Last night, Pam, Daniel, and Ariela said their goodbyes to Matthew and me for a couple of months. Today, I drove them to the San Francisco airport, and as I write, they are about halfway through their 10 1/2 hour flight to Amsterdam, where they will then take their next flight to Zagreb. Our missionary colleagues will pick them up and drive them the two hours to our house in Slavonski Brod, Croatia.
Matthew’s pain has been better today, staying around a 4/10 or 5/10, which is so encouraging. The medical team made some changes to his medication, and he also took some supplements, and this seems to be helping.
Today he went walking twice around the hospital floor. Unfortunately, he is not allowed to leave the floor, so he is getting a bit stir crazy, wishing for a change of scenery and some fresh air. Yesterday was one month since his accident.
He is able to put on his arm sling by himself, which is no small feat. We also got him elastic shoelaces for one pair of shoes, and then another pair of slip-ons, so he won’t have to try to tie shoes one-handed. Occupational therapy came by, and they were very encouraged by his progress to do things on his own.
Tomorrow he will have surgery (his 9th) to remove some dead skin, muscle, and probably tendon for part of his arm where the skin graft did not take. I’ll be spending the night with him at the hospital tonight; his surgery is scheduled first thing in the morning (most likely at 7 am California time).
Please pray that Matthew’s surgery will be successful, that he will recover from it quickly, that his pain will remain under control without IV medication, and that he will be discharged from the hospital soon.
Pray for Pamala, Daniel, and Ariela to rest now on their flights, for safety, and that they will smoothly readjust to the Croatian time zone. On Sunday, they drive to Hungary for the SHARE conference. This will be the first SHARE conference (which we attend annually), where I have not driven and been with them. Pray that there will be no problems crossing the border between Croatia and Hungary.
For those of you who get our monthly prayer letters and prayer calendars, needless to say, it did not happen for February. I plan to start it again for March.
Thank you for your prayers!
Todd