-------- Forwarded Message --------
| Subject: | Our Christmas miracle |
|---|---|
| Date: | Sat, 5 Dec 2015 06:18:07 -0500 |
| From: | Wendy Roberts <africamedicalaviation@gmail.com> |
Well, it doesn't feel like Christmas, and it doesn't seem like Christmas, but it is December and we did have a miracle this week. About two months or so ago on a Sabbath afternoon, we took Jason and Cherise up to McArthur's hill. It is where the military base was where he staged his campaign on the Philippines (although he was mostly on his boat in the harbor in Jayapura, but anyway). Anyway, it is still a military camp but you can go in and it's a nice place to go hang out on Sabbath and there are some woodsy areas and you can see all of Sentani and the airport from up there so the kids like to see the planes coming in. So while we were up there we came upon this cute little kitten that someone must have dropped off. The man running the little information hut up there assured us we could have her and Jason and Cherise have a dream to rescue all the neglected/abused animals in Papua (or at least the ones they come across) so they really wanted this kitten. Gary didn't resist as he was wanting a kitten to keep the population of rodents down in the hangar. (We have a cat in the old hangar, but she won't move to the new hangar!) So we came home with this little kitten who was affectionately named CJ for Cherise and Jason. Well, she really has been a sweet kitten. She follows Cherise around like a puppy and she really loves people which you know is somewhat unusual for a cat. She had diarrhea which I thought would just go away but didn't so we ended up giving her flagyl for a week and she still had it, so we changed her diet and finally had things firming up in that area. She was also starting to gain some weight. Cherise went every morning to let her out of the shop, one of the rooms in the hangar where we kept her at night to keep her safe (mostly from other cats as there are holes where the big hangar doors meet up where cats can get in and out, or maybe from the rats that are as big as she is! Just kidding!) and every evening to put her back inside. She spent quite a bit of time playing with her and being a good kitten she loved to play. Cherise was thrilled with her. Then Wed morning Cherise went out and played with her for a while and let her out as usual and then while we were eating breakfast Jason came running in and said to Cherise, "Come out to the hangar quick. CJ has a bad cut on her side. It's really bad!" Well, the kids tend to be a bit dramatic and I never know if I will find someone with their insides hanging out or just a little scratch and he didn't ask me to come, but I decided to go anyway. When I got out the gate I met the kids coming to get me. When I got in the hangar she was sitting by the back wall with a big triangular shaped wound open all the way to the muscle, but when I got closer, I could see and hear air going in and out of the wound - her lung was punctured. In medical terms it's a sucking chest wound. I look at Cherise and said, "Oh Honey, she's not going to make it!" (Big mistake- poor Cherise was crying for the next 30 min probably!) I started looking around for some plastic but quickly realized everything there is dirty, so ran back to the house for seran wrap. The temporary solution to this problem is to cover the wound with a square piece of plastic and then tape it on 3 sides so that air cannot go into the wound, but can escape. Then of course you rush to emergency surgery for a chest tube! Well, I just came back with my seran wrap and held it over the wound. I really did not expect her to live more than a few minutes. I was surprised she was still alive! I didn't really even want to move her, but she was just sitting there alert and awake, so eventually I picked her up and held on one arm, but had to keep the other hand over the wound to keep the air from getting in. Try sticking plastic to a bunch of hair! Well, I'll spare you the details of the whole day, but let's just say I held her most of the day (Cherise helped some, but had a harder time keeping her comfy and sitting still herself!) until finally in the afternoon, I was able to put her down and she slept. She was in so much pain that before that she wouldn't relax and sit still, but she was weak. She also had a couple of other wounds so it was obvious a dog had gotten her, and Jason told us that Lucy (our dog) had been out by the hangar and he had put her back in our yard, so she is my chief suspect as she LOVES to chase things - especially cats. So that was hard for Cherise to get past as well, but the cruel facts of this world...Anyway, Cherise was in tears and very distressed most of the day. I really didn't think CJ would make it til night, but she did. So then what? Well, Cherise just put her mattress beside her on the living room floor and we all slept. I was pretty sure CJ wouldn't make it through the night. (For the nurses she had nasal flaring, and crepitous up in her neck and shoulder.) But by that time Cherise thought she was going to be ok. I don't know why, because she was still really struggling and in so much pain.t I was somewhat distressed by this time because Gary thought I should try to put CJ under and shave her so I could take the plastic on, but I was fighting getting sick and feeling lousy and how could I go running around town and try to find this med that they probably wouldn't give me anyway, and even if I did get it how would I shave her with a huge razor and not get hair all in the wound! But I knew she was going to die if I couldn't keep this wound closed. Well, by this time I had discovered that if I wrapped the seran wrap all the way around her it would stay closed most of the time. But since it was just laying there technically I was hoping air could still escape (it's bad if it can't). But since it is still hard to seal plastic on hair sometimes it would start leaking and she would cry out in pain! So, I just couldn't handle undertaking surgery, but I felt like I wasn't giving it my best shot. I should mention that during all this Ruth, who is also a nurse, had come over several times and helped reassure me that I was doing the right thing. I was really thankful for her support because, sure it was only a kitten, but Cherise was really upset about it, and it just ended up being very emotionally draining! We had talked during the day about whether we should just put her to sleep, as that was our doctor's solution, but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We decided that if we were praying for Jesus to heal her it wouldn't be showing very much faith to put her to sleep, but it was really hard to see her suffering. When I went to bed Cherise had left a note on my pillow that said, "Hi Mom. I love you. I thing CJ will be ok. XOXOXOXO..." Well, I was very touched, but I just started crying because I thought that there was no way CJ would survive the night and she was having so much faith and she was going to be crushed in the morning. I finally just had to leave everything up to God - Cherise and CJ and thankfully we all slept! I woke up in the night to go to the bathroom and decided I wasn't going to check on CJ because I didn't want to find her dead, but then after laying awake for a while I decided that it would be better for me to find her then and take her away from Cherise's bed and it would be better for me to tell her in the am than for her to find her when she woke up. But low and behold she was still alive! In the am she was still alive too! I forgot to mention that already she was really stinking. To keep a wound moist and warm is the worst thing for it, so with our seran wrap we were creating a perfect breeding ground for infection. I ran out first thing and bought antibiotic. We started forcing her to drink coconut water as we had given her nothing the day before - I just didn't see the point in putting her thought more torture, but now that she had survived the night, we were going to do what we could. She was also cold, so got a heating pad from Ruth and that has been her bed ever since. Thurs I would say she still wasn't doing good, and we had to get back to school, but Cherise was diligent in giving her coconut water and calling me when the wound would start leaking air again. Friday morning she was still alive and Cherise called me, "Mom, CJ just walked from the school room into my room!" Sure enough, she followed her all the way to my room, then to the kitchen and then back to the school room. I was simply amazed! That seemed to have tired her out, and she spent the rest of the day in her bed, but showed some great promise! She still was not eating/drinking on her own, and was fighting us more with the coconut water, but we kept going. It was obviously giving her strength! Ruth came over and helped us clean her up some while I held the plastic in the puncture with my finger, because the wound had been leaking fluid this whole time which is just matting up all the hair under the plastic. She smelled so bad we could hardly be in the same room with her! That helped a lot and CJ actually seemed to enjoy it. Probably felt like her mommy licking her and she even started cleaning herself up too. It was so amazing to see her actually being like a real cat! So today, she is still slowly improving. I took the plastic off this am and could barely hear air movement, and that only some of the time, so the wound is mostly closed! I worked on cleaning her up some more which again spurned her into licking herself and by the time she was done, it was leaking more air, which I was afraid of, but maybe by tomorrow we can take off the plastic. Which will be great news for the wound to be able to heal and get rid of the infection. She still isn't drinking/eating on her own, but is seeming thirsty (licking her lips like they are dry) and she did eat one little bite of cat food but I think maybe it was too heavy to start out with, so she didn't eat any more. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some chicken broth from Ruth (she feeds chicken to her dogs) and I'm hoping she'll like that...But she walked around the house again this am and then again this evening, so she's seeming more and more alive every day, and definitely less and less in pain! So that's our miracle of this week. And I'm learning lessons on faith from Cherise! Love you all, Wendy PS. So the pics are the wound the first day and then CJ just now. She wasn't real happy that I turned the light on in her eyes, but she has come out and is crawling around in my lap and computer now! :-)
