Tendo's Surgery

So, I have a few things to catch you up on with our special friends in Uganda.

First of all, let us talk about my buddy Joseph.  We got some discouraging news when I got to visit with the oncologist on Friday.  It turns out that the tumor is not a Burkitt’s Lyphoma, as originally thought.   Instead, it is a rhabdo-myosarcoma.  The bad news about this is that it is not as responsive to chemotherapy.  The tumor is too extensive to resect surgically.  I have found oncologists (cancer doctors) to be incredibly optimistic, almost to a fault.  The oncologist says that 50-60% of tumors like this “respond well” to chemotherapy.  I was also told, however, that they don’t respond as well as Burkitt’s lymphomas, which have a 20% cure rate.  So what I know is this.  Joseph will either be 100% healed or he won’t.  I am confident that our God is healer enough to make that happen.  So please join me in petitioning Him for this healing. 

The good news with Joseph is that the “general pharmacy” had the chemo medicines that he requires.  This is good because he will get them for free.  The other exciting news is that he was released from Mulago to go home yesterday.  He had received 4 consecutive days of chemo and will now get to “rest” until May 30^th, when he will return for a CBC and if his blood count is OK, he will get the 2^nd of his 6 rounds of chemo.   Please pray also for Ellya, Joseph’s father, as we are not sure that he knows Jesus. 

The update on Tendo is that her surgery was postponed on Friday.  Either there was too much pressure on the limited OR space, or she was bumped for an emergency, but she was rescheduled for today.  She has now been in the hospital for 5 days, awaiting this procedure.  She continues to be in good spirits.  Jayne has given her one of the dolls that she and her friends made, before we left.  This particular doll was sewn with love by Madelyn Girod. 

 I got late word, before I posted this, that Tendo was out of surgery and it was deemed “a success”!  Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for her recovery.

Our friends, Madison & Savannah Donica arrived this weekend.  They will be helping us with our clinics this week.  We are working in Musanafu this week.  Today we saw 175 kids in a clinic open to the community.  We ended up transporting 2 of them to Wentz for admission.  They were both sick with fever, dehydration and possibly malaria.  Raymond also had pneumonia.  Please keep Raymond and Musunyi in your prayers also.

This is another great week in Uganda!

Jay