Back in America!

As so many of you have known, I (Dana) have been sick. I also know that many of you have been praying for me during these last few months. Thank you so much! We have felt your prayers. We have felt peace even during these days and weeks of not knowing what to do.

It all started in April. Billy was actually in another country in SE Asia. I woke up in the middle of the night coughing. It lead to an asthma attack. It took a while to recover though. I believe that it was smoke from one of our neighbor's houses. The rainy season was coming to an end, so more cooking could be done outside. Throughout the next weeks, I developed a more habitual cough. Then here and there, it would become worse. I had several asthma attacks. I tried seeing a doctor here, but I did not feel comfortable with the medicines he prescribed. Through a friend, I was able to speak to an American doctor in a different location. He told me what to do. By this time, it was June. Unfortunately, these things did not work. The next  time  I spoke with him, he told me take double the steroids and a few other things. This did not seem to help either. At this point, my breathing was labored. I felt weak most of the time. Sometimes after school, the boys would come home and just rub my back and tell me it was ok. Oh!! That surely saddened this mom's heart!! I hated for them to see me so sick!

In July we had a team come from home. Three of them pulled Billy aside within 24 hrs of being there and told him I had to come home. I think for me and Billy, this was hard to hear and a relief. A relief that we were not the ones making the decision. Yet hard to hear, because I did not want to leave my family. We both knew I was sick. I knew my oxygen levels were down. I knew there were days that I was just so tired from breathing that I wondered how much more I could take. It's hard to describe, but I just didn't want to go home. This place was where I was called! Hence the relief of the decision no longer being ours. So, a week later, I went home with the team.

I had a doctors appointment scheduled the Monday following my arrival. This started my regimen of new allergy and asthma medicine. I was also given a TB skin test. This later came back positive. Thankfully, my chest x-ray was clear! I did have to start taking INH to keep the TB dormant. I will take this for 6 months. I am not contagious, I promise!! :)

Just a side note... What is crazy is I think I know where I was exposed. Since the skin test, I have been praying for a certain little girl that we saw in a store. She was visibly sick. She was coughing and shaking. It seemed that no matter what isle I was on, she would appear. Her mom was just yelling at her, which was not typical. I felt so horrible for her. Billy and I wanted so badly to take her to the hospital, but we knew that we couldn't. I believe that little girl is who exposed me. I pray that she is alright.

Please continue top pray for my healing. Please pray that God would give us the wisdom we need to know what to do next. We need to know if Billy and the boys should return to the States, or if I should go back now that I have new medicine. Thank you so much for your continued prayers!