A Little More Clarity

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our suffering, you will also share in the comfort God gives us... ...But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely on God.

I read that this morning and it really helped me see how God is working through this situation.

Reasons Daniel is staying in the hospital longer:

• The infection is worse in his back because bacteria continue to pass through his tissues from his colon. The doctors want to keep him on IV antibiotics to combat the infection. After skyrocketing on Sunday, Daniel´s white blood cell count is now slowly declining (white blood cells are a sign of infection, less is better).
  
• He has a hole in his colon that needs lots of protein to heal. The best way for him to get protein right now is through the IV.
  

Latest news:

• After allowing the fistula (hole from his colon to his back) to drain using gauze to absorb it, the doctor decided to clean things up a bit today. Daniel now has a colostomy bag attached to his back. This is not a normal colostomy which requires surgery and interuption of the normal bowel circulation. This is just a temporary bandage until the hole closes. Pray that the hole closes quickly.
  
• Daniel is drinking Ensure-like stuff now, a good step in getting him back to eating regular food again. He´s drinking a lot of water and powerade and some juice also.

And about me.

I took my first hot shower in a while today at his parents´ hotel. It was amazing. On Sunday, after the surgery, Dr. Bello invited me to lunch with him. We ended up driving about 30 minutes to the coast and checked out the town of Crucita. A beautiful beach with lots of people and even a few paragliders. We had lunch at an excellent restaurant with some of his family and for $5 I had shrimp, lobster, calamari and all kinds of delicious goodness. He picked up the bill and took me to see his beach house that he is building. He had just found out that he is going to be a father and was really excited about that. I also got a chance to talk with him about Christ which was awesome. He believes, but has a lot of questions. It was a sweet time.

I am starting to think that coming to Ecuador was not nearly as important as listening to and obeying the voice of God in my life. As the passage above suggests, when we trust in God in truth, our faith grows. God is definitely using this experience to increase my faith and to bring glory to Himself.

A Turn for the Worse a.k.a. Don´t Stop Praying

I´m going to give two versions, the short and the long.

SHORT VERSION

The earliest Daniel can go home now is Friday. He can´t eat enough to travel without being fed through the IV and his infection from the abscess isn´t completely eliminated. He gets to start eating again tomorrow. There is a small hole in his colon that is draining out through the incision we made in surgery on Sunday. Rest assured, it will close on its own and be fine. Keep praying and send money.

LONG VERSION

All of the perforations were closed during the first surgery. Dr. Bello believes that there was likely an explosion in Daniel´s colon (explosive gas + firey-hot bullet) that killed the tissue around one hole toward the back. OR, a large mass of blood built up and killed that portion later.

Either way, the back of his colon developed a hole where the bullet went through. Rather than leaking out into his abdomen, it leaked into the hole where the bullet lodged in his back. Over the next few days, this created an abscess (bacteria + poop + dead tissue), which we drained on Sunday, effectively allowing Daniel´s colon to drain out his back. This probably sounds bad, but it could be much worse. The tunnel (fistula) from his colon to his back will eventually close on its own and does not require further treatment.

However, the doctor wants to more closely observe what happens when Daniel starts eating solid food tomorrow. He also wants to see the inflammation in Daniel´s back go down before releasing him. Your continued prayers are much appreciated. Daniel continues to feel better but is also racking up more expenses than expected.

On the bright side, I got to share Christ with one of Daniel´s vistors today. She had some pretty serious misconceptions about what being a Christian was all about and I got to share with her the joy and the freedom that we have in Christ. I hope this situation continues to stir your heart and push you toward deeper faith and persistent prayer! God is great!

Mailing Address

For those of you who would like to help Daniel with the excessive costs of medical care, you can mail checks to:

Daniel Stinson
2801 S. Shady Lane
Arlington, TX 76001

Last night went very well and we both actually got some sleep. We made it up early and I had breakfast with Daniel´s parents. Now they are up in his room giving him his first ¨meal¨ in over a week. He can have liquids now, just not anything with a lot of fat (no milkshakes =).

The fever is basically gone, the abscess continues to drain a lot of stinky fluid and his back is still pretty tender, but he is doing great all things considered.

A Decline, A Drain, A Drop and Financial Concerns

I was expecting Daniel to feel much better yesterday, but the afternoon was rough. He was really out of it again and couldn´t get comfortable all night and that darn fever wouldn´t go away. Dr. Bello came in this morning and had a look at Daniel´s back where the bullet was resting and decided Daniel needed an ultrasound to look for an abscess (a bunch of bacteria living in a little sack). The ultrasound revealed a significant abscess, which was the final culprit for Daniel´s persisting fever. In addition, his back was swollen and inflamed on the lower right side. The ultrasound revealed good news though, that his intestines had healed very well and were virtually back to normal. - Overall, A Decline.

So we packaged Daniel up for surgery again. The only way to get to the bacteria is with the blade. I scrubbed in and actually got to make the first cut in the procedure. When things got more technical, Dr. Bello took over and thoroughly cleaned out the rest of the abscess. Suffice it to say I would rather stick my head through the hole in a port-a-potty for an hour than spend five more minutes cleaning out abscesses (not really, they just smell that bad). For you science nerds out there, it´s because the bacteria were anaerobes from the colon displaced by the bullet. Oh, I forgot to mention that Dr. Bello had the bullet out in no time as well. The ultrasound lady told us it was in a different place, but Dr. Bello dominates. So Daniel now has a souveneir slug from a 9mm. - A Drain

Despite feeling the closing suture go into his back, Daniel felt great post-op. The cathartic moment for him came when I ran to grab a water for him to rinse with and Dr. Bello gave him to go ahead to drink a little. Afterwards, his face lit up like Christmas tree... or maybe the kid in front of the tree. But he was thrilled. After the decline of yesterday, he has since made a monumental recovery and is moving and speaking better than ever. He still has a small drain in his back (which still smells terrible), but it doesn´t seem to be holding him back. Just make sure he gets it changed... a lot. - A Drop (of water)

And everyone´s favorite subject: money. Everyone has been asking if there´s anything they can do to help. There is. Considering the cost of the surgeries ($4000), the medicine ($2000), the hospitalization ($1800), the lab work ($1000) and a new ticket home ($1000), Daniel´s bill is coming up to be around $10,000 plus his medical costs when he gets home (these numbers are rough guesses based on estimates from receipts and stuff, I´ll update them). He also got hit with a bill from Anchorage that we didn´t know about until today. This is in addition to his student loans. With as many people as have been praying for him, this sum does not seem insurmountable by any means and Daniel could definitely use your help. No amount is too small in truth and we will rejoice over any offering you feel led to share. Please email me at doctorbaldwin@gmail.com with how much you can share if you plan to help so we can start crunching numbers. - Financial Concerns

Our prayer for all of you is that this experience empowers you to stroll outside your comfort zone, to put yourself at risk, realizing that it is not in being safe that we find life, but in serving the Lord and obeying His calling. And to remember that the life we are called to as Christians is not one devoid of pain, but one filled with supreme comfort and fulfillment. We desire that this experience would stir things inside you and that you would embrace the calling of the unknown.

Getting tired of all this good news

Good news is boring. It would be much more invigorating if Daniel had turned out to be pregnant or something, but as it stands, he continues to recover and regain his health. His catheter is gone now, and tomorrow the drain. Monday he gets to drink again and Wednesday he can be released to go home. This is all assuming that God continues the amazing work that He has already done.

Dr. Bello was very impressed with Daniel´s quick recovery time and keeps telling me how ¨lucky¨ Daniel has been through all this. Yeah right, Daniel just serves a freakin´amazing God and has a TON of people who love him. I´m taking this as a testament to how much love Daniel has shown in his life and to the quality of people that surround him (that´s a lot of you guys).

Eddie and Marilyn (Daniel´s parents) arrived this morning with Nacho, a local Christian who brought them from the airport. They are thrilled to be here and said that I´m taking excellent care of Daniel (that made me say that). They are staying at a nicer hostel across the street and I will continue to stay with Daniel due to my superior skills in Spanish and medicine. It´s really nice to have a little help though.

We moved to a bigger room today, I think because the nurses saw the money bags walk through the door this morning. We now have a sitting room, 2 bathrooms and a bigger TV and warmer water. They told us it would cost the same, then changed their minds when we moved... pretty sure that was unintentional though, the nurse seemed really embarressed.

Not much else going on. Please pray Daniel all the way back to the U.S. and then some. He´s not out of the woods til he´s running around getting in to more trouble for the glory of God!

I feel like I´m leaving stuff out, but sleep has been scarce and interrupted. Again, thank you for your support and encouragement.

Just Think if We Prayed Like This For...

Need I say it? Daniel is well on his way to a full recovery. Tomorrow he gets his catheter out. The next day he gets the tube draining his injury out. The only remaining concern is the fever, which is either an unrelated sickness or simply due to the continued trama of having tubes sticking out of his body.

He was much more alert today than he has been since the injury and he is walking much better. Neither one of us got much sleep last night, but today was really relaxing... not many visitors and relatively few doctors and nurses to see us.

The lab results came in and showed that he doesn´t have dengue fever or malaria, the two major concerns, and it doesn´t appear that he has any other serious infections. Dr. Bello (that´s the name the surgeon actually goes by, I got it wrong the first time) and I both think he has some kind of cold virus or something. Dr. Morales, the guy called in as a consultant, says the fever could simply be the body´s response to trauma.

As things slow down and Daniel gains stability, I will have a few more prayer requests which I want to first discuss with him. For now, pray that the fever subsides and he has a safe trip home next week (probably Wednesday).

Witnessing and feeling the healing power of God firsthand has been humbling. The title of my blog poses the question: What if Christians united like this in prayer over other issues? Like the starving poor all over the world, or the fragmentation of the bride of Christ? Or even that God would bless the annoying person at work? I suppose we could always ask God to put an issue that He cares about on our hearts and pray with fervor for His will. Hearing about the character and frequency of many of your prayers has really humbled me and provoked me to develop my own prayer life. I hope to challenge and encourage you in similar ways as your brother.

All praises for God and His healing power and may those praises far outweigh any fears that Satan inspired in you because of what happened. My prayer for all of you is that you see the glory and provision of our Lord and Savior rather than the danger of a dark world that we have been given *dominion* over from its inception. My sister summed up my feelings in an incredible statement of faith:
¨I will also be praying that God gives you wisdom -- not so you can keep yourself safe, but so you can continue to do the work you feel God has called you to do.¨

Now It´s a Matter of Time

After a long night and many trips to the bathroom with two IV poles in tow, I´m filled with joy despite not exactly being filled with rest. Daniel´s intestines are now working quite well as evidenced by my lack of sleep. The doctor stopped by this morning and was very happy to hear the report. As he left, he said ¨Now, it is only a matter of time to recuparate. This makes me glad.¨ (Those weren´t his exact words, but then again, he was speaking Spanish)

I really can´t think of much else to write about. I went out to dinner on the local church´s donated money last night and it really helped to clear my head and restore my energy. The food was really good too, and it´s the first beer I´ve had in quite a while. I hope that´s not offensive or hurtful to anyone, but I think Jesus would have had one with me as we rested together in God´s presence. Come to think of it, He kind of did.

In a nutshell, Daniel´s wounds appear to have healed well. He still has a lot of swelling and some fluid in his lungs still, but things continue to look better. With all of you praying for him, I never really any doubts =). Keep asking our Father for rest and recuparation for the both of us.