The Donkey’s Future Plans

Hi All:
Just wanted to update you on Haiti and the Haitian Donkey’s plans:

We received word that I will get the first vaccine injection on August 1, apparently just that on that day, then returning to Pittsburg on the 28th to get the vaccine on Monday, followed by Interferon injections on Tuesday through Thursday (noted to give you a fair amount of side effects and “feel like a Mack Truck ran over you,” is what some recipients have commented). I also will have another medication with that on Tuesday through Thursday and then another chemotherapy medication on Friday (not sure if the other two will be given also on Friday, guess we will find out). Hopefully we will tolerate the treatments well.  Many of my patients read all the side effects of their meds and fear they will get them, most people don’t get all the side effects or even any, I always tell them that I don’t read the chemotherapy pages of side effects, it would only scare me and I have really no option, so just go for it and hope and pray for the best. We will repeat the cycle 3 more times a month apart, all done at the University of Pittsburgh as it is a controlled study, ie not approved for normal treatment yet, studying the effects and side effects, so the Donkey doubles as a lab rat/guinea pig?.

The drainage from my tube in my belly has dribbled down to next to nothing, so Karen pulled my drain last week on the approval of Dr. De Cook. I still have a wound infection now starting to drain again from the top of my incision, praying that will clear up soon as allergic to the antibiotic preferred for treatment. Will try to culture it again tomorrow in the clinic. The eating and drinking is a pure joy, though have to limit to 3 swallows of water (don’t do much else yet) and then 3 bites of food and wait 30 minutes to repeat the cycle.  Eating with others can be a problem, as I forget to watch the clock and love to eat (EVERYTHING tastes most wonderful) so about 5 to 10 minutes later get the cramps, sweats and feel nasty if the food police do not help me control my appetite. That stimulates my remembering part of my brain to suppress the forgetting part for the next while at least. I am adjusting my bile salt resin ingestion to hopefully control my diarrhea over the next few weeks. That also is still a work in progress requiring much prayer for wisdom.

Dr. Jim Webb, Dan Boerman and Mark Snyder went to Haiti yesterday, planning on meeting in Ft. Lauderdale and getting to Port au Prince at 3 pm to get to the hospital that evening. Unfortunately, Dan and Mark’s plane in GR broke down and they missed the flights. Dr. William called me last night as Jean Eddy only found Dr. Jim and was wondering where the rest were (I had sent down emails, but communication is difficult at best down there). Pray that they will be able to get things done efficiently this week and that Dr. Webb’s arthritic hip will not give him too much grief as they do the required surgeries. I have not heard much more about the political situation there, but pray that that also will be resolved soon as well as the problems at the government hospitals and that Dr. William could resume his residency work soon.

In His Service,

Bill, Karen, Rachel, James and Jenn Ten Haaf