Dental Clinic

Second episode

Thanks for your comments about our last news letter. It was nice to read that some of you had the same question in mind : How did Joseph pay his bill ? Let me then give you some news. Joseph is lucky to know a missionary in his community. She was touched by his situation and decided to help him with posting a request on Facebook. Several of her friends in the US decided then tSo give the money they needed for the bill. Since a few weeks, Joseph is coming Mondays and Thursdays to change his dressing. Recently we could stop the antibiotics and the « hole in his jaw is shrinking from a 5CHF coin to a 1CHF coin ! It was very encouraging for me because Joseph is a committed and regular patient. Our efforts were rewarded.

Jacob

Jacob is only two. His parents came at the dental clinic : « something is growing in his mouth and he is bleeding while eating ! ». Here is what he see (c.f. picture). My stomach turned. It’s looking bad but the little boy seems healthy. « He can play and sleep ? » « Oh the men can playooo, the men active ooo ». I am hopeful. I send my information to Dr Tony. Dr Tony is a maxilla-facial surgeon that has been working for many years in Africa. A incredible support for me !

General anesthetic

« If you can do a sedation and a excisionel biopsy (remove the whole thing and send it to analyze), that would be great » he responded. Comes then a very costly process in human energy :

To talk to the anesthetic nurses (no doctor here for that!), convince then that a sedation is less risky, to have the parents coming back the right day at the right time, to have a bed for Jacob in the pediatrics ward, on operation day to hear that they finally refuse the sedation and want to do a general anesthetic, to hesitate knowing the higher risks, to accept almost unwillingly, have Jacob come in the operating room, to see his oxygen level dropping 2x during the procedure, to pray hard, to remove this mass, to sigh, to tell the parents that the little one is doing ok, to visit him at the hospital, to send the biopsy in the US, to call the parents : Jacob is doing good.

Second operation

One month later… a phone call : “the Thing growing back ooo”. Dr Tony could reassure me from a distance, it’s common that we need to operate twice. A doctor from Canada is just here these two weeks to plan, this time, a sedation. On operation day, Jacob’s grandpa passed away, we have to cancel the surgery.

We should be able to work on him next week… by the grace of God (as they say here !) !!!

Love, Melvina, Nicolas, Théotime, Siméon and Gabriel