Dear family & friends,

 

Our lives have been a little bit different from the norm the last few weeks.  On March 5th I (Mary Sue) woke up from a little afternoon nap with a slight pain in my left upper thigh.  It felt like I had pulled a muscle in my leg.  After the kids got home from school,  Tasha and I walked over to the grocery store, about one block away.  She went to look at the school supplies, and I went to pick out a few groceries for dinner.  By the time she came over to the groceries to find me (10 minutes later), I was feeling light headed and very weak.  Tasha wanted to push the grocery cart, but I needed to hang onto it for support.  I continued to feel awful, and my leg pain seemed to be getting worse.  I actually had to leave my groceries in the check-out lane and head to the bathroom.  I can't remember the last time I felt so sick!  In the bathroom I broke out in a sweat, and within minutes I was chilled.  Tasha said I looked white as a sheet, even my lips were white.  Well, somehow I paid for my groceries and we took a cab home.  I couldn't even walk the one block back to our house.  I put the groceries on the kitchen counter and crawled right into bed.  I stayed there for the next 24 hours.  I definitely had a fever, and my leg pain continued to intensify and spread over my whole left leg.  I only got up to go to the bathroom.  Dan later told me that he came and checked on me several times to make sure I was still breathing.  I was that out of it. 

 

Mid-day the following day, it seemed like only my foot hurt so I pulled my leg out of the covers to look at it.  My foot and a few inches up my leg were bright red and very hot, my leg above that seemed normal.  I knew then that there was some kind of infection in my foot and leg.  Dan called a doctor who is in one of our churches and left a message for him.  We waited a few hours for him, but late that afternoon decided that I should probably get to an emergency room.  Dan and his sister, DeAnna took me to the emergency room.  I was hoping to get a prescription that I could just take at home.  Not a chance!  I was told that I had a bacterial infection in my leg and I would have to be admitted to the hospital to start antibiotic treatment by IV.  It was much more serious than I had thought.  Within an hour, I was in my hospital room being pumped full of antibiotics.  Well, that was my home for the next three days.  My leg was elevated on top of two pillows, and as soon as I hung it over the side of the bed to walk to the bathroom I was in excruciating pain.  I could barely hobble to the bathroom on my own.  Each day the pain lessened just a little bit.  On Sunday I was discharged from the hospital and on my way home.  First we had to stop at the pharmacy to pick-up my prescriptions for two antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory, and a medicine to keep my stomach from being affected by all my other medications.  I also had a powder to put on my toes three times a day and a cream to put on my leg twice a day.  On top of all that, of course I had to stay off my leg and keep it elevated.  I'm sure I was quit a sight moving around the house on two computer chairs.  I sat on one and had my leg elevated on the other and pushed my way around the house.  I pretty much stayed off of my leg for about two weeks.  Frosty & Cathy Hansen (president of Grace Gospel Fellowship) arrived for a visit three days after I was discharged from the hospital.  They stayed with us for a week and we had a really neat time with them.  Dan's sister, DeAnna who lives with her family right next door to us did a lot of the cooking while they were here.  What a help that was to us.   

 

The skin on my foot has pretty much all peeled off except for the bottom of my foot.  In fact a good friend of ours, who happens to be Trevor's science teacher, asked if she could have a little bit of my skin that has peeled, for her students to look at under a microscope.  So Trevor headed off to school a few days ago with a zip-lock bag of a few pieces of my skin.  Pretty sick, huh?  I guess that's my contribution to the school.  My doctor said even the thick skin on the bottom of my foot will all peel off little by little.  The skin on my leg has peeled more like a sunburn.  This whole process has been real interesting.  At one point my leg had red blotches on it and even some lumpy areas.  I actually asked my doctor if my leg was ever going to look totally normal again.  She assured me it would, but that it would take quit awhile.

 

I was so excited when my doctor finally said I could walk a little, even though I would still have to elevate my leg quit often to keep it from swelling too much.  I'm walking more now but still have to rest and elevate my leg from time to time.  In fact as I am typing this update, my leg is propped up on another chair.  After twenty days of antibiotics, I was finally done, but I still use the cream and powder and wrap my leg in gauze twice a day.  I also have to keep my leg out of the sun for a while.  At my last doctors visit she told me it would be 10 days to two weeks until my foot would not swell anymore.  What a long process.  Tomorrow I go back to the doctor and hopefully will get a real good report.  So I'm sure you can imagine what things have been like around here for the last few weeks.  Dan has been great even though so much has fallen on his shoulders.  The kids too have been a big help with so many different things.  At least I can do the laundry now, but I still haven't gone grocery shopping.  I'm not sure I can walk that much yet.  Little by little things are getting back to normal. 

 

You're probably wondering how in the world I got this infection in the first place.  Well, my doctor isn't positive, but has an idea.  About one month before all this happened Dan and I were painting the outside of our house.  I lifted up a large paint can, not knowing that my big toenail was caught on it.  Well, it tore about half of my nail right off.  As that nail had been growing back it had been rubbing on my big toe funny and bothering my toe.  So, my doctor thinks that some bacteria entered at some point where it was irritated.  We had been having a lot of rain and many roads had filthy stagnate water that had gathered along the edges.  It's really hard at times to avoid this water.   Who knows exactly what happened, but the good thing is I'm getting better.     

 

After missing two Sundays, I was so grateful to be able to go to church on Easter.  I spent most of that afternoon at home with my leg elevated, but it was worth it.  This past Sunday we went to the km 14 church plant that we are working with.  It was so good to see all of the kids there.  What a lively fun bunch!

 

Please pray:

1.  for my full recovery.

2.  for wisdom as we work with the km 14 church plant.

3.  for our health and safety.

4.  that we would be a good witness to those we come in contact with each day. 

 

Praise:

1.  that my leg seems to be improving a little more each day.

2.  for the encouragement that Frosty & Cathy brought to so many of their Bolivian friends.

3.  for the faithful group of our pastors and leaders studying theology.

 

Serving through Christ,

Dan, Mary Sue, Taylor, Trevor, and Tasha Reed