We had a great time with Alan here. He was a wonderful guest and also so valuable at the hospital. We are so thankful that he came out here.
Boys showing Alan their turtles.
And the neighbor's turtle. Just a wee bit bigger.
On a car ride with Alan and Balla.
Brett and the peds guys.
Eating dinner with Jeremie and his family.
I've posted before but I wanted to write a separate blog to mention how grateful we are that he came. He has helped a ton through emails but there is nothing like seeing things first hand and him being able to lay his hands on the kids and give advice. Simple things like kids who are given Vincristine, a chemo med, often have foot drop as a symptom. I didn't think the kids had this (didn't know it was a side effect until he came) but he saw Francois and said, "that's foot drop." Oh. ok. Just some of the things that can't be conveyed on email.
Also, there was a lymphoma kid that showed up while he was here. Moments like these make it abundantly clear to me that God is with us. Mamadou had a growing mass since November but "chose" this week to come into the hospital again while Alan was here. Alan took one look and said it was lymphoma. This is significant because we were not aware that lymphoma presents as a cluster of swollen lymph nodes. We thought it was just one enlarged node. I can't honestly say what we would have done. I would like to think that we would have consulted Alan and found the diagnosis but I don't know. It was incredible that he was here at just the right time to diagnose this cancer and teach Brett and Ed (our lab guy) how to look on the bone marrow slides. It just amazes me. It's not like this growth showed up in a day. It had been growing for months and they decided to come the week Alan was with us. God is surely in control.
I feel overwhelmingly blessed that Alan came and a bit more assured that we are doing on ok job with this whole cancer thing.
Alan also brought a sickle cell machine and 5,000 cards to test newborn babies or those we suspect may have sickle cell so that we can provide them with preventative care. What a great blessing this will be.
Alan has a blog about his trip called Footprints in Mali. I love his title. What I find fascinating is that he was already making footprints here and saving kids lives before he even stepped foot in Mali. Now with more cancer care and the sickle cell program his footsteps will become even more numerous here. Thank you Alan for helping us and saving lives here in Mali!
While Alan was here we also decided I should start another blog of the long term patients at the hospital. So it is up and running. koutialakids.blogspot.com For those of you who will read both, there will at times be overlap and some kids are such a part of my own life that I will want to include them on this blog as well.
I've posted before but I wanted to write a separate blog to mention how grateful we are that he came. He has helped a ton through emails but there is nothing like seeing things first hand and him being able to lay his hands on the kids and give advice. Simple things like kids who are given Vincristine, a chemo med, often have foot drop as a symptom. I didn't think the kids had this (didn't know it was a side effect until he came) but he saw Francois and said, "that's foot drop." Oh. ok. Just some of the things that can't be conveyed on email.
Also, there was a lymphoma kid that showed up while he was here. Moments like these make it abundantly clear to me that God is with us. Mamadou had a growing mass since November but "chose" this week to come into the hospital again while Alan was here. Alan took one look and said it was lymphoma. This is significant because we were not aware that lymphoma presents as a cluster of swollen lymph nodes. We thought it was just one enlarged node. I can't honestly say what we would have done. I would like to think that we would have consulted Alan and found the diagnosis but I don't know. It was incredible that he was here at just the right time to diagnose this cancer and teach Brett and Ed (our lab guy) how to look on the bone marrow slides. It just amazes me. It's not like this growth showed up in a day. It had been growing for months and they decided to come the week Alan was with us. God is surely in control.
I feel overwhelmingly blessed that Alan came and a bit more assured that we are doing on ok job with this whole cancer thing.
Alan also brought a sickle cell machine and 5,000 cards to test newborn babies or those we suspect may have sickle cell so that we can provide them with preventative care. What a great blessing this will be.
Alan has a blog about his trip called Footprints in Mali. I love his title. What I find fascinating is that he was already making footprints here and saving kids lives before he even stepped foot in Mali. Now with more cancer care and the sickle cell program his footsteps will become even more numerous here. Thank you Alan for helping us and saving lives here in Mali!
While Alan was here we also decided I should start another blog of the long term patients at the hospital. So it is up and running. koutialakids.blogspot.com For those of you who will read both, there will at times be overlap and some kids are such a part of my own life that I will want to include them on this blog as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment