Monday, February 8, 2016

Surgery for Sharon!

Crazy things have been happening in the past month, and details have been neglected, especially here on the blog.

About eight months back we found out about a hospital in Kenya that may be able to do Sharon's surgery.  While the doctors were very understanding, the doctor that does heart surgeries was out of country for a while and they didn't know when he would be able to do the surgery.  On top of that, the people at the Heart Institute in Uganda weren't super open to that option in the beginning either.  So, we walked on.  That door seemed closed for the time so we started moving towards sending her to Sudan instead.  At one point a doctor at the Uganda Heart Institute made a comment that made it seem like they would be open to the possibility of sending Sharon to Kenya and/or getting in touch with the hospital to send patients there in the future.  Yet, the doctor remained unavaliable.

While Sharon has been completely ready to go to Sudan for six months, she has been on a waitlist that is simply too long.  Then last Friday (January 29) my dad got an email from the doctor in Kenya.  My dad would occasionally write to the staff at the hospital to find out when it seemed like the doctor would be back, so he knew Sharon was still waiting.  He had written to say that he was back in Kenya and if we were still interested he would like to have her come for evaluation before the surgery.

Sharon already had an appointment scheduled for that Wednesday (February 3) at the Heart Institute for more tests and medicine to help stabilize her.  While the trip on Wednesday was apparently frustrating all the tests were gone.  On Thursday the tests were sent to the doctor in Kenya.  On Friday he responded asking for a phone number and called my dad to ask how soon they could get her there.  He responded, "we could probably get her there tomorrow."

So, early morning Uganda time on Saturday a driver went to pick up Sharon and her father to make the ten hour drive to Kenya.  When they got to Kenya she was in a more stable condition than the doctors expected her to be.  They admitted her and have been continuing to stabilize her over the weekend.

At 12:30 AM Eastern Time (8:30 AM East Africa Time) Tuesday, February 9, Sharon will be receiving the surgery she has been waiting so long for!   I know the surgery will probably already be over by the time most of you read this or you will be sleeping during the surgery, but please be praying for her and her recovery process.

Updates hopefully coming soon!

(If you've missed all or some of Sharon's story, click here to read more.)