Brief Medical Update (Justin)

This morning, I picked up Joni's results of tests on several samples we carried to a clinic last weekend. The receptionist looked up her results on the computer printed out a piece of paper with various categories and places to check "present." There was nothing checked or written on the paper.

I asked "What am I supposed to do with this? There's nothing written on it."
The receptionist replied "So? Was there bacteria before?"
I replied "Yes, is there not now?"
Receptionist: "No, there's nothing now."
Me: "Okay... thanks."

So... we'll take that to mean that Joni is bacteria-free! I'm told that even in America it's pretty common for bacteria to show up in samples due to contamination in the lab. We're going to suppose that's what happened at the previous clinic. So, either it was a miracle due in large part to your prayers, or it was a false positive by the first lab's 2 tests. Either way, we're thankful!

The obstetrician was pleased with the news. So, the next step will be to do a blood test at the gastro clinic next week, then the obstetrician wants to see Joni again after we get the results.

What's up next for us?
Tomorrow brings the giant Wine Day festival. This is a huge Moldovan holiday, and we're not sure what to expect.
Sunday is City Day, where downtown will be mostly shut down and there will be craft vendors, food, concerts, dancing, fireworks, etc. Great times!

I hope to update you very soon on our website project here. I can say that work has gone slower than hoped and we hope to see it speeded up as soon as today. Enjoy your weekend!

A Word from the Lab Rat (Joni)

I just wanted to post a little note on here, since it's been Justin who has been doing all the posting about my medical situation. I just wanted to say THANK YOU for your prayers and concern - please keep them coming! I'm feeling alright, but I don't know which of my symptoms are just from the pregnancy and which are from any other ailments I may have! I think my body is taking a while to adjust to the new medicine, but I don't think I'm having any harmful side effects from it. Still nauseous, but that's just the pregnancy, I'm sure!

So I don't really have anything to update you with, besides the fact that we've submitted all my samples to the lab and have to go back Friday for the results. Other than that, things have settled into a pretty normal routine. I have finished my language lessons, so my only occupation is keeping the house, trying to stay healthy, and attempting to show Justin gratitude for the amazing tender care he is taking of me throughout this ordeal. He seems to be pleased with the dinners I'm crafting for him, and I have to say I'm rather enjoying them myself! :)

So I just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking, and I'm unbelievably grateful for your prayers and support, and I wanted to publicly acknowledge how wonderful my husband has been in taking care of me. Please keep up your prayers for my health, the baby, and Justin's perseverance in caring for us. Please pray also that Justin will be encouraged by being able to get back to the office this week and making progress on his projects.

Know anything about Duphalac?

Thanks for all your prayers! We arrived safely and mostly on time at our clinics today, and hopefully are a step closer to getting information.

So, Joni and I had to go to two clinics today. I hesitate to write the more humorous (albeit gross) stories about our adventures, even though I want to give an accurate picture of what we've done so far in Moldova. I suppose we should take pictures of these places for the blog, but we usually have other things on our mind. Hopefully, we'll look back on these days and laugh.

Clinic #1:
We had an English-speaking friend call the first clinic to get some information about it, and what we needed to do there. She told us to show up in the morning with Joni's liquid sample [I'm not typing the actual word here, you figure it out] in a jar. That's how most Moldovan clinics do this, you just use whatever you have handy at home, like a jar, and bring it in yourself. We showed up this morning with our jar and the lady looked at us with horror and promptly gave us a "sterile container" to put a sample in. She told us: "Come back tomorrow with the sample in the sterile container, only."

So, Joni and I stepped outside and decided it wasn't worth it to carry a jar of our sample in her purse all around town today, and also a waste to have gotten up so early to get across town by 8am.

I went back inside and asked: "Can she just make the sample here?"
Receptionist: "If you're ready to, I suppose so. The bathroom is downstairs."
So, Joni quickly disappeared and magically came back without our jar, but with the full "sterile container."
We're hoping it's not too contaminated. We actually have to go back again Saturday and Sunday to do the same thing over again. They need 3 days worth of tests, I guess. The clinic is new, nice, and modern.

Joni points out:
"In the states, they put you on antibiotics immediately after they find some sort of bacteria. Here, they tested me 2 weeks ago and found bacteria, tested me 2 weeks later and found bacteria again, and now I have to do another 3 days of tests before we can even get any diagnosis."

Clinic #2:
Alas, we went on to the liver specialist, who was tucked away in an impossible-to-find place downtown.

Her English isn't good, so we did most of it in Russian. She decided that Joni's bilirubin isn't high enough to be dangerous, so we'll wait another 10 days and then do another blood test. She said the most important thing is for Joni not to over-exert herself. The baby might be born jaundiced baby if the bilirubin stays high.

She also prescribed Duphalac to her, to take twice a day for a month. Looks like Duphalac is a lactulose medicine prescribed for various gastrointestinal things, and is safe for pregnant women. Some studies have shown that it has positive effects in treating liver problems that cause high bilirubin. That's about all we know. One of my co-worker's wives was on Duphalac for another reason and said it's what she'd recommend too. This was also a humorous phone conversation in Russian in the middle of the office. I got some looks from some of people here: "Is he really saying that word right here in the middle of the office?!"

If anyone has any information on this drug, we'd appreciate it. So far, Joni isn't jaundice and I'm
pretty sure she doesn't have hepatitis or liver cirrhosis.
Thanks again for all of your prayers!

Medical Update (Thursday, Justin)

I got the info we needed from the OB this morning. She has referred us to a doctor who specializes in liver/gastrointestinal cases. The in-house doctor for the U.S. Embassy says she's the best for what we need. She speaks some English, well enough to feel that we won't need a translator tomorrow. It'll be a fun bilingual event. I've been memorizing organ names today, fun times. We also have to go to yet another clinic for another test, but we're lacking some info on the where/when for that. So, pray for us as we gather info!

Our problems are actually pretty small in comparison to the other medical problems we're seeing among friends and co-workers here. Ghena (my boss) has been out all week with a mysterious throat ailment. He's unable to eat solid foods at all, and the doctors have many concerns. Please pray for healing for him.

One of my co-worker's mother has also just been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and it's been very hard on him and his family. She's not a believer, so pray for her as well.

The medical stuff has kept me from going to the office much. Our main project is behind schedule, and I am trying to find some ways to get it back on track. We're all sure that Satan is at work in all of the above. Wish I had happier news to blog about.

Thanks so much for your prayers and kind emails! We very much appreciate them!

Medical Update (Justin)

We just heard back from the doctor and Joni's re-takes came back "bad." Her bilirubin is still "high" and they also found some bacteria in her other sample that concerns them.

The obstetrician wants to refer us to other doctors here in Chisinau. I will speak to her tomorrow to get the details. Hopefully, these doctors will be on the Embassy's list of English-speakers.

As a concerned husband and expectant father, I have a myriad of concerns:
1. We have no medical/pregnancy books here. Anyone with any medical/pregnancy expertise is invited to help us find information about the above problems. Are these serious concerns? Is this something normal that they're just calling "abnormal?"

2. My Russian isn't good enough to translate medical stuff word-for-word, which is needed. It's good enough to get us through the clinic and to understand what we're doing, but there's a whole other vocabulary there that I'm just now beginning to learn.
If these doctors don't speak English, then we'll have to find someone we can trust to use as a translator.

3. If these doctors are wanting some weird Soviet-style tests, then we'll have to make the decision about whether to continue with the medical stuff here. Medicine is the same as other professions in Moldova, which I've written about: People who are good at it tend to go to Europe or Russia to practice.

So, please pray for the health and safety of Joni and child, as well as wisdom for us and the doctors. Pray also for good translators as need be.

Third Time was a Charm (Joni)

After three days and a total of about 6 1/2 hours waiting in lines at the clinic, we FINALLY have our medical approval for work permits in Moldova! So we won't have to go back to the clinic, but this is still not the end of the road for us. Now we'll have to go to other offices and wait in lines there to get all the paperwork submitted. Please keep praying that God comes through mightily in providing this permit for us. I think it will still be a couple weeks before we know for sure whether or not we get the permits.

On an entirely unrelated note, I wanted to give you all a few pictures to let you know what our life looks like here.

This is Justin standing in front of our house! At the moment, we are living on the third floor of the building behind him - that balcony with the flower boxes is off our bedroom. It's nice to be able to sit out on the balcony and look out onto the street. The weather has been really nice until yesterday when it started raining - and it's still pouring now!

The building on the right side of this picture will be our new house once it's completed. You can see on the right that there is a step underneath a window. That used to be a porch for a door connecting the house to the courtyard. Now they've walled that off and made it a window, so the only entrance to the house is from the street. That gives anybody staying in the house a little more privacy, and also the family doesn't have to be disturbed by our coming and going. I haven't been in the house yet, but Justin has seen it and he says it's going to be great! A bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom - all we need! They're working hard to get everything in the house completed this week, and they're hoping we'll be able to move in Sunday.

Finally, I just wanted to post a picture of a fine eating establishment here:
Yes, we have 3 McDonald's in Chisinau! This is the main location on downtown's main street. We ate at one of the different branches on Sunday after church, and I was surprised with how popular it was with the Moldovans! The place was packed! The prices are about the same as they are in America, but that's kind of expensive for food in Moldova. We probably won't eat there much, but it was tasty!

So those are a couple of pictures for you to get an idea of what it looks like here. Check back tomorrow for my long post about transportation!

Update on the Medical Tests (Joni)

After having an extremely difficult time finding the correct medical clinic this morning (I'm still working on that post about public transportation, which will help you understand why we didn't know where to get off the bus!), we finally did make it and meet up with Valentina, who was supposed to be helping us through all the hoops. From what Kelly had told us, we knew that getting medical approval included seeing somewhere between 8 and 10 specialists who signed off on various aspects of our health, and seeing most of them included a very long wait outside their office door. We got there later than intended, around 9:00, and so the lines were longer than we'd hoped.

Upon our arrival, Valentina said that she had to get back to work, so she was just going to get us started at the first door and then leave us to figure out the rest on our own! This, of course, meant that Justin would have to be using his Russian skills to talk about medical things, and he was NOT excited about that. However, we didn't have much choice and so he bravely agreed to do the best he could.

We waited with Valentina outside the first door for at least 30 minutes, just to get into the first secretary who gave us our paperwork and told us the next 2 doors to go to. The first two stops were the two I had most been dreading - having blood drawn! I have been known to pass out when having blood drawn before, so I was a little afraid that this may turn into an ordeal. However, I was feeling pretty calm, and we waited for another 30 minutes outside that door before we finally got in. The phlebotomist seemed very friendly and Justin answered all of her questions in Russian. She took our blood and we were fine. Praise the Lord!

Our next stop was to go upstairs to another room where she would just do a finger prick to take more blood. There was no line at that door, and we arrived in there at 10:05. She did our finger pricks and that was fine (although it HURT!), but she said she also needed to take a urine sample before we could do our next stop, but they stopped accepting urine samples at 10:00. Sooooo... We had to leave and we'll need to go back early tomorrow. However, Kelly told us that the first two stops are the only blood they'll take, so we got the two we had been dreading out of the way today.

Tomorrow, apparently most of the stops will just be answering questions and getting physical exams, which we feel fine with. Valentina will also be available to stay with us tomorrow, so she'll be able to help Justin understand the Russian. So altogether it was a successful morning, although we didn't get as much accomplished as hoped. Please pray for us tomorrow, that we can get all the rest of the stops finished and get this medical part of our permit completed!