Sick Kids

Sick Kids
We have been fighting some nasty viruses & illnesses in the Miriam Center. It is the hardest thing to watch your kids be sick especially when they are battling death. There were nights this week I really thought I was going to be woken up & told that we lost a kid. There has been no point this week that we have not had less than 4 kids in our sick unit. Currently as I write we have 5 kids up there. We actually had to turn one of the baby bungalo’s into a sick ward for our kids so we could isolate them.

Job
I will start with Job…Job is my boy. I fell deeply in love with this child 2 years ago when we almost lost him to aspiration pneumonia…everyone call him my kid. We have a special connection & I love that boy so much. He came down with a fever for 2 days before we realized how sick he was. He was placed on an IV because he was severely dehydrated. He seemed to start feeling better & was taken off of IV 2 days later. I was in their feeding him dinner but he refused to eat it (grits) He would clench his teeth shut & when I finally would get some food into his mouth it would take him a few minutes to finally swallow it before choking & being too weak to cough it back up & begin wheezing no matter what position I would try to put him in while feeding liquid or smooth solids. I let it go for a day hoping he would get better but he only got worse & I then realized he was on his way towards aspiration pneumonia. At 10:00PM Thursday night I finally told the nurses they needed to put an IV back in but after 5 attempts they were unable to get a line. Courtney & I made the decision to put an NG tube down into his stomach so we could bypass swallowing & his lungs & try to get him well again. He is doing much better but still trying to figure out a feeding schedule…how often, how much. We are in the process of getting pediasure & formula from the Dominican republic from our friend Heather. This is an unexpected exspense of about $400. We are so blessed to have this connection though & this opportunity. The plan is to do a 2-3 week all liquid diet & see how he improves. It is really hard as Hatian Culture is not accepting of feeding tubes very well. I am having a difficult time teaching my nurses…I walked in today to find them shoving ground up beans down his tube (big risk for clogging). Really trying to trust God…praying for wisdom as I do not feel qualified to make life & death decision, not qualified to make feeding schedules BUT I serve a God who is & I know will give me wisdom & guidance. My boy has gone from looking like death with a sucken in stomach to a puffed out stomach & will smile again when I touch his stomach. I feel that we are on the right track.

Henry Claude
Henry Claude is one of our kids in Rou’s Corner (Terminally ill portion of the Miriam Center) He is in this category because of how malnourished he is. He has been unable to keep food down for months. He gags himself with his hands because he is so oral seeking. A few weeks ago we made arm braces that prevent him from getting his hands to his mouth but he finds other ways to gag himself & is so orally seeking that he bit another child’s butt & has licked multiple kids & anything he can get his tongue on. This is a hard enough battle as we strive to figure out how to get nourishment into this kid BUT then he came down with a stomach virus that he had bad diarrhea & got extremely dehydrated & looked like death for 4 days. He is still up in the sick unit. He is fighting hard & I just pray that we could get nourishment in him & that he would keep it down. That he would gain strength. For wisdom & guidance as we try to figure out how to help him

Anestasia
Our second newest member to the Miriam Home, she came to join our family from the baby orphanage 3 days ago. I fell in love with the precious angel 3 weeks ago when someone from a short-term trip who was a nurse came to find me to tell me about a little girl in the baby orphanage with a cleft lip & possible other physical problems. I went over to evaluate her. I went up to find this precious little girl who as I held her could tell she had aspiration in her lungs. She was tiny but could tell that she had to be over a year old & possibly closer to 2 by the fact that she can sit up on her own & has a full mouth of teeth but is the size of a 2-3 month old. Today we put her in preemie diapers & they were big on her. We knew in the next couple of years we would acquire her into the Miriam Center family but had no intention anytime soon. Courtney had some cleft lip bottles & so I provided her with one for the workers in the baby orphanage to feed her with. $ days ago Courtney was up in the baby orphanage looking for old equipment I could use to turn into wheelchairs (will post later on my wheelchair Mania). As she was telling our nurse from the Miriam Center about Anestasia’s problems & how one day she would join our family the baby orphanage nurse told us to take her. We had the doctor look her over & found out she is much sicker than we thought. She had been fighting a lung infection for 3 weeks that has not responded to antibiotics & they were worried it may be more serious like TB. Many tests have been done & still don’t know. She is really sick…fighting hard but super malnourished with a serious lung infection. We are told she may not make it long. Today we made the decision to put a NG tube into her that will like Job allow the food to bypass her cleft palate & lungs to hopefully allow her lungs to heal. Please pray for God’s healing touch in her little body. Peace for us as a staff especially Courtney as today marked Sara Rou’s 3rd Birthday (which we celebrated hard core with the kids). Sara Rou was a little baby with a cleft palate who only lived 42 days but made a huge impact & stole Courtney’s heart…she really was her kid. A tough day to have a child that reminds her so much of that sweet little girl be so sick. Pray for her heart please.

Lounide, Moise, Jimson, John Kerry
These 4 children all had the stomach flu…diarrhea & throwing up. Lounide & Moise have recovered but Jimson & John Kerry just came down with within the last 48 hours. Please pray for their recovery & that the virus would stop spreading…& if it doesn’t for healing & protection for our children with compromised immune systems.

Please pray for our nurses & staff as they have been non-stop on call & basically here at the mission the past 2 weeks. It is so easy for me to get frustrated when things are done the way I want them or to my standards or when the language barrier affects the children’s quality of care but I must remember they are exhausted, they have training, they love these kids, & I have to let God…surrender…let God. This is so hard. So thank you for being prayer warriors with me as we fight for these children through prayer to our Healer & Great Physician.