Ear Doctor, evaluation and started treatment

Here is the pic just 30 min after we touched US soil again. With Lisa's mom, and Jan Eadelman. Ernie is taking the photo. They were so nice to come and pick us up at the airport!

So-Lisa's condition:
We saw the ear specialist Monday. Not the one in detroit, but got a good referral to one here 2 miles from Lisa's moms house in Lansing. He did an ear test. (She is still very deaf, her ears do not hear any speech. Just loud bangs and noises in the 90-100 decibel range.) The doc looked at the results, and looked at Lisa's recent med history. He was scared for us. (always scary when the doc is scared.) He was mystified about the cause of the deafness. He prescribes erythromycin, so did not want to attribute the deafness to that. Anyway, there were a huge combo of factors, including the fever that could be responsible..

He put her on a two week treatment for steroids. He told me they weren't a miracle drug, and that while they may help, they probably won't cure her. (No harm in praying to that effect, though..) He said in 2 weeks we'd meet again for a re-test to see if there was any change. He said if there was no change at that point he would recommend hearing aid implants. He said she was a good candidate for those, because she was already able to talk, etc. He said she could get up to within 10 decibels of normal hearing. So a little bit less than normal.

We asked him about the detroit doc. He said that he would be in contact with his surgeons already, and that while he didn't know the detroit guy, his surgeons do. (he said that the hearing doc community isn't all that big in michigan, and they all know each other..) Anyway he was very open about working with other docs to find the best solution for Lisa. He marked "no charge" on our bill. And said he would be willing to be the point man following up her case. So nice. I appreciated him telling us the blunt truth, and not beating around the bush.

So... While surgery could be done really fast.. the adjustment of these implants is a process that takes more time... between 2-6 mos to get them adjusted properly. So we're not sure about how to plan for our return to Mali yet. Lisa is still hoping we can get back before Hilary's school lets out.

But I think even if she is 99%, we should spend a month with family while we are over here on this side of the world. So we'll see. That is the scoop as I know it right now...

We met with the missions committee at Lisa's home church last night. Gave them the update. They asked if there was any pressing financial needs. I said for medical, I think our structure has it covered. But we do have 2 needs that are out of budget for us...

1. Possibly fly Hilary to US for the summer to be with us in this situation. Air ticket would cost $1600-2000 round trip. She will go back to Dakar for school in the fall.

2. We need funds to fly all 4 of us back to the field. The insurance may pay for Lisa, but I don't think they will pay for us all to return...(Our overseas travel is building up for us all to fly home normally in 2010 for furlough... But if that is used now, will be low for us to come back...)

These needs are big for any one church to take on by itself. But maybe if a lot of people or churches in our circle of contact could give some, we'd be able to cover these needs.

Lisa's spirits are good. If you were to have lunch with us tomorrow, you would write a lot of notes to her. But you would see her laugh and joke, and speak to you almost as normally as before..

We do pray for her recovery. God does do things like that... :-)

Tom & Lisa Seward