Progress

After an adventurous weekend, it was nice to have some time off with the kids and to reflect a bit on our time in Ecuador thus far. At one time or another, I suppose most of us have experienced the realization of how far we have come or how far we may have progressed toward a certain goal if we take the time for reflection. With God’s help, I think we have made a lot of progress both in our personal lives and with our work here in Ecuador.

Melayna seems to be doing a little better with potty training and Lucas is doing great with his school work. He continues to excel in Math and is improving with his reading and comprehension. Both kids are starting to yell Spanish words, some of which I am not sure of the meaning. Bethany is progressing very well with her Spanish. I noticed this weekend that she was able to carry on several lengthy conversations in Spanish with locals. I am not to that point yet, but I can usually come up with a question if I need something and understand the general idea of most responses. 

Last week was one of the best clinic weeks that I have had since being in Ecuador. One patient in particular stands out. I treated a young lady who was diagnosed with tuberculosis and became partially paralyzed from the waist down. At the time, no one gave her much of a chance to recover. She has been confined to the bed and wheelchair for most of the last 2 years.  To complicate her recovery, the patient became pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy 6 months ago. I first saw this patient back in mid-January. I spent some time going over exercises and pain management. It was a whole month before I had the chance to see her again and to my surprise her lower extremity strength had substantially progressed. After my second assessment of her, I knew she was ready to stand. However, Mercedes and I met some opposition from the patient secondary to fear of falling. Long story short, she was able to go from sit to stand 10 times with moderate assistance. What a determined and hardworking patient! I can’t wait to find a walker so that we can try walking in a few weeks! Other patients have shown improvement, albeit less dramatic. Bethany has talked me through progressing a few pediatrics from only being able to lift their heads in prone to an independent army crawl. The bottom line is the patients/parents that are motivated are progressing fast and it is fun to see their success.

Let’s pray for another great week.