Dear Friends,
This is just an update to let you know what has happened in our first (nearly) week back in the UK.
We managed to get all our things into 2 pieces of baggage each + one extra box which meant we avoided shipping things and could start fresh back in the UK.
We landed on Monday pm and were picked up by our friend Andy who drove us (through teeming rain!) back to Ashburnham Place in East Sussex. As usual the first day back (Tuesday) felt weird as we began the "re-entry shock" of entering a different culture. I (Emma) contacted my parents in Canada just to say that we had landed and all was well. Interestingly my dad said that "I felt a huge supernatural relief when I heard you had landed and when I mentioned it to your mum she said she had felt the same!"
We braved ASDA with the usual "other world feeling" that you get the first time you see all the "stuff" again.
On Wednesday we got on with some practical jobs in the morning - applying for school places, registering at doctors surgery etc. Sam seemed ok - just a bit tired and grumpy if anything!
By 6pm Wednesday evening we knew that Sam was not right. He was emotional and so we gave him a dose of his puffer, and put him to bed early. At 8pm he came back down saying he couldn't sleep and he felt strange. We noticed he had a tremor in his right arm but put this down to the ventolin (as we have seen this before with him). We put him to bed in the downstairs room where Glyn and I were sleeping so we could keep an eye on him.
I checked on him a few minutes later and he was shaking more noticeably and burning hot. He was muttering " please, please, please, please no" over and over. It was very scary. Her then began having much stronger tremors on his right side and began throwing himself more violently. He was lucid throughout and scared asking "what's wrong with me?". By this time we had obviously called the ambulance and in the 10 or so minutes it took for them to arrive he became much worse (the convulsions were only about 10 seconds apart). The ambulance people were very worried and immediately put him in the ambulance and I travelled with him with Glyn following. He was convulsing violently and the ambulance man looked so concerned I felt like I was saying goodbye. I cannot explain the fear, helplessness and disbelief at what was happening. Glyn knew something had happened as he said the ambulance was travelling at normal speed then suddenly put the blue lights on and shot out of sight.
The paramedics had radioed ahead to have everyone waiting to receive us and Sam was immediately rushed into the emergency room where a team of doctors sprang into action. He was still convulsing violently and had to be strapped on to the bed - his temperature was over 40 degrees and rising. Glyn entered the room and I saw by his face he was expecting that Sam would have improved but he was then shocked at what he was seeing. Once again - the terror, panic and feeling of helplessness was powerful and we were of course praying like mad but feeling like we were unable to do anything except watch this unbelievable thing happening.
The doctors were aware of our very recent return from overseas and trying to figure out what was wrong, he was given a whole range of tests and they called 4 different tropical disease centre's. His symptoms didn't match up with any common foreign diseases! His main consultant asked us what we had been doing and it was quickly realized that we were all Christians and she had been an "action teamer" to Albania some time before and she and her husband both served overseas! God is good and it helped tremendously to have someone else praying in the room with us.
At midnight the convulsions began to ease a little and space out in timing. Sam became more talkative and Glyn and I felt a measure of relief. He was moved to the children's ward and put into isolation. He had no further spasms / convulsions but his temperature continued to rage at 40 degrees and wasn't responding in any dramatic way to fever reducers. The test results all came back negative so it remained a mystery. He slept fitfully the first night with hourly ob's from the nurses and doctors, and the next morning although still burning hot was chatty for about half an hour before flopping again. He developed a very bad headache and light phobia so meningitis was a possibility and they were thinking about giving him a lumber puncture. The pain eased so they decided to wait. he had all sorts of tubes / needles and tests.
He slept fitfully the second night and then by the next morning was beginning to vomit up some blood which was yet another scary thing! He was on a cocktail of antibiotics by then, and mid morning fell into a very deep sleep (I felt compelled to keep prodding him as I was worried but the nurses told me to leave him to sleep!). He woke up at 3pm a different boy - chatty, hungry, laughing and with a much lower temperature. The doctors were encouraged but said as the cause was unknown they were still feeling cautious. He slept well the third night.
He was so much improved by the 4th morning that the consultant said he could come 'home' but needs to be in isolation. This is day 5 and his first full day back here (staying with our friends "in isolation" at Ashburnham Place. He is doing ok - hates the medicines with a passion and has started getting annoyed with Carys so some things are returning to normal! He has been quite emotional (as have we all) and I think it is a huge combination of being in a new country for only 2 days before this major trauma!, recovering from a major viral thing or other, not being in our own home with familiar things, relief, adrenalin come-down, etc. So we are still reeling but obviously thankful to God that our precious boy is still with us. We are now just trying to get our hearts out of our throats and develop a more relaxed rhythm of breathing.
We will most likely never know why this happened. We may never know what it was / is (this isn't a good thought!). He is responding to Tami flu which is the viral medication and H1N1 medication so it could be a variety of things. I don't think we have ever had such an intense, desperate 4 days of total fear, total focus, and trying not to prepare for the worst. All I know is that it was one of those times that we have been called yet again to put our faith where our mouth is - God asks us "Do you trust me with everything? Even when the situation is desperate and it could go either way?" And we are required to answer yes or no. Earlier on the Wednesday (which feels like an eternity ago) I had been walking round the lake here at Ashburnham Place reflecting on what we are about to do and feeling overwhelmed and out of depth. Throughout 2009 God has spoken to me about "standing on the rock" and stepping out of the boat and walking on water. It isn't about a clever party trick - whether we will actually float or sink if we do it! It is about where is your trust when the storm rages around you - we will constantly face the horrific storms of life and feel we may sink under the power of the waves and howling wind, but if we put our faith and trust in Him we may sink a bit but then find we actually have our feet on the rock. This happened with Sam, we found ourselves in a bleak sea of despair, fear and helplessness. I suppose what I am trying to say is that God is faithful and He is the rock and we can allow ourselves to sink into Him. It is easy to start feeling angry at God, and shout "WHY? WHY? WHY?" when it is happening. I think it is far harder to say "I still trust you despite feeling utter fear" but we found that trying to push through the fear to saying "God we trust you" enabled us to put our feet down on a rock in the middle of what felt like a tsunami.
The last amazing thing for us in the midst of this experience was the chain of prayer, love and support that flew around the planet. We could feel it and the facebook inbox is choc a block with over 100 messages from many different individuals, groups, countries and churches who joined with us and carried the prayer burden and interceded for Sam's life. What can we say except a simple, deeply heart felt thank you. We felt it and it was so comforting and we know it made a difference.
So, this has been our nearly first week! We have been to visit the new house and are excited about this next chapter but we are starting in a place of complete reliance on God and looking to Him to help us remain afloat!
With much love and thanks,
Emma, Glyn, Sam & Carys
