God is SO good...Brenda's Story:

So, there is a lot that we haven't posted on the blog in the past few days because we didn't want to scare anyone, and we also wanted to make sure of a few things before we shared them. Now I am free to share, so please enjoy this story - just one example of the mighty GOD we serve!!

As you know, Baby Brenda arrived only two days after we got to Sonrise. She has kind of been "my" baby as I have taken care of her a lot. We think she is about eight months old, but only weighed 5.5 kg when she arrived and now only weighs about 7 kg. She is so very tiny!! She arrived in ok condition - obviously malnourished, coughing some, ear infection. She stayed in the hospital several days on an IV for fluids and has been on some type of medication ever since either for the infection, iron for her low blood count, etc... We took her to the doctor last Saturday (Jan 30) because she was sick. I mentioned her cough still, although it had improved since we got her, and he listened to her lungs. He recommended a chest x-ray to check for TB. We had to take her to another clinic to do the x-ray and then waited around in town until the guy who reads them came that afternoon. We returned about 2:30pm to pick up the x-ray and I read his report...active tuberculosis! I was freaking out!! We headed back to Al-Shafa clinic and the doctor confirmed the diagnosis...she has TB. I was trying to remain calm, but inside all I could think about was how she had been sleeping with me, I had been feeding her, holding her, loving on her for three weeks. I kind of resigned myself to being exposed to it...but didn't know if I would get it or not. Tuberculosis is common in Africa and they actually have a vaccine for it. So, Betty and Damali couldn't understand why Amy and I were freaking out. We told them that it's not so common in America; they still said not to worry. At that point, I kind of ceased a lot of my contact with her except to feed her dinner. I was trying to be really careful. On Monday, we took Brenda to the hospital in Jinja to get meds and they said that they wanted to run further tests on her at the Children's Hospital. It was already getting late in the day, so we didn't get her to the Children's Hospital until Tuesday. Amy and Betty took her, and ended up leaving because it was not a good experience and the staff wasn't very nice at all. We still needed treatment for TB, so we decided to take her to the International Hospital Kampala (IHK) about two hours away to get tested again and speak to a doctor who actually seemed competent (never have I been more thankful for doctors/nurses in America!). Tuesday night, Amy told me some news that I wasn't aware of. Apparently, a lot of people who have TB are also HIV+ so not to be surprised if that is what we find out at IHK. This crushed me. I cried and cried on Tuesday night because if she was HIV+ she would be sent to another baby home that was better able to deal with the situation. It might as well have been a death sentence to me - I know I was probably over-thinking it, but suffice it to say I was really upset. Lots of tears were shed and lots of petitions were made to God on her behalf. We headed to IHK on Wednesday with Brenda and Moses (he had an infection in the blood and we wanted to make sure that it was gone). It was such a pleasant experience! They did full bloodwork on both of them and HIV testing as well. We told our doctor (Dr. Sam) about the situation with TB for Brenda and showed him the chest x-ray that we had. He had his radiologist review it and told us to check back later with him. Dr. Sam was an angel in disguise. You could tell that he actually cared about these children and about their health. We had to wait around that afternoon for the lab results and to speak with the doctor, but finally he was ready. We all crowded into his room and sat down. I was trying not to hold my breath. He read off Moses' results first: HIV- and no septicemia. He said that Moses was fighting a small viral infection, but not to worry because that would go away on its own. My heart was pounding as he moved on to Brenda's results: HIV-!! I could have cried I was so relieved. He told us that her x-ray indicated an infection around her right lung, but that it didn't look like TB from the bloodwork. He needed to do one more test to make sure - a test on the stuff she was coughing up. Sorry if this is gross, but when she coughs mucus comes up. Unfortunately, she doesn't cough it out...swallows it back. It was a two-person job getting this!! Amy held Brenda and I put on a glove and stuck my finger into the back of her throat to get her coughing. When she would cough really well, my finger would go back in to collect the mucus coming up. It was quite a task! I did get a bite a few times, but we eventually got what we needed. They were going to run the test, but to really be sure they wanted us to come back Thursday morning with another sample and then get the final results then. It wasn't ideal, but we agreed. The doctor told us to be there by 6:00am and then it would take about 3 hours to get the results. Not too bad we thought...HA! The ride home I was so thankful and praising the Lord for the good results. I was trying to sing every praise song I knew. Thursday- 4:00am wake-up call after three hours of sleep due to baby duty was not fun, but Amy and I managed to be on the road by 4:30am. We arrived at the hospital by 6:00am and got the sample for them (again, bite marks on my finger). We went to the lab to drop it off and no one was there. We were the ONLY people at the hospital this early in the morning. We waited and eventually a kind maintenance man went in and found someone to come and help us. Amy took him the sample and he wondered why we were there so early. We explained that the doctor told us to come early...he didn't know that the lab guys don't start picking up labs and testing them until 8:00am! He told us to give them plenty of time to run it and put the results in the computer and so we were told to come back around 12:30pm. GREAT!!!! We could have slept longer : ) Richard had gone to take Damali to town to see a friend and we didn't have a phone with us, so we sat down to wait. It was kind of cool and overcast (a nice change from the heat wave) and then started raining. We were exhausted and my stomach was hurting...such fun times! Finally Richard returned about 9:00am so we went in search of a restaurant to eat breakfast. We ended up at the Garden City Mall and wasted some time there before heading back to IHK. Of course it wasn't ready when we got back, so we had to wait some more. Finally, the lab results were ready. I tried to read them, but couldn't really decipher what they meant. It said something about a few pus cells present and another type of cell not found, but I didn't see anything about TB. I tried not to hope too much. The doctor called us back and gave us the results: NO TB!!!!!! He said that she definitely was fighting an infection that was common in children, but that it wasn't TB. We were overjoyed...I was grinning from ear to ear. He prescribed her two oral antibiotics, antibiotic ear drops for the ear infection, and something for pain. We were on the road home by 2:00pm. We were physically exhausted and I was emotionally exhausted. I was so thankful to God for this good report and for answering prayer. Here we were worried about us catching TB and bringing it back with us (I could see the headline now: "Mission Team Infected With TB Bring Infection to Passengers On Airplane!!). Then I was worried that she was HIV+. Now we find out she has neither!!!
I kept thinking of the words to the new Chris Tomlin song - "Our GOD is greater, our GOD is stronger, our GOD is higher than any other. Our GOD is HEALER, awesome Redeemer our GOD - our GOD!!" We truly serve a mighty and awesome God who answers prayer. A lot of you didn't know that all of this was going on, but you were praying anyway. You weren't sure what to pray for, but God knew - and I am truly grateful!
Thanks so much for everything! Leah