When you’re sick and far away from home

          One of the most stressful events of our mission was Joe being sick.  It started with a cold on Aug. 21.  He felt bad for a few days then began to feel better.  A week and a half later he was progressively getting sicker again.  He had flu-like symptoms along with a constant productive cough.  We decided to see a doctor.  Here it is easy to see a G.P.  We call and usually get in the same day.  Joe had no fever, clear lungs, no sore throat and clear ears, just a bad cough, all over body aches and extreme fatigue. The doctor said he just had a virus and to wait it out but he would do a blood test for infection.  Then, since we don’t have the universal health insurance here, the doctor says it will be 27.60 euros, takes out his wallet, pockets the cash and prints us a receipt!   Two and a half weeks with a virus seemed a long time to us but the medical community here is very conservative in treatment, i.e. have an ear infection? It will just clear itself up with time, no treatment needed even if your eardrum bursts.

                The next day the doctor’s office called in some alarm and said Joe’s infection levels were very elevated, they thought he had pneumonia and needed an antibiotic.  That weekend Joe was so very sick; fever, clammy skin, coughing, body aches, feet swelling, and high insulin needs.  Amoxicillin for five days was the drug of choice here.  The senior couple brethren gave Joe a blessing.  I tried to exercise my faith and not worry but wasn’t very successful.  I was frightened.

                In 3 days Joe began to feel better.  We breathed a sigh of relief.  He was still coughing, had very little energy and his chest still hurt but seemed to be on the mend. 

                A week after finishing the Amoxicillin he began to get worse again.  I had been worried that 5 days of antibiotics weren’t enough and it wasn’t.  We made another trip to the doctor.  He now had a low-grade fever and his lungs weren’t clear.  We went for another blood test and also a chest x-ray, and got another prescription. This time he got Doxycycline for 7 days. The chest x-ray clearly showed pneumonia. 

                By this time Joe had been sick for a month.  I was frustrated with the conservative treatment and worried the antibiotic was still inadequate.  President and Sister Bunnell showed up at our house to check on Joe.  (President Bunnell was a pediatric physician assistant in his previous life!)  He checked Joe over and said everything looked fine.  We obtained the chest x-ray which was then sent to Frankfurt to the Area Medical Director.  He concurred that it was definitely pneumonia, that hopefully the Doxycycline would cure it, but if not, recommended another antibiotic which is the drug of choice in the USA for pneumonia. 

                A week later Joe was clearly on the mend again.   We prayed that he would get completely well this time.  He wasn’t coughing, but was exhausted all the time and had lost 20 pounds. 

                It has taken another two weeks for Joe to be up all day without needing several rests/naps.  Six and a half weeks after it all began, Joe is feeling good and back to work. 

                Although medical care in the Netherlands is modern and available, it’s enough different that it was very stressful to deal with.  What if we needed to go to the emergency room?  Where is that?  How do we get treatment we deem adequate?  Communicating is harder because we don’t speak Dutch.  Thank heavens they speak some English!  For that we are so grateful! 

                 It has been a learning experience.  We are even more grateful for good health, and for loved ones, friends and missionaries who prayed earnestly for him.  We are grateful for Sister Esther Fletcher who told us she had put his name on the temple prayer roll.  She is a sweet, kind, caring soul with Down’s Syndrome who is serving a mission here with her parents.  Our dear friends, the Oostveens, came over to check on us and Jan loaned us his stethoscope and pulse oximeter (he works on an ambulance crew : ) so I could monitor  Joe’s illness.  We learned patience as we took several weeks off from our mission work.  That is so hard!!!  We learned to find different ways to approach our missionary work while he was recovering so we could still serve.  (When Nephi’s steel bow broke he found a different way.  He made a wooden bow and arrows.  Not as good as steel but kept them from starving. He created a “work around”).  We couldn’t do all the usual work in the usual way but we managed to find ways to do the core work of our mission calling.  We learned more about praying with real intent.  And we learned to say “thy will be done” as we prayed for healing….. and perhaps that is the most important lesson of all.