Matthew’s foot ordeal…

Last week, while I was in Ghana taking the Howards back to the airport, Matthew had some drama at home…

The boys were swimming in our back yard and Matthew cut his foot on a rusty old pipe. The cut was deep and didn’t bleed hardly at all (which at the time we thought was a good thing). Christine, the teachers and Koonces all helped at different time to clean the wound and bandage it up.

After looking at Matthew’s shot record we discovered that he was overdue for his tetanus shot! His last one was at 18 months old. Christine called our doctor in Lome but he was on vacation. What to do….?

We asked a close friend who is a doctor for advise and he suggested that Matthew needed the treatment for tetanus as well as the vaccine.

After a lot of thought and advise we decided that the Koonces would bring Christine and the boys down to Lome to meet me as I returned from Ghana and then we would go to the Baptist Hospital in Kpalime where American doctors could look at his foot.

Their advice and suggestion was the same, give the treatment for tetanus along with the vaccination.  So Matthew got three shots that day (not something he welcomed with great excitement!).

All is well now and his foot in on the mend. The cut probably needed stitches to keep from scarring, but now he will look “tough” with his scar… Tough is cool, right?

While we were with the doctors he also gave us treatment for something we might have picked up in Mali while we were swimming in a waterfall called Schistosomiasis. We’re all taking treatment now for it so all is well.

Thank you for praying for our safety. God has and continues to take good care of us.