were sent back to Kijabe with note for our doctor here. We arrived around 5 am. After taking a cup of tea, we all crashed into bed to rest after such a long day!
The Seminar didn't turn out the way we thought, we had a bit of crazy day with running around the country of Kenya, and we were going on very little sleep. BUT, God was glorified. In being a missionaries, we knew that it meant we would face these things. We knew that it meant sacrificing comfort and convenience for the sake of preaching the Gospel.
We don't know what is in the future, but we know Who holds the future! And this is our peace, this is our rest, and this is our motivation to keep going. We are serving the living God!
No comments:
Post a Comment