Howard and Susan – ON THE ROAD!

Susan (I assume with the help of some firemen) loaded up Howard this morning in Kelowna, BC onto the motorhome and they are well on their way. They crossed the border without issue (other than the border official didn’t know what encephalitis was and had to look it up before he let them enter). Howard is snoozing away in his bed as they make the miles down the freeway and are already already into Oregon. Susan texted and said how relieved she feels.

Jerry and I installed a hospital bed into Howard and Susan’s bedroom yesterday. We await their arrival and the road to recovery for our brother Howard. There is a fungus here which is breathed into the lungs (fungal spores in the air) called Valley Fever which doesn’t bother most people. In talking with others here, we got to wondering if that may be part of the underlying issues complicating Howard’s condition as in a small percentage of people it does cause severe issues and even death. A neighbor here died from it just two weeks ago. The good thing is that if it is, there is an anti-fungal treatment for it. Reading online it says that with about 1% of people that get it, “the infection spreads from the lungs to other parts of the body, such as the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord)”.

If all goes well, they should arrive here at the end of the day on Friday the 6th. Many thanks for all your prayers and loving support for our co-workers. Lots of unknowns for Susan. She had to forego their medical insurance to come back home. That was a big blow for her, but she feels strongly this is the place to be. To be back home. The doctors in Kelowna said there is nothing more they can do and that Howard should go home. These are big steps of faith for her with a large task of home care ahead of her and a life going forward without medical insurance.

Howard’s condition began at the time of his brother Murray’s passing. I believe he heard the news, but it was right about that time that he himself slipped into a severe state of encephalitis and wasn’t even able to consciously grieve the death of his brother. I’m reminded of the Proverb which says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.”

Who knows, maybe the combination of the West Nile Virus Encephalitis together with Valley Fever and a Broken Spirit has resulted in this severe condition he suffers today. Once he’s back here and I’m back from Colombia, I hope to see him reguarly and read him words of life and hope from the scriptures… daily if I can, because a merry heart goes a long way. It does good, like medicine.