Preaching and a trip to hospital

On Thursday Jeff and Penny Vann are arriving from America to help with the church and the wider work. They served in the Philippines for 13 years. They know Dave and Garry Schäche well. They wrote:

“We see this not only as an opportunity to help out a friend in need, but also as a chance to return the favor for all of those New Zealand believers who have helped us in our ministry in the Philippines over the years.”

We are very much looking forward to their arrival. I mentioned a Bible study Jeff wrote an this earlier post.

Chris Kelly, who was been helping with the preaching at the church, has moved to Australia. Yesterday Dave was able to fill a gap in the preaching schedule (photos below). I was also able to record it 🙂 and will put it on YouTube later in the week.

Last night (Sunday) Dave had a fever of 38.5 and was a little more short of breath than usual. We were told to go into Auckland hospital after ringing the ward about 9:30pm. We were very blessed to have one of the doctors who is familiar with Dave’s medical history on night duty (she did a lumbar puncture only last Friday). She ordered a chest X-ray and blood tests, all marked urgent. Without her Dave would have been in Auckland all night and most of today waiting to see someone familiar with his medical history.

The blood tests are getting hard to do. One of Dave’s arms is always difficult to get blood from (scar tissue makes the veins hard), so the nurse tried the other but the vein collapsed. She did get blood from a vein in Dave’s hand which is more painful.

The blood test and chest X-ray were completed in less than a couple of hours. The doctor was able to send Dave home (hurrah!), and sent an order for blood products to be given on Monday because his haemoglobin had lowered a little further. Haemoglobin carries the oxygen around the body. When you haven’t got much, the blood has to be pumped faster and you have to breath more. Dave’s resting pulse and breathing rate is what mine would be if I was exercising, so it’s no wonder that he feels tired. Dave’s temperature returned to normal while we were at the hospital. The fever was just a funny spike and not an indication of an infection.

We arrived home about 2am. I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30am, waking naturally. I turned off the alarm clock before it rang, so Dave was able to sleep on. I made sure that Sam was up for work, then went back to bed for some more sleep. At 8am we rang Jim (Dave’s dad) to ask if he could take Dave into the day stay unit for bloods. Rachel’s school has a teacher-only day today and it is nice to have the extra help around the house.

Click on the photo to enlarge it

Click on the photo to enlarge it