Missionary Battles
PHILIPPINES – After four days of very high fevers, nausea, dizziness, and general agony, I finally convinced Evan to go to the hospital. His breathing was labored and his color not good. I had found him one too many times passed out on the bathroom floor. Something was wrong.
I took him to the emergency room at a private hospital down the road from us. After blood tests, urine tests, heart monitoring, oxygen, and an IV of dextrose, I asked him to be admitted. He was in such discomfort.
After a few hours, a positive result for Dengue Fever was confirmed and we knew we were in for the “long haul”. Dengue Fever comes from a little mosquito that usually gets you during the day and starts out as high fever, with all sorts of other symptoms. It is often mistaken as the flu.
Stage one is usually dangerous because of dehydration as with any tropical fever, and it usually lasts 5 to 7 days. Stage two is where the possibility of hemorrhagic fever, or internal bleeding, can happen. Excruciating bone aches, headaches, dizziness, and vomiting are all part of it. Platelets in the blood drop until the fever is gone so the blood is checked regularly.
Evan is miserable, as you can well imagine. He faints every time he stands up and the headache will not go away. He cannot get comfortable and is quite obnoxious about the constant pricking, poking, and temperature taking that must be done.
Hospital care is somewhat different here in that someone must always be with the patient. I will juggle hospital duty with being at home with kids and everything else that must be done.
Please pray for a quick recovery and for our children who are very worried. Though we have utmost faith that Evan will recover, it is nonetheless stressful and frightening for a child to have their daddy in the hospital.
Update
It was five days of intravenous fluids, blood tests every 12 hours, forced vitamins and fluid intake and several days of worry as Evan’s platelets did the usual Dengue fever thing, and started to go down. The worry with these tropical diseases is hemorrhagic fever and with no “cure”, re-hydration and monitoring is the only thing they could do.
After five days of being in the hospital, Evan was discharged. He was somewhat weak and tired but he went back to school against all of our wishes. It was a long hard week with Noah and Elijah having fevers and feeling ill. Chest x-rays, blood tests, and doctor visits took place, and in the end no one was diagnosed with anything.
Thank you so much for your prayers.
Evan and Charity Graff, Gentle Hands
Project Number 0650225
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