A very sick baby

Today was a difficult day. We have some friends that are missionary doctors in Tchad in Africa, Olen and Danae Netteburg. They have a blog where they share interesting stories of people they’ve met and other experiences. Olen and Danae, Life under the mango trees. Lately, they’ve been dealing with a very sick baby. At first they thought it was malaria since that disease is quite prevalent in that area. But after 5 weeks of high fevers, weight loss, and no change after taking every malaria medication known to man, they are starting to think it’s not that.

This is how the blog post for today started.

“Alone.

Crap. Why am I crying all the time in this country?”

My heart was in my throat after reading that, and it only got worse as I read more of the post. Their 9 month old baby is very sick, and they have no idea what is wrong with him. Maybe some rare disease, maybe something autoimmune, maybe leukemia. Since Olen and Danae are the only doctors in that area, and they had no idea what was wrong with their baby, it was decided that he (Zane) should be brought back to the US.

Since I’m, of course, late on getting this post up and it’s actually now Sunday instead of Friday, more has transpired since Olen’s first post. Danae and Zane were able to get on a plane in N,Djamena and will be arriving in Washington shortly. The plan is to take Zane to a children’s hospital at the University of Maryland. If anyone has any contacts there or knows of a pediatric specialist or oncology specialist in that area, please send me a message so that I can pass that information on.

It’s hard to feel totally helpless. DH is especially feeling it. Olen has been his best friend since they were knee high to grasshoppers. You just want to be able to do something, anything. At this point, we are sticking with prayer. That’s the only thing we can do for them. So we pray for them, alot. Even our little ones pray for them and especially for baby Zane. If you are a praying person, please add them to your prayer list. Danae needs prayers as she is traveling with her sick baby. Zane needs prayers for healing. Olen needs prayers as he is back in Tchad with his other son, trying to keep it together and provide a sense of normalcy when life is anything but normal.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.