Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A medical checkup

Recently the whole family was flown out to Lapilo so that I, Geoff, could get something checked out that had us concerned. It was an unplanned, last minute thing that was decided on after talking to the doctor via email and seeing things worsen over a period of a few days. Due to the nature of the issues (worsening chest pain) and the fact that it was getting quite severe the doctor recommended we come out to rule out the worst and see what's ailing me.
 
The first thing we did was have my heart monitored and then get chest xrays. After having ruled out such things as heart problems or a possible collapsed lung, the symptoms seem to point most to either pleurisy (inflamed lining of lungs) or pericarditis (inflamed lining of heart). Most of the symptoms lined up with the latter. Both are not so serious, but otherwise painful conditions. And blood work seems to be pointing to a viral infection as the possible cause.
 
So while we were quite concerned there for a little bit, it's good to know that this will likely just pass with time and that the inflamation can be managed in the meantime. Currently I'm feeling much better. We'll see how things go over the next couple days. It seems like things are pretty much under control though.
 
We would have notified those who hold us up in prayer earlier, but it was all quite sudden and so we're only able to tell you about it after the fact.
 
We were blessed to find that even though all the guest housing in Lapilo is full at the moment some friends of ours opened up their home for us to stay while we're out.
 
We really saw the Lord provide in a lot of ways with this. Within a couple hours of deciding we have a medical situation, and even though the NTM helicopter was unavailable and in another faraway region, we had the SIL helicopter landing in Mibu to pick us up! Not only that, but in late afternoon! For those of you who don't know, pilots just don't plan on trying to get anywhere near us in the afternoon because our weather is so bad. But even though we'd been rained on for the previous 2 days straight, things cleared up the afternoon of our need and the helicopter was able to get right in. Then of course the graciousness of the friends willing to add another family to their house and host us during our stay here. We know the Lord provides in many amazing and often very personal ways and we've seen that here. So while unplanned flights like this can really take a big bite out of our finances (This round trip out of and back into Mibu will cost us a whopping $2500), we know that the Lord will provide there as he always has. We would appreciate your prayers in regard to that.
 
Currently we're OK'd to go back into Mibu as early as Thursday and so are beginning to make plans in that direction.
 
Thanks for the many who pray for us regularly!
 
Geoff and Shannon Husa

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