Busy Day

Let me begin with the bad. (it gets better)

• Daniel has had a fever, up to 39 Celcius (too tired to convert that)
• His blood oxygen saturation is 93% instead of 100%
• His body is swelling (edema)
• He is thirsty all the time

The fever was becoming increasingly worrisome as I said before. Dr. Sabando (the surgeon who is AWESOME and I want to be like him, plus Jesus) called an intensivist (I don´t know what they do either) to consult on the case because he was worried about simultaneous infection of some kind, like malaria or dengue or something. Daniel´s blood test showed that he does not have a blood infection, which is the type of infection that would result if it was related to the trauma or surgery.

The intensivist wanted an X-ray of his lungs and to start him on stronger antibiotics. Meanwhile, I picked up the CT scan at 6pm today and brought it back to the clinic. The radiologist said that all the internal organs are unaffected, the colon/intestines are healing very well, but are swollen. BUT Daniel has fluid in the same space as his lungs occupy (not actually in his lungs, but compressing them). Problems solved. That was really good news. This is what that means:

• Daniel´s blood protein is low (the blood test confirms this)
• The protein holds the water in his blood normally
• Not enough protein means water leaks out into the surrounding tissue
• Thus he gets thirsty not because he doesn´t have enough water, but because it´s in the wrong places in his body (i.e. not in his blood)
• Thus everything in his body swells and he gets fluid in his chest cavity
• Thus he gets a fever because of the irritation in his chest cavity
• Thus he can´t breathe properly because of the fluid and he doesn´t get enough oxygen into his blood
• Thus: Booya!! (translation: this explains everything and we feel awesome about Daniel and ourselves)

His blood proteins are low because he isn´t getting enough protein DIRECTLY to his liver, so they´re giving him substitute proteins so his liver doesn´t have to make them. He should improve overnight.

They also found the remnants of the bullet, which *almost* made it all the way through his body, but got stuck before going out his back. It´s in a safe place and can be removed at his leisure after he recovers (unless he thinks having a bullet in his back is cool).

How am I doing? Thanks for asking. Love ya. It was a long day and I was running around for a lot of it. Stuff was expensive today and I couldn´t get enough money out of the bank because I reached my limit. I prayed about this and approached the pharmacy that I visit on a daily basis. They loaned me 90 bucks so I could pay for the CT and haven´t made me pay for any medicine for the rest of the day. They just give it to me. The X-ray people didn´t make me pay yet either. So yeah, I´m tired, but thankful. Daniel is walking a lot more, and actually waking ME up to go walking, which is great.

More good news: Daniel farted today. Ha. I get to be crude because it made me really excited that gas is finally moving in the right direction (he´s only been burping and says it tastes horrible). Dr. Sabando was really excited about that too, so I feel justified that it wasn´t just me being a gross guy with an adolescent mind (but secretly, I am).

The body of Christ continues to provide. I completely ran out of money today and didn´t know how I was going to pay for dinner. So Carmen (Eduardo´s mom) shows up with a liter of chocolate milk and some bready-carmelly roll things. Perfect. She also brought a copy of the newspaper article about us, which is hilarious in its inaccuracy.

Daniel & I moved out of our house in Anchorage and Anthony (we haven´t met) moved in. Anthony has a really close friend named Ernesto who showed up today with a couple church friends (one gringo). They gave me some money to buy food and some flip-flops so Daniel doesn´t have to walk around barefoot and a cell phone so I can call them locally if I need anything.

Whew. I´m sure I forgot a lot, but there´s my mental splatter of today´s events. Keep praying, especially that they have the diagnosis right and there are no further complications. But I´d say at this point, there is DEFINITELY some praise in order. So get together with some other Christians and whoop it up for God and His goodness. Feel free to jump up and down and shout for joy if you feel like it. Personally, that´s on my schedule right after sleeping for 30 hours straight. =)

May the love of God that is in Christ Jesus dwell in you and shine to the dark world.

Pray for the man that shot Daniel, that God would bless him and that he would find true life.