Anna's been discharged

 Dear family and friends, 

 
It’s a joy to be able to share that Anna has been out of the hospital since Wednesday morning! We were hoping she would be home by Tuesday evening but the hospital had to wait for final approval of the bill by our insurance and by AMREF, the “flying doctors” who performed the med-evac. It’s been wonderful to have the family together again and have unlimited visiting hours (except for when Anna is napping)!  Amazingly, Kacie had planned her trip to leave the day Anna was supposed to be discharged!  It's not possible to express what a gift Kacie was to Anna for the week she fed, read to, encouraged to exercise/move and just loved on Anna.  Thank you Kacie!
 
Anna has made dramatic progress. She no longer has fevers. Her oxygen is in the normal range (though on the low end). Her work of breathing is much less than it was on her arrival in Nairobi. She can walk farther without getting out of breath. And what she is coughing up is no longer solid or bloody or dark colored (apologies for the details!). 
 
That said, this disease has taken quite a toll on her, and her recovery course will be a long one. Anna lost about 8 kg over 3 weeks. As most of you know, Anna was quite thin in the first place. We are so grateful that the two conferences we attended earlier in the summer had “fattened” her up a bit prior to this! To make matters worse, the anti-fungal drug that she is taking (voriconazole) has made her nauseous and given a metallic taste in her mouth, making it hard to eat well. The illness has also left Anna very weak, both in terms of strength and endurance. Little over a month prior to getting sick, she was easily running 8 miles around Lake Bohinje in Slovenia. The day prior to her med-evac, she was having difficulty walking from our bedroom to the living room. The first couple days of the hospitalization, it was hard to take more than a few steps. She is now able to walk 1 to 2 kilometers at a slow pace and circulate around the house without problem. But her strength and endurance are still strikingly diminished compared to several months ago. She also continues to have a productive cough and her chest starts feeling tight if she doesn’t do a nebulization treatment 3 to 4 times a day. All that to say, we still have a long way to go. Her doctors saw her in clinic on Friday and were pleased with her progress, but we will need to remain in Kenya for at least 4 more weaks. She will have weekly follow up with pulmonology and infectious disease. And on August 13, she will have a follow up CT scan to make sure that her lungs are healing well. Assuming continued healing, we hope to return to Congo on August 20. 
 
In other news, Isaiah and I were able to join Luke and Miriam at the Serge East-Africa Retreat at Diani Beach for the last day and a half of the conference. It was wonderful to see so many friends coming from Uganda, DRC, multiple sites in Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and Malawi, not to mention all those who came from the Home office to join us. It was particularly meaningful to see how many had been praying for Anna and watching over Luke and Miriam in our absence. And it was wonderful to experience the beauty of the Kenyan coast. After the retreat for two nights, Luke, Miriam, Isaiah and I joined Mark and Amy Stabell and their kids at a nearby house on the beach and enjoyed swimming, snorkeling, sand castle building, resting and reconnecting as teammates after the social overload of the retreat. 
 
The Stabells are now back in Bunia, dealing with long term visa applications, language learning, transitions for kids, as well as big questions about education and housing and work. This is, to a certain extent, normal for living in Congo. What is not normal is to be left without your team leaders only a month after your arrival. Pray for smooth transitions for them, Congolese friends, quick turn-around for their visas, and direction about where to live, where to focus at the hospital, and how to educate their children.  Of note, there was an English-speaking sort of online school monitored by Congolese teachers that most of the missionaries have come to rely on.  It has unexpectedly closed and this has caused quite a disruption to all of our plans.  Particularly the Stabells were hoping for a place for their kids to go every day where they could make friends and start to integrate.  Please pray as we all scramble to figure out how to best educate our kids starting this Fall.
 
Our other teammates, the Staffords, continue to thrive in Nyankunde, and they are quickly nearing the due date for the birth of their fourth child. They are planning on delivering in Nyankunde. Please pray for health and protection for Rebekah and the baby and for a safe and uncomplicated delivery. 
 
As always, we remain grateful for you all—and particularly grateful for your prayers and encouragement over the course of Anna’s illness. 
 
With love from Nairobi,
 
Patrick

P.S. I sent this update on our mail chimp list of people we send regular updates to.  It also has pictures but I'm too tired to upload them here! (Anna). If you'd like to be on our mailchimp email list, please email me at annalarochelle@gmail.com with the best email to send our updates to.  Thanks!