Please God, not Africa!

Last week we were all over the map with Kylie's blood work.  We were at the hospital on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week and Monday and Tuesday of this week. On Friday we had an appointment with our Infectious Disease doc to see if we could figure out her blood work issues and  get the MRI results. The blood work fiasco was a bit of mystery but turns out that it's been solved.  You'll never believe this but the whole issue with her blood levels had to do with the time change.  Strange, but true.  So at least it's not something weird and wild going on in her foot. The MRI results were good news and we are so thankful for that!  Kylie's area of infection inside the bone has certainly shrunk, meaning that there is bone regeneration happening in there.  Praise the Lord. However, it's not solid bone.  There's still a little patch of infection livin' it up in there, so the plan is what the plan has always been.  She stays on the IV med

Last week Kylie had another round of blood work done and while we were on our way to pick up Nate from the hospital we got a call from the doc that said the results weren't so good.  Too low. The whole point of all this blood work is to measure three things:  the level of meds in her system, and two tests called a CRP and an ESR that measure inflammation in her body.  For the most part, her CRP and ESR have been great - it's the med levels that have been all over the map. And like I've mentionted before, the goal is 11.  That's what we're aiming for. If the meds are too low, there's not enough antibiotic in her system to kill the bad bugs.  If there's too much, there's a change we'll fry her kidneys and cause damage. So on Monday, Nate took her in to the hospital to have the repeat blood work done.  When Kylie came home from having it done, she told me that she thought that we had messed up on the timing of the blood work.  To get an accurate r

On Friday night the kids and I went to the airport to pick up Nate.  His flight was a little delayed so we had to wait for a while. Here's some boys with their sign. And after a while, he arrived!!  He's in this bundle of hugs and squeezes somewhere. And here's the gang, together again (Except for me. I'm holding the camera.) THE TRIP The two weeks in Mango was great.  The weather was ridiculously hot.  Picture yourself standing on top of a building, no shade for miles, 110 degrees Fahrenheit, wearing a welding helmet and putting trusses together.  Doesn't it sound like so much fun?? Here's the view from where Nate was standing. And here's the view from the bottom. They got all the trusses up except for two.  Nate said that if he'd had one more day, they would've been all up.   He had a great reunion with the missionaries and with the Togolese guys.  It was a sweet time.  There's still lots of