Thank you so much for your prayers this week while Jesse has been
away. Lord willing, he will return today at 3:30pm our time.
He had lots of tests-- the lyme's disease test came back in the
suspicious range, so it will have to be redone when we return to Kenya
in September, and there a few other tests that hadn't come back yet,
but the doctor is fairly sure that Jesse has fibromyalgia, a
neurotransmitter disorder where your nerves amplify pain signals-- it
keeps you in lots of pain and keeps you from getting good sleep, among
lots of other symptoms. You never get over fibromyalgia, but it isn't
deadly or progressive and you can get to the point where you feel much
better.
The doctor gave him some medicine and prescribed lots of physical
therapy. We will have to import the medicine from Kenya, and it will
be interesting to see what kind of physical therapy is available here.
The physical therapy he received already in Kenya was wonderful, but
they said that for it to really work he would need ten consecutive
days and then 3 times a week for at least 6 months. We plan to try to
see what we can find here and see how much the medicine helps and then
reevaluate things in August.
I accomplished two out of three days of videoing, which was a story
unto itself and full of hilarious reminders that I am in Africa--
things like the team showing up over an hour late and an older teacher
kicking out the younger one who had actually prepared the lesson we
wanted filmed and taking over so that she could be on camera... and me
busy throwing up outside the gate... we did manage to get some good
footage, but I was reaching my limit... and then the president
declared a holiday on Thursday so people could go pick up their voter
registration cards. I felt like it was a holiday declared just for
me! Then late Thursday night the electoral commission postponed the
election-- if all goes as planned it will take place tomorrow-- so we
got the vacation days without the tension, and Jesse will be here by
the time the real deal happens. Hooray!
Thank you again for your thoughts, prayers, and emails. Once again
you have prayed us through-- maybe you actually created a holiday--
we'll never know :).
Please also pray for our friends the Larmans, who attend an assembly
in Michigan-- they just lost their new little baby, Landon, on the
21st-- he was just 3 days old when his heart stopped and God took him
home. I can only imagine the amount of grace, endurance, and strength
they will need to get through these next few days,weeks, and months.
Thanks and God Bless You,
Joy
