My Izzy

I have the privilege of having Izzy here with me this week. The people that usually care for her had to go to Nicaragua to the doctor. It just happened to work out that I have a team here so am able to care for her so ...she is stuck with me! :) 

She has been doing better. She will never be completely healed but at this point in life we are much more concerned with quality of living and not quantity. 

Although her seizures are much more controlled than they once were she still has them daily. That coupled with the lung disease she has makes comfortable living very difficult for her. 

She had a pretty rough night Sunday night. She started to cough and run a low grade fever. By evening time on Monday she sounded terribly raspy and wouldn't stop crying. Feeding her or getting medicine in her was next to impossible and listening to her squall nearly broke my heart. Then suddenly she started seizing and wouldn't stop. It was like my worst fears playing out before me again. My eyes started to fill with tears and my prayers couldn't come fast enough as I begged God to restore peace to her little body. Within minutes of the seizure starting Sam, my mom, David, and one of the guys on the team had crowded around her and were saying their own teary eyed prayers. After 15 minutes of constant seizing I got my phone out to call the doctor. 

Let me just start by saying she has seen this doctor just twice....in the same week and that happened nearly 9 months ago. I didn't expect him to remember me but I knew from our brief encounter that I not only trusted him explicitly but also that he was just about my only hope. 

One of the guys on the team placed the call for me. He simply said he was "with Ashley and the baby was sick." That was all it took for the doctor to tell us he would meed us at the hospital in 30 minutes. Moving quickly we headed straight for the hospital. With David driving and Jen in the backseat offering all the encouragement she could I began to feel a little better. I knew that whatever happened we would walk it out together. 

We spent about 2 hours at the hospital. True to his word the doctor arrived almost the exact same minute that we did. After seeing her he sent us down for x-rays. He diagnosed her with pneumonia and gave us all kinds of medicines to help with the seizing, high fevers, cough, and more. He walked Dr. David through the procedure and dosage for each medicine. 

The whole trip...x rays, doctor visit, (late night) and medicines that he injected into her right there all cost around $50.  It was a reminder of how different things are here. If you had called a your normal doctor at 9:30 at night to say your child was sick he would tell you to go to the ER and come into his office in the morning. He a doctor that you've seen just twice needs no further information than "my child is sick" and he assures you he will meet you at the hospital as quickly as either of you can make it. We didn't even go to the ER we went straight to his office we he dedicated the next 2 hours to making sure Izzy was well cared for. He never once rushed us or acted like he would have been anywhere other than right there caring for my child. Then as if that isn't enough we got away with the whole thing on just $50!!!! You couldn't even get the sample medicines in the states for $50. Let alone what being seen by a doctor late at night would cost you. The X-Ray cost us 290 Lemps ($15) It would have cost well over $290 in the states! The doctor did his best to discount the total price for us. His kindness seemed to have no end. So even though I've stated it verbally probably 100 times tonight I want it to go into writing...I LIKE THIS DOCTOR! 

We go tomorrow to get some blood work ran and then go back to the hospital to see the doctor on Wednesday. Please please please pray she gets over this junk quickly. When she gets pneumonia (which happens frequently) she runs a fever, and when she runs a fever she has more seizures, and when she has more seizures her little body gets weak and can't fight of sickness. It really is a nasty cycle. So tonight I BEG for your prayers.