4th update

This is an update of some encouragement and some discouragement. First encouragement - Paul and Elizabeth, Partners for Care nurses went with us to Community Transformers last time when I was here. There was a young man with an open sore covering most of his tongue.. He had this for two years. He couldn't eat very well and was very thin. He was in pain and depressed. He had been treated with many medications that did not work. Paul and Elizabeth diagnosed the lesion as a rare fungus and prescribed an expensive anti-fungus medication and pain medication. On Wednesday the team went to CT. This young man came to see us. He was smiling and looked so different from the young man we saw two weeks earlier! The sore was healed! He was eating and he was so happy. Paul and Elizabeth were so encouraged that God had used them to heal this young man.

The discouragement concerns Brian (the little boy with AIDS who has come to live with us). Njokie took him to Liverpool to establish the process of receiving his ARVs. They sent him to the hospital for chest x-ray. He possibly has both pneumonia and TB. They added a very strong antibiotic and he is to go back on Monday for follow-up. All of the Kenyans are immunized for TB so Paul told me they should be OK. For me Paul thinks I should be OK as Brian isn't really coughing a lot. I will get tested when I return to the States.

We have all learned what it is really like to care for a child who has AIDS. I can see why Bishop David says we are not all infected but we are all affected.

Blessings, Connie

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