“jonah in the big belly of the whale”

Here Cristiana is drawing one night. We were reading the story about “Jonah in the big belly of the whale”, as she calls the story. She said she was going to go color the whale. I told her to just make sure not to color in the book, but that she could color in her coloring books. She spends HOURS coloring, and now drawing, too.

We came over soon after to find her having put “weights” on the sides of her Bible so the pages would not flip over. She pulled out her little notebook and was coloring Jonah -- he has REALLY big hands, as you can see (that is the part on the right page with the “bumps,” as she calls them). She eventually went on to draw the whale and everything else. She is great with seeing things like this. She definitely has creativity!

“i dunno”

Howdy,

Just wanted to give an update. Last night the neurosurgeon came in to check on me and told me that the MRI was completely clean. That is a praise. Today another opthamologist is supposed to plot my eye so that they can have the position and size of the spots on record in case there are changes. For the last couple of days, the optic nerve has been big enough that I can see my blind spot really plainly. But that is starting to reduce, I hope from the steroid therapy. The primary spots in the middle of my vision are still there, though. I believe I am in that category of patient, where with all of his training, the doc answers my query of “what is it, doc”, with his expert opinion of “I dunno”. Which, I guess is better than him saying “MS”.

So, hopefully I will be released on Monday. Thank you for all your prayers and we will keep you updated on any new info.

Thanks again.

Harry (Rod)

. . . . . . . . . . .

From Michelle: Thank you for your prayers. From the beginning we knew there was a possibility that it was the beginning stages of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Your prayers have helped us go through that unknown stage without even knowing that we were in that stage. So, thanks!

all the questions

Rod here,

I just wanted to give brief information of what is going on with my eye. There is a lot still unknown, and it will likely turn out to be nothing to worry about, but there are also more serious alternatives.

Starting Saturday, I began seeing spots in my right eye. It is a few dots right in the middle of my vision in my right eye. From time to time, I will get a “cloud” which covers the center of my vision in that eye that will last about an hour. I was going to wait till Friday to have it looked at because I had a couple of days of flying, but was told quite sternly that it needed to be looked at right away.

So yesterday morning I went to see an opthomologist (let me make something clear right now! -- I am not a doc so I cannot be held responsible for the butchering of medical terms -- although, I do find it fascinating to sit and listen to two doctors speak a language that is completely foreign to me!). He is one of the two retinal specialists in the country. He was able to squeeze me between procedures, PTL! After a thorough exam, he told me that my retina is intact. What I have is a swelling of the optic nerve at the back of my eye, along with swelling of the blood vessels surrounding it. A term for what he saw is optic disc edema. Which is a fancy way of saying that there is swelling back there.

The question is: what is causing the swelling??? Optic neuritis is a scary medical term which is a possible worst case scenario. From what I understand, this could lead to loss of sight in that eye. There is also the possibility that there is a viral infection around the optic nerve causing the swelling, which requires allowing it to run its course. Another possibility is swelling of the brain, which puts pressure on the nerve. We don’t know what the problem is, so he sent me back into town to see a neorosurgeon and to get some more tests run. We saw the neuro-guy and he immediately admitted me into the hospital for a few tests. After congratulating him for being the first to admit me to a hospital in my life, off we went. We arrived last evening and they are doing the following:

-- put me on a steroid drip to reduce the swelling
-- get an MRI and MRA (I don’t know what MRA is)
-- get an FLA (this is a test where they put dye in my veins that works its way to the eye. It is in the eye for about 40 seconds, during which they take a picture per second to see if the dye leaks out of the veins in the back of my eye)
-- maybe a few more tests thrown in here and there, if they have nothing better to do . . .

So, here I sit, waiting for the MRI and nursing a headache that I am blaming on the steroids. I’ve been told that I need to work out during the steroid drip. :-) Fortunately for me, the hospital is close to a really good Indian food court, but it may look strange for me to be wandering around the food court in a gown, dragging the IV tree.

From what I understand, in 50% of cases, the doctors don’t know what causes it. In 50% of the cases, they do, so they are trying to figure out what is going on.

We live in a region of the world full of strangeness, so I am still hopeful that it is some strange something that will run its course and go away.

Please pray that the Lord give me wisdom about how to go about this regarding my flight physical. Obviously, I don’t want to loose it, but at the same time, I realize that I have blind spots in one eye making it difficult to spot other planes.

The Lord knows what He is doing, and from what I’ve been told by some American doctors that have been sort of keeping an eye on me, I am following the right track, being treated by some of the best doctors, and am in a hospital with state-of-the art equipment.

There you have it. Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray for Michelle and Cristiana most of all during this.

Thanks again.

Rod

please pray for rod's eye

Well, it is after 9.30pm on Wednesday evening and I have just gotten home from the hospital after a very long day of trying to figure out what is wrong with Rod. He has had some vision problems since Saturday and after some diagnosis from a doc in the States and a nurse here, we decided to get it checked out today. He was supposed to fly, but essentially has been grounded at the moment.

I am too tired to think of everything that I need to tell you. The details -- the actual words of what things are called -- are not coming too me.

They did admit Rod to the hospital this evening for him to get started with a steroid IV drip to stop the swelling in his eye and to hopefully get things to return to normal for now. They are going to do an MRI, and angiogram, a _____, and whatever else. Like I said, I am not remembering the details.

Please just pray for him. There were some interesting things talked about today. Some outcomes that could be very simple, some that could not. I want to have a clear brain before I say more. I just wanted to ask you all to pray for him for healing, pray for me with my over-active imaginative brain to slow down or stop, and for Cristiana who knows her Daddy is in the hospital because he has an eye that hurts really bad.

Thank you, in advance, for your prayers!

God bless, and I hope to be able to write more in the morning. Sorry that means that you all will have to wait for so much longer. Just know that I will get something to you.