Facing Our Fears

Many of you know that one of Levi's fears about coming to Cameroon was the fear of something happening to him. This child has had 3 broken arm before leaving America and most recently had his neck sliced open with a garden stake. It seems that he is my accident prone child so there was reason for him to fear. I also feared this happening and forbade him from breaking any bones - so much for listening to his Mom. Just before dinner time last night Levi was playing an innocent game of swords with his friend Ben. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the ditch behind him and ended up tripping into it and hurting his right arm. The way he was crying and holding his arm I had a feeling it was more than just a mere flesh wound. We put cold meat on it and elevated it, knowing it was too late to find anyone at the local clinic. Thankfully we have a good supply of pain relievers and were able to do some pain management until today. The best thing was that we were able to put a note on Facebook and almost immediately had friends at home praying. Levi was really touched by the messages and just knowing that people were interceding on his behalf. I loved knowing that we could go to sleep and it was the middle of the day at home so the prayers would not stop. Levi slept without too much discomfort, I even woke him in the morning. Right away I asked if he wanted some Tylenol since it had been over 10 hours. He actually said he didn't need it. At this point I was feeling hopeful that maybe it wasn't broken after all but once he tried to turn his arm and winced in pain, I knew better. It was a beautiful clear day for a ride to Kumbo and Val was gracious enough to take us. The Banso hospital is a pretty impressive place but it was so busy with people all over the place. I realized that I would have to forgo my Minnesota nice - people kept trying to budge in front of me in all the lines we stood in. First we went to register and bought Levi his very own Cameroon Health Consultation Book: This is good for anytime in his life that he needs medical attention in Cameroon. Then they checked his weight and temperature and sent us to the Emergency Room. We waited a long time and then the woman from the registration area walked by and saw us still sitting there. She became our advocate and walked into the ER and had a few words. Next thing you know they were calling us into the ER. We saw Dr Ebogo, who had the job of asking us questions and filling out our little pink consultation book. He was looking in Levi's eyes and checking his glands when his finger touched Levi's scar on his neck. The doctor's eyes looked so surprised when he saw the big gash from Levi's last incident... I explained that he is accident prone. We were sent to get an x-ray in an ancient room (Banso Hospital is expanding so there will soon be a brand new area). We stood outside while the x-ray tech held the x-ray in the sun to dry and then we were sent on to physical therapy. We arrived there shortly after noon and waited and waited. Finally a man came and told us that they had closed at noon but he would find someone for us. Isaac soon arrived and evaluated that Levi had indeed cracked his radius and would need a cast. He took no time in getting the cast put on and we were headed upstairs again to pay the rest of our bill. Overall it was a fairly good experience. Val and Ellie had headed up to another missionary family's house because Susan had offered to make us lunch. We were done so quickly that Levi and I were able to walk to the Wolf's house and join them for lunch. Since we were already in town, we stopped again at the Supermarket and got some cereal - Bonus! So thankful for all the prayer we had covering us over the past 24 hours.