our sad sick days!

Well, we haven't written because our days in Peru have not been all that wonderful lately! In every life some rain must fall, and in ours it has been in the form of sickness!!The kids all got some sort of viral disease with fevers running up to 104 degrees! I kept thinking that in the States I would just let it take its course and go from there. Here, thoughts of malaria, dengue, and who knows what other kind of bird, swine, toucan, or monkey flu invaded my thoughts. So, after one day of high fevers, I took Kristi in to the local Posta (that is what they call a clinic here). Thankful that I didn't have to see the Dr. just go for the free malaria test, I walked by lots and lots of people waiting to be seen, went to a door marked Laboratorio and waited with Kristi.  The lady behind the desk asked me to write Kristi's name and birth date on a slip of paper then we were left to wonder what would come next. I prayed we wouldn't be re-using any pricking devices and was glad when a new-in-the-package lancet was used to prick Kristi's finger. The lady then smeared Krist's blood on a glass slide and asked us to be back in an hour. We waited, not so patiently and returned to another room to get our results. Our paper had been marked  with a (-) and for that we were thankful! I asked the ladies that were reading these tests under the microscope how many positives they had that morning and was shocked that they had already had, by 11:30am 6 positives on malaria!  Well, everyone survived the fevers, but Matt. By Sunday, he had gone 48+ hours without food, vomiting, fever, and was saying things like "Mom, there is gasoline in my shoes".  At that point, off we went to the ER, located 45 away by bumpy dirt roads and crazy downtown city roads. What a great Adventist medical facility we have here! After three ER visits, three blood works, 1 IV for Matt, some nubulizing treatments, a shot for Kristi and we were sent home with a bill of just over $120. Cheap for us, practically unaffordable for most!

I wish I could say that was the end, but alas...no. A week later I got the flu, I was down just a couple of days and was better just in time to take Matthew to the Dr. again. Praise the Lord, though, I think we all are starting to feel better...maybe.