{"id":1139,"date":"2016-10-26T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2016-10-26T11:03:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:03:50","slug":"nearing-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/2016\/10\/26\/nearing-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearing the End"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Our furlough is almost over, and it has been a good one. Lots of travel and
\nsharing, lots of resting and fun. And, for me, lots of doctor appointments.
\nI have never before experienced the freedom that comes with meeting your
\ninsurance deductible! I’ve had an ultrasound, a surgery, a colonoscopy, an
\nMRI, and a CT scan. (In case you are wondering, the MRI was worse than the
\ncolonoscopy. No contest.) Through all of it, we finally got a diagnosis, and
\nnow we are working on setting up a plan for treatment. Sound simple? Here’s
\nhow it’s been going so far:<\/p>\n

Doctor: You have Crohn’s Disease.<\/p>\n

Me: Cool. What do we do about that?<\/p>\n

Doctor: You should take this medicine.<\/p>\n

Me: Thanks. Oh wait, it’s giving me weird side effects.<\/p>\n

Doctor: Then chuck it and take this one instead.<\/p>\n

Me: Well. that one is harder to get in Papua New Guinea. Plus it’s, like,
\nsuper expensive. And also, it might make me get TB.<\/p>\n

Doctor: (Frustrated silence)<\/p>\n

Me: So. can I go back to the first medicine but take a lower dose?<\/p>\n

Doctor: Maybe you should get a second opinion. <\/p>\n

So now, through the grace of God and the kindness of a friend and her
\ndoctor, we are awaiting our first visit with the Second Opinion. Usually it
\ntakes a long time to get in to see a specialist, but he made it so that I
\ncan come in next Friday. Praise God for that, and please pray that we can
\nmake a workable plan! The treatments for Crohn’s suppress the immune system,
\nwhich can make it easier to catch infections. And I don’t know if you’ve
\never been to a remote jungle tribe, but nobody uses hand sanitizer there. Or
\ntoilet paper. So I will need to get regular blood tests to make sure my
\nwhite blood cells aren’t tanking. And the clinic that does the blood tests
\nis an hour from my house. By helicopter. So if our coworkers can’t help us
\nout by ordering supplies to make use of the helicopter, it will work out to
\nabout $3,200 per test. Every three months. Luckily, our coworkers have three
\npre-teen boys, so they might need that many supply flights just to keep them
\nfrom eating the furniture. <\/p>\n

Since my diagnosis Chris and I have gone from thinking, “We can still go
\nback to PNG in January!” to “Are we going to be able to go back to PNG in
\nJanuary?” to “There’s no way. Where are we going to live in January??” back
\nto “It looks like it might be possible to maybe begin to think about going
\nback to PNG in January.” We have not changed our tickets, but we are praying
\nthat we would be receptive to God’s leading even if that means changing our
\nplans. If God directs a short delay so we can be safer and more effective in
\nPal, then we are ok with that. Please pray that we would have wisdom and
\nthat the new doctor will have some good ideas. <\/p>\n

Thank you for all the encouragement and support that you give. We hear from
\nour coworkers that things in the tribe are going pretty well. Many of the
\nChristians have lately expressed their concern about the apathy they are
\nstarting to feel; their initial excitement about the gospel is starting to
\nfade. Praise God that they are recognizing it and asking for help! That’s
\nmore than I was able to do for much of my own life! Please be praying for
\nthose believers as well. They are the reason we are fighting to get back to
\nPNG, but we know that God is able to accomplish great things through your
\nprayers – perhaps even greater things than He can accomplish through us. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our furlough is almost over, and it has been a good one. Lots of travel and sharing, lots of resting and fun. And, for me, lots of doctor appointments. I have never before experienced the freedom that comes with meeting your insurance deductible! I’ve had an ultrasound, a surgery, a colonoscopy, an MRI, and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1070,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1070"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chris-hostetter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}