Day 4 Hospital Update

So what if I’m a tourist in the hospital?! I wanted to show you a picture of my 3 doctors who are taking such great care of me! From the left is Dr. Aragón, the second doctor to come on board; middle is Dr. Granera, the kidney specialist new on the team; on the right is Dr. Porras, the original doctor I started seeing. It was fun for them to all come at the same time this morning. Normally, they come in one at a time to visit, check me out, etc. Yesterday when they came in, even bearing good news, they weren’t happy, but today, they were much more pleased. My creatinine levels went down from 10.4 to 9.3, so prayer and the steroids are a great team together! Putting off dialysis for another day (praise the Lord!)

If you’re wondering about the masks, those are new Dr.’s orders as of yesterday. Apparently, since my immune system has been so rebellious these days, they are giving me an immunosuppressant to give it a rest, while medicine, vitamins, etc. can help get me healthy again. SO all my visitors have to wear them so I don’t get their germs! Don’t let this keep you from visiting if you are considering coming by! I love having visitors! Yesterday, Lori and Carey, 2 dear friends from my Bible Study snuck me in some Quizno’s, which was a welcome break from hospital food! It came at the perfect time – just before the diet crackdown. I’m now on a no-sodium-no-potassium-no-red-meat diet. Some of the things I’ve been eating the past few days that I can’t now? Cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas, maduros, cheese, beans, and my favorite, french fries. Thanks ladies for giving me a quick last fix before the whip came down.

Paul, our friend from Dallas who lives in Nicaragua and works with One by One now, has come to visit a few times as well. He came Friday night along with David (brother-in-law), Joanna (sister-in-law), and Chase, and we acted a bit like fools. We took the shelf out of the bathroom, made a make-shift board game table out of that and my nightstand and played Settlers of Catan with the Cities & Knights expansion. That was the day after I got here, and I was still a little loopy, so I kept forgetting in the middle of my turn that it was my turn. Oops! I asked my nurses later if anyone ever plays board games in their room and they said it’s rare, but sometimes. I ask if it was all white people who play, and of course, yes it is. We’re nerds. It’s okay. We’ll own it. It was the first time I’ve gotten to just have fun and forget about being sick since coming back to Nicaragua, and that was just a welcome feeling. Thanks David for bringing the fun and games!

Lastly, our friends Jessie & Timothy Crabtree came to visit last night. We had a great time catching up with them since they’ve been in the States the last 3 months! We’ve missed them a lot and are glad they’re back! Other visitors that made it in before the mask rule were Kristina (Sister-in-law), Ann Sharp (friend from our English church here, ICF), then Kristina with Beckett (my 20 month old nephew), who did quite well and liked to come point at my IV and say ow-oh, which is his word for a boo-boo or owie, as other kids may say. He sat up in bed with me for awhile, probably because I let him play with my cell phone and ipod. AND he’s learning my name, which sounds kind of like Ju-dah. Works for me, though – better than being called Chase, which is what I’ve been up until this point! So, there’s a little more social update for you. Sorry there’s no pics of me yet. I looked terrible until last night, so I plan to take a picture of my mom and I today (she arrived last night!) and maybe I’ll even post it on here later today. Thanks for reading the blog! And thanks for praying! Continue to ask the Lord to heal my kidneys completely, and pray that my blood pressure would go back down and my lungs would continue to go back to normal as well. I cannot thank you enough for your prayers, your notes, your e-mails, your comments. They mean the world to me! Love you all!