Sunday, February 6, 2011

Paul's infected elbow

One evening a couple of weeks ago Paul complained that his elbow hurt. In the morning it was red and swollen. It continued to hurt throughout the day and the next morning the swelling had increased. My dad is a doctor and I talked to him on the phone. He was adamant that Paul needed to go to Anchorage and see a doctor now. Within a half an hour Paul was heading to Anchorage and had an appointment to see a doctor. They lanced his elbow to drain the infection and put him on an antibiotic. He spent the next two weeks mostly in Anchorage getting it cleaned out every two days. He got to come home a couple of times in between appointments. The doctor put a partial cast on so he couldn't bend his elbow.
Abigail went with him on one of his appointments so she could learn how to take care of his wound so he wouldn't have to go back quite so often.


The doctor put a wick in the incision to keep it drained. Below Abigail is inserting a new wick into the incision.
The next village to our south is about 20 miles away. In the winter you can drive there by driving across the lake. The Clarks pastor the church there and their son recently turned 16. Paul had planned on going with Abigail, Deborah and Quentin to his party but he couldn't go because of his infection. We (prayerfully) decided the kids were old enough to make the trek on their own. Below Paul is not using his arm as he makes sure the kids make sure the gas, oil and tires are good before they head out.
The kids play basketball at the school every afternoon. It's very low key and the older kids skipped to go on their trip. That left Joshua to give Anna a ride to practice in the sled behind the snowmachine. Anna is holding 7 month old Hazel, whose mom is a teacher at the school.
Praise to Yhwh, Paul's elbow is doing great. All signs of infection are gone and it's just a little tender. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray, the elbow is a particularly difficult place to get rid of an infection. The doctor says that if there is no sign of infection for 30 days it should stay gone.

2 comments:

Janna said...

Dear Paul & Susan,

My name is Janna, and I am a senior at Haverford College. I found your lovely blog through "A Quiver Full of Information" at http://quiverfullmyblog.wordpress.com/

I am a political science major with an interest in social movements, and I think that something really dynamic and interesting is happening with communities of faith in America. In the coming weeks, I will be putting together a survey (about 10-15 questions) for Quiverfull couples trying to understand how people find the Quiverfull movement, why they join, and why they stay invested in the Quiverfull community. I would love for your family (just the parents!)to participate. The identities of all participants will remain confidential, and I have no plans to publish my findings, but if you wanted to see the finished product, I would be happy to send you a copy.

If your family would be interested in participating in my research, I would be deeply grateful, and very happy to have your input. If you know other families that might be interested in participating, feel free to pass on my contact information.

All the best,
Janna Frieman
Haverford College Class of 2011
jfrieman@haverford.edu

Yeast Infection said...

As when we are on outing and especially with the kids then these minor things happen. Therefore we can use all of the tips which you have mentioned over here.