Super sick kiddos
In the past month we have received 26 new children--21 via the state government, one through the local government, and four from a nearby district government home. Three of them you haven't officially met yet--a sweet brother and sister in their teens with cerebral palsy, Jake and Bella (Bella is very weak and in a septic state in the hospital right now and needs your prayers), and a 3-year-old rambunctious kiddo called Timothy who has intellectual disability and epilepsy. Will try to post pictures soon.
The children all stay in one room--we always try to keep new children isolated from the others because of their poor health.
Really, "poor health" is a gross understatement. Ever since they arrived, there have been daily hospital runs and admissions into local hospitals. The kids are anemic (3 have needed transfusions) and have very little health margin, and they spread illnesses and infections back and forth. There are severe feeding issues--reflux, refusal or inability to swallow, vomiting, aspiration, fungal throat infections... We'll definitely want to have some MicKey buttons for feeding put in for a few children. There have been strange rashes we have never seen before, one I think may be called Staphylococcus Scalded Skin Syndrome. It's been horrible.
One child, Evan, arrived on tuberculosis treatment, prompting us to get the whole group tested, and Ruthie tested positive. TB and HIV are diseases for which the government hospitals provide the best care right now thanks to support from entities like the Gates Foundation. But there's a lot of red tape in getting a child going in one of those two programs, and it has taken us until last week to get Ruthie on the meds she needs (and in the meantime, we've all been at risk, because Ruthie's a social child who likes to climb on people and is impossible to isolate.) We did manage to get the rest of the new children vaccinated with an anti-TB vaccine called BCG, so they should be ok, along with our "old" children, whom we had already vaxed against TB.
We lost Jonathan, Tessa's brother. He slipped away to heaven one morning in a sudden episode of seizures (He had no seizure history in his record and was not on meds for seizures, but he may have had an illness that caused them.) We had a service for him and buried him that same day. It was hard on all of us--there's nothing more miserable than burying a little one. The new kids have all been so sick, though, and there have been so many close calls, that each day that we don't lose a child, we're grateful. I'm amazed and thankful that we haven't lost any more. Chelsea, Eleanor, Margaret, Emma, Valor, Elodie, Alina, and now Bella have all been inches from death, some of them more than once.
What we're doing about it:
Praying and recruiting prayer. A team of three Bible teachers came to visit, and we held a service and dedicated our new kids to the Lord. These three ladies and a visiting high school team poured their hearts out in prayer for the kiddos. We've also posted updates on our personal and SCH facebook pages and have had many people respond to say they're praying. I believe God sent us these kiddos for a reason, and I know He's with us, helping us do all we can and doing all that we can't.
Investigating. We've invited the local lab in to take samples and had complete blood pictures and blood grouping done, and had everyone tested for HIV/HepB/TB. We've had CT scans done for those we suspect have hydrocephalus, and ultrasounds and x-rays done for those suspected to have other issues. Thankfully we've had medical volunteers such as a trauma nurse, an occupational therapist, and two paramedics who have been a blessing in helping us sort out which children have needed which investigations done when. We're starting to get an understanding of what these children have and what they need. But daily we discover something else that needs investigating: for example, Elodie has what looks like a dermal sinus in her scalp...
Doctor consults. Every day we send kids to local doctors. Sometimes they admit them, sometimes they give medications for us to give the kids on an outpatient basis. We also took a group of children to Hyderabad to set up surgeries to address major issues.
WHO Program. Since February 2009, whenever we get a large group of children, we take them through the
World Health Organization's Guide for the Inpatient Treatment of Severely Malnourished Children. The program consists of one week of small, round-the-clock feedings (which are still often too much for our kids), supplements such as potassium, zinc, folic acid, and magnesium, antibiotics and other anti-microbials, etc. We also add a decolonizing element for staph--mupirocin in the nostrils twice daily for two weeks. The program takes a lot of work to figure out for us medical laypeople, and it's exhausting! (God bless Erin and Cassie, who are running it now while Theresa is on leave and I am in Hyderabad for medical reasons,) As hard and expensive as it is to do the program, it tends to be a turning point, and the children do tend to get better more quickly afterward, reducing our hospital runs. Running this program for 25 children is costing us $1320 in pharmacy bills--can you help?
Mercies
While we look around and are tempted to feel hopeless and overwhelmed sometimes, when we look up and see what God is doing behind the scenes to raise up support for us, we feel like crying with gratitude. Let me tell you about some of them!
--A team arrived carrying medical supplies donated by a doctor.
--Ben, who just finished running in a 100-mile race to benefit SCH, raised $3000! He recently came to India with his father on a short-term trip to serve with our ministry.
--Leslie organized an online auction and raised around $1500 for SCH.
--JulieC is raising funds for SCH through a fun-run she initiated called the Pomegranate Run.
--Awonderful woman took on the project of supplying SCH with new pillows, and has recently finished fundraising for those.
--Eric, Tisra, and family are awaiting visas (pray them through!) and then will come on as full-time SCH volunteers in an administrative capacity.
--Tisra, Katie, and Kody designed an SCH calendar, and Tisra is coordinating sales of that. You can purchase one here:
http://tinyurl.com/sch-2012-calendar .
--A lady who came to teach Bible at some of our schools got inspired to extend her stay and help our schoolgirls improve their English. A friend of hers will be joining her in a few months!
--Several more children have been sponsored, and a volunteer is coming to help us improve our sponsorship program and update all of our profiles.
--Niki's children's church raised $500 for SCH!
--About weekly, we receive a package with items such as baby clothing, aids for those with visual impairments, and other necessities.
There are others, and I'm so sorry if I missed acknowledging your contribution.
I want you to know that
we feel so supported. We feel so loved. We feel like you care. It matters a whole lot to us. Thank you so much!
In the next blog post, I'm planning to update you on some of the individual children that some people have been asking about!
