New Year news and pictures

Some interesting flowers. The ones in the blue dish were a gift from a friend who had gone up the mountain to pick them.

Also, New Year’s Day we spent with Stoms and Clint and Jenn. We had a smoked salmon from Costco.

Then the children’s ward  packed out -  exactly the same timing as last year. Today, the 5th, we admitted 50 new patients. The total is rising higher and hovers around 145. That’s 290 people in 52 beds and surrounding floor space.  We are better organized this year and are able to add extra staff around the clock but there are only two ward clerks so we are pretty worn out.

Triplet orphans update

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The update on the triplet orphans is that they are all doing well at around 5kg each. Tadala (‘we are blessed’) and Takondwa (‘we are happy’) are being fostered through the Dedza Social Welfare office by the clinical officer who delivered them. She and her husband have no children of their own and hope to officially adopt them someday. Tamanda (‘we are grateful’) is being fostered by the maternity nurse-in-charge who also has cared for the girls since birth. I have been away from them for two months and am just getting to know them again. I would say that developmentally they have caught up to normal birth weight children. They are chubby, smiley and noisy.

Christmas season at Nkhoma Hospital feels very unlike Christmas. It is hot, dry and dusty. There are no decorations and little attempt at caroling. But one thing the staff puts together is a a parcel for each patient containing rice, sugar, soap and oil. This will be presented on the 17th of December to those who are inpatients on that day.

The maternity and paediatric wards are quite full now averaging about 80 and 50 respectively. Pray for the coming month of January. Last year as the malaria season began, the children numbered over 1000 during the month.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers.
Christmas greetings to all.

Difficult journey

This is David, sitting in SeaTac airport waiting for my flight to Amersterdam as the first leg on the 35+ hour trip back to Nkhoma.

Rebecca is remaining behind in Seattle as things have not been fully arranged for the care of her father [after the recent tragic death of her mother in a car accident]. She may be in Seattle for 2-4 weeks or for however long it takes to get things set up. It is a complicated process and so far we have had multiple appointments with social workers, home care nurses and an insurance agent. So far we have learned that there is no medical coverage for what we need to keep her father at home, which the medical insurance and medicare guidelines consider “custodial care”, as it basically is having someone in the home with him for however many hours are needed that family cannot cover, to make sure he is safe and to do some basic tasks involving cleaning, some meal preparation, and any necessary communication, as his condition involves a significant expressive aphagia, and some cognitive dysfunction.

There is a chance that because Rebecca’s mom was killed in an automobile accident, considered “catastrophic” as two people were killed, that there may be some kind of financial settlement that will help cover costs of what is needed for her father. So please continue to pray for Rebecca and her two brothers and sisters-in-law as they all sort through everything to come up with the best solution.

For me I think this is the most difficult journey back to Africa as I am leaving Rebecca here for a time, and also because this has been a hard year with so many deaths. Continue to pray for us, as we know God has us in Malawi and believe that he will continue to make that possible. Pray for a good adjustment back for me, with all of the issues I left hanging just before leaving to come here, that I can be focused, and rely on God’s strength and wisdom as well as his comfort. Also pray for my brother, Dan, who has just completed a stem cell transplant at the Cleveland Clinic and is still having some complications. I am so grateful I was able to spend a week with him in his hospital room in Cleveland during my time in the States.

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers.
David

More triplet news

Just a few more pictures of the triplets. Last Sunday Jenn was here and we spent some time with them. Their Aunti Vigil had gone home for the weekend so we were helping out Aunti Restless (an unrelated person that we were paying to care for them). Yesterday, Ritu Jones (the wife of our pharmacist) took Tadala to her house to foster her for a while. She reports that she is eating very well and she will be bringing her back to the hospital every other day for weighing.
Their current weights are 1720 (Takondwa) 1400 (Tadala) and 1610 Tamanda.

More triplets – boys this time.

Last night triplets were again born at Nkhoma. These were delivered by Caesarean section. All boys and quite a bit bigger.

Meanwhile I have taken a few more photos of the girl triplets. They now have names, very good ones too. They are Takondwa (We are happy) Tadala (We are blessed) and Tamanda (We are grateful). However, they are still not gaining much weight. They are three weeks old and still around their birth weight. We are going to figure something out tomorrow hopefully. Crisis Nursery will take them but we have to get the weight up before they can leave.

Finance – answered prayer

Thank you for your prayers for us and Nkhoma.

Since our first appeal to you for prayer about the financial situation at Nkhoma and the difficulties with the District Medical Office we have received a total of 11,700,000 Malawi Kwacha (around US$78,000) so that the invoices we submitted from January through May have been cleared. All that is left is around 1.8 million ($12,000) to clear from what was owed from 2010.

Thank God and thank you for interceding for us.

Sad news: the triplets are now orphans

The mother of the triplets died last Friday of anaemia and heart failure. The family situation is not good. The father has another family and the auntie who was taking care now has her own three and three of her sister’s and is very interested in trying to get them to Crisis Nursery. The nurses and I have been caring for them this weekend. They are still hovering around 1100gm (2 pounds) but are taking formula from a the syringe quite well. We will find out today (Jenn is checking) if they can go to the Crisis Nursery.

Triplets

I am having fun sending some emails from our house! It is so nice to be connected here and they have changed servers to MTL which is much faster.

We are headed in to town for shopping. We have heard that it is mostly back to normal.

Surprise!

Last week there were triplets born. I call them Winken, Blinken and Nod. The mom was totally surprised, never having had an ultra sound. I had recently designed a nursery ward quilt that I am getting some tailors here (part of a handicapped group) to make some copies for the kids. When I went to see them in the labor ward they had my quilt over them!

Rebecca

P.S.

Please note that we will have no access to post on the blog or approve comments for the next few weeks – but the blog will be back later in July!

Thank you

Thank you all so much for your concern and prayers, and encouraging responses. We are still waiting for payment from the District Health Office, but there does seem to be willingness to find a way forward to keep some type of agreement going that will provide care, even if the resources available through the  Office are becoming less. It is clear now that the major issue is that the Malawi government just does not have the funds to reimburse at the level patients are accessing the service, so we will need to make adjustments, and make sure that the most important things (inpatient maternity and under fives care as well as antenatal care) continue. So pray for wisdom as we go about negotiating how to make this all work.

On a related note, the first email I sent out on this issue, I was able to send from our house as we now have internet capability from there  - the best connections are very late at night or very early in the morning. The Lord did provide that just when we needed to make connections quickly.

Also I was encouraged (and a bit convicte)] from a passage in Psalm 112.  I have been reading through a short commentary on 2 Corinthians in NT Wrights Paul for Everyone Series (which I highly recommend) and in the passage in 2 Cor chapter 9 when Paul is urging the Corinthians to be cheerful givers, Paul quotes a phrase from Psalm 112 :9 about the “righteous scattering their seed to the poor”. Wright remarks that when Paul quotes 1 verse or a phrase from the OT, he has the whole passage in mind so it is worth going over that whole Psalm to get at what Paul is wanting the Corinthians to be.  So I read the Psalm and came across verse 7, speaking of the righteous man “he will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord”.

Pray I will have no fear of bad news and will remember that the Lord can be trusted and that His people are praying for us.