Learning to Let Go

 

I am the mother of some of the sweetest spirits! 

I feel so blessed every day to have them.

 

 

One night, while we were in Utah, my brother, John was telling me mission stories.

There is one story I cannot stop thinking about.

My brother's companion had baptized a new member in a font in Uruguay.

 The font had some bacteria in it. And he had a cut on his foot.

Later, when a red line started coming up his leg, he suddenly fell very ill.

John said that he was running a high fever, convulsing

and telling John that he didn't want to die in Uruguay.

John called his mission president.

They were in an area that was six hours, from a hospital, in a fast car.

The mission president asked John to go get his companion some antibiotics from the pharmacy.

Pharmacy's in Uruguay offer all medications over the counter.

So in the dark streets of Uruguay, in the middle of the night, my brother ran, on foot to the pharmacy.

When he got there the pharmacist told John

he needed an amount of antibiotics that could only be given by injection

and asked John if he could do that.

John said he had given shots to a horse before.

The pharmacist said it would be the same kind of thing.

So John took the medicine back home and gave his companion the shot.

He put his companion in the shower to cool his fever.

Last week his companion contacted John and
said he was home and thanked him again for saving his life.

I'm sure the boy's Mother is glad he came home.
I'm sure that missionary had more work to do,
and so God put him with a companion who could give him an injection.

 

 

When we arrived at my Mom's house last week,

I laid Bradley on the floor and went to unload the car.

It had been a long day on the road and I thought Bradley would like rolling around.

And suddenly I heard my Mother yelling that Bradley had thrown up.

She was alarmed by the color of his spit up, but when I saw it, I realized it was just his tube food.

I told my Mom that he was okay.

But that he shouldn't be throwing up because he aspirates when he does.

 

The next night Bradley had a high fever and was very fussy.

He needed oxygen too.

The next night, he had a fever again and was needing even more oxygen.

I called the pulmonologist and told him what had happened.

I told him I wasn't going to take Bradley to the

small town hospital and risk them life-flighting us again. 

He understood.

He called a prescription to our pharmacy in Utah that was an antibiotic for aspiration pneumonia.

Bradley was better that next day after taking it.

 

 

So it seems we do have a problem with aspiration pneumonia.

Poor Bradley.

I wish his lungs could catch a break!!

And today I saw the GI who said we are going to first try slower continuous feeds.

Feeding Bradley 24 hours a day instead of 18.

 

Bradley has also lost weight, which is not okay.

So the GI wants him to get down even more food.

 

I think we will figure this out someday.

 

The GI said if he still gets pneumonia, we will put in a g-j tube.

The g-j tube bypasses the stomach and goes directly into the jejunum.

 

It has to be placed in a procedure.

If it gets pulled out, it has to be placed in a procedure again.

And when it needs to be changed, it is again placed using endoscopy.

 

So it's a bit more complicated, but if it would get him off the oxygen, I will do it!!

 



 

 

You know that there really is one who is in controll.

He can give and take as he pleases.

Hopefully we all can enjoy the things he gives and let go of the things he takes away.

That is the tricky part of life.

Learning to let go.

As hard as it is, I know that it is possible.

 

 

Learning to let go.