Update on Cindy

Hello dear friends and family. Here is an update from the Land of Peru!

Well, it's been an interesting day, to say the least. Other adjectives would include: frustrating, boring, stressful, tearful (on my part, breaking down under some stress), angering, humbling, successful, and informative. Oh, and did I mention exhausting?

Learned a lot about the WAY communication is different in the medical setting of a different country OTHER than the actual spoken language. Yes, a lot in US health care needs fixing. But man, we've got some stuff right, too.

Diagnosis definitivemente is herniated disc between the L5 and S1 vertebrae in her lower back. That's the bottom lumbar vertebra and the top sacral (better known as "tailbone") vertebra. Treatment: painkillers for the next week, learn some exercises, do these exercises pretty much forever, and lose weight. Exercising and losing weight complicated by the Rheumatoid Arthritis, since movement on a daily basis is painful, and steroids generally cause weight GAIN.

She will be discharged tomorrow morning. We will be looking into finding a pool that she can go to regularly to exercise (best option for RA). She will probably also need to be on bed rest for another day or two, so please pray for her class of four-year-olds. Prayer for our mental peace of mind (mine more than hers) is also welcome!

Here is a pretty good explanation of herniated discs, and a picture of an MRI and illustration of a herniated disc in the place Cindy's is. http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-HLDisc.htm

On a different note: will you please join us in prayer this week for our future beyond December? And also for the school's future overall. There is a man coming to visit this week who is the president of an organization that financially supports missionary endeavors and missionaries. He happened to meet in the airport the husband of one of our Peruvian teachers several months ago and has asked to come to the school and to talk to me and Cindy.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern. The responses we have received have been so encouraging. I need to be at the hospital at 7:30 tomorrow, so I'm not replying to all of them individually, but I am so grateful for them. Thank you!

Emily and Cindy

Hello everyone.

I am really not a very good missionary as far as updating the people who have played a part in my life. Here's the low-down on the situation this evening in Peru.

What I wrote on Facebook:

Most of you know that a year ago Cindy was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. It has been difficult watching her body fink out on her over the past sixteen months, even with the RA meds that she's been taking, she is in near-constant pain. This past week, a different kind of pain started coming off and on and then pretty much on starting last night. This morning she was in tears and in pain no matter what position she was in: standing, sitting, lying down, etc. It's pain deep inside her left leg.

This morning she went with a Peruvian friend to clinic, which is what they call hospital. They wanted to admit her overnight; we were told at first because they thought it was sciatic nerve issue and since she was on so many other meds for the RA, they wanted her in clinic overnight. So she was admitted. AFTER paying a sizable deposit.

Well, after a very frustrating four hours spent with her at clinic, and another spanish-speaking-friend's help, we have discovered that really, they haven't decided what's wrong with her, they need to do an MRI, and the MRI isn't in the clinic (usually in Peru the MRI is not at the actual hospital, it's in an MRI center) and so we have to go to another place to get the MRI and WHY on EARTH they didn't send her this afternoon to get an MRI?????? is beyond me...

Anyway. Her RA doctor was there with the other doctor, and neither one thinks this pain has anything to do with the RA. Like she needs anything else wrong with her body.

PLEASE PRAY for both of us, for the people around us, and for the doctors and medical staff we encounter. I am scared, because not only do I have NO IDEA what's wrong but also because I cannot be effective in advocating for her treatment with my very limited Spanish.

Thank you.

And now how I really feel: absolutely scared out of my wits. and angry. Like cindy doesn't have enough to deal with???? Is her middle name Job??? I'm really not at all confident in this situation- we've never had a problem with the RA doctor at Tezza, but I have little peace with the situation she's in now. I know part of that is just because I'm worried about her and I can't communicate in Medical Spanish. But it's more than that- it's the whole vibe of the place, of the way the nurses reacted or did NOT react.... I understand now why no one ever wants to leave their sick folks alone at a clinic here in Peru... Hearing that "we don't know" what's wrong didn't help either. And now she called to say they can't take her to do the MRI until tomorrow morning, which means another day staying at the hospital, and my cynical side says "yeah, another day in the clinic, more money for them, so of course they won't do it until tomorrow..." She has insurance, but it reimburses after the fact, so it's also the stress of making sure we've always got access to cash for whatever they need to do next...

Until today, our big prayer request would have been "guidance for what on earth we're supposed to do after December" and "miraculous provision of the next-level RA drugs that Cindy needs but that are exorbitantly expensive". And really, those both still apply. The school would love to have us another year (my third grade class wants to have a garage sale to help "pay for me") and we've got nothing job-wise looking good for us in the States. But we can NOT ask our friends and family alone to support us for another year. So, we're unsure of what our next move will be.

Cindy's RA is so severe that all of the drugs available to her now are no longer inhibiting the disease at all. It's barely controlling the pain. But affording the next-level of drugs is WAY beyond our ability, even here in lower-cost Peru. Only God can provide that. We are currently pursing several assistance options through the drug companies and through the Peru ministry of health and hoping God will use that option in a miraculous way.

It's tough living with a loved one in chronic pain. I am trusting God to provide for both of us. (I believe, help my unbelief, ya know?) (I miss my parents and family tonight!)

A happy note: I had to leave school early today, and left a sub with my class. When I told them why I was leaving (Miss Cindy's in the clinica), every one of their faces showed sincere concern and two of them said "we should pray for her". And as I left the room, that's what they were doing. (When I asked who would like to pray, seven hands went up! My class this year has truly been a blessing.

I just talked to Cindy- she told me not to come back, that she's just going to sleep with all the pain killers, and when she heard the tears in my voice actually said to me "Emily, call me if you need anything- God is a loving and faithful God." SHE is comforting ME! So, I suppose I shall go to bed since I've got to be at the clinic in the morning at 8.

Love to you all,
Emily Leinbach (and Cindy)

WOW!

Wow it the first week of 4th Quarter!!!! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!?!

The days just seem to go faster and faster and faster! We have A LOT to post within the week but I wanted to share a prayer request with y'all...

The medicine I am taking for my Rhuematoid Artritis is no longer working. It is barely suppressing any of the symptoms of the disease and it is not doing ANYTHING to prevent the progress of the disease. It has been deemed necessary to move up to the biological level of meds. This is scary because these meds are more than $15,000 per year. I have contacted the company for possible financial assistance. I am in the midst of see if I can be classified as a resident in Peru which is the only way I would be able to recieve the financial help. The South America director of the pharacutical company that makes Enbrel replied VERY promptly and has been a great help to me. God is great and God is good! He continually places people in my life just when I need them. Mr. Durstein (the SA dicertor) is a fellow brother in Christ, and in his last email to me ended it with the following scripture...

..."Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?"

Matthew 6:25

Yes God is good, and He WILL take care of me AND of my body! So if you all can pray that I am able to work this out SOON, to know if I can become a resident or not that would be great. We are considering coming back for one more year to LIma, but if I am unable to procure assistance in Peru I will not have to option of returning to a job I LOVE! Thank you for your prayer support.

Cindy

Here is a video of some of Cindy's class as rabbits... one of them apparently needing to visit the little bunny's room...

From Peru Year Two!

Here is a rather delayed picture of Emily's birthday. In the picture are Cindy, Emily, Katie Brink-Guerrero, Heidi Copeland, and Ivone (Peruvian teacher assistant). The cake was very good... lots and lot of chocolate!

I am a terrible missionary...

Oh, wait, that sounds like i'm a terrible missionary because I'm not sharing the Gospel- I'm doing THAT. I'm just not sharing anything else! Like, I'm not sharing my experiences with anyone through any of the multiple ways open and available to me through modern technology. Facebook, email, my blogs, the Internet phone we can use just like we're in the States...

I am a terrible communicator, and for that I am truly sorry. I tend to think this way: I want to share all this stuff with people, but i'm really tired or don't have very much time, and i won't be able to write it all, so i will just wait til later...

BUT LATER NEVER HAPPENS. Yes, I realize the complete silliness of this. I am going to try something new: tidbits.

Today's tidbits:
-How did I ever think that sweet potato was yucky????
-THE SUN IS OUT TODAY! cindy and i went out and sat in the park for more than half and hour just to BE in the sunshine...
-I should have brought that gorgeous purple formal dress I bought for $2.50 at Goodwill two years ago... Peruvian women DRESS UP for weddings!
-I really really don't like the whole "grading" part of being a teacher...
-It's sad when you're left speechless after watching the "in memory" montage of the Emmy's (repeated here a few days after the event) because you had NO IDEA that all those people were dead! Bea Arthur?!? (I'm so sorry, Meg!) Ed McMahon? I can't even remember the rest, because there were so many!

My goal is to do tidbits on a regular basis. Nothing deep or profound, but at least it's something!
Love you all!
Emily