Christito

Our friend Christito, with the gangrene toe needs to wait till next week to go to the hospital for a checkup. We can just pray that the Lord will open up a way for him to get a quick operation and relieve of pain. It is sorry to see them suffering so much and you cannot do anything. The problem operating here is that the surgeon's cannot say it will be operated on only once cause of the extend of the illness. The last time we did this was with uncle Pantaljon and we ended up doing 2 operations. We helped so many people last year in the area of foot problems but this one is different. With little Jambre in hospital and 2 other prospects going we need to look very good at our finances to accommodate them. As you know the government hospital is free for Badjaos but not to the rest. We can get a lot of discount and that helps. the problem is that we need to buy the medicines outside which makes it very expensive. Well you can say that the families need to pay for that. We would love to , but how can you afford U$ 4 per day if you are only a beggar which on a good day only makes U$ 2 and then you need to buy medicine every day for 3 months!!! that is from the Badjao point of view. the ordinary Filipino is not better off. A daily wage for most of them is around U$ 3 per day. Then they need to buy the medicines outside of the hospital. If the medicines are available inside the hospital they get a discount but at this point there is not even Paracetamol in the Pharmacia. That is the most basic fever medicine. Then some of the prescribed dugs can cost anything from U$ 1-2 per tablet and they need to buy for 5 days. Then on top of that they do not get hospital fees for free like the Badjaos but only get a 50% discount. So now you can see why a normal Filipino do not want to go to the hospital cause it can cost them a arm and a leg. They need to make dept to take care of someone in times like this.

Now our role. We are not here to provide for everyone. And we are not definitely not here to provide every thing for everyone. Well that is easier set than done. If you have a serious case like Jambre, Chrisitito and Adonis you are forced to do something. This is cases where a small 5 year old can lose his leg and people can die. I would hate to see that happened to them on my shift. By this whole explanation I am not asking all your money but I am asking your prayers in wisdom on how to handle situations like this. It makes it extremely difficult to really know what to do. We normally comes home and just cry out and ask God to help. what else can we do. We just ask God's wisdom everyday in our needs and thank Him for our health. I am asking you in this New Year to commit yourselves again to pray with us for these people we are helping. Your prayers is what we need cause we saw so many results through last year.

Christito is the guy with Bulgers disease because of smoking. Well they amputated his big toe. As expected it turned out to be no good and the foot started to become black. The problem is that there is no blood flow towards his feet. A Doppler ultrasound confirmed our problem. The arteries are block in his top of his upper leg and there is no strong blood flow down wards. Which means! Well they need to start amputate till they find a good enough spot where the leg will be ok. SO he need to go back and they need to amputate a piece of leg and then wait to see if it holds and if , then we are ok, if not they do another amputation. This is bad on the patient and they have it rough at this time making decisions about his life which will change dramatically. Please pray for them as they need to think about this all the time.

Well I asked them to go back to hospital and the doctors there are just sending him from one department to another . It is 3 weeks now since the amputation of his big toe and yesterday we went to see how is his foot now. I was shocked to see his foot in such a bad condition. It is swollen and full of puss. I asked Dr Dienega to help and he talk to the doctors in DMC the government hospital. So we are off to there today. The problem is that his arteries are blocked all the way of his leg and they need to amputate the whole leg in order for it to heal. But we know that they first try to amputate below the knee first and then see if it works and if not then they try further, what a prosses, but in that way we can most properly save some of his leg. He is very discourage at this point of time but we prayed for him that God will step in and make a way.

It took him 2 months to get into hospital when they finally operate on him. By that time he was in such agony. I cannot imagine that such a system can allow things like this continue for so long. We were on furlough when they did the operation. Bob and Sheila was there to be with them. He did well afterwards. I bought him a artificial leg and after a long wait he was ready to use it. He never did. The reason, Its to heavy!!! Can you believe it. We spent so much time with him and so much effort just so he can throw all our help into our faces. His wife was working with some foreigners and it was not necessary for him to work anymore. So he just stay at home and did nothing.

Just to show That we can take the horse to the water but we cannot make it drink. That is just a simple Afrikaans saying but so true. We tried our best and in the end we had to see the person think different. But God has another plan for him.