Back Home in Quito

We arrived safely back home in Quito around 10 p.m. on Thursday evening.   The trip was fairly uneventful with no delays. It is good to be back!  It seems as though we have been gone quite a while even though it has really only been a little bit over two weeks.   We’ve already got Spanish lessons setup for next week as we feel really out of it not speaking Spanish for a couple of weeks.   We should have got more Mexican food while we were in the States!

To give one more update on Ruthie, she still cannot swallow and it’s looking like it is going to be a little while.   She still has a lot of swelling in her neck.   The main treatment to regain her ability to swallow is providing small amounts of electrical current to her throat muscles, but before they can begin this treatment, swelling must go down.   She has an appointment with the doctor on the 28th of this month and hopefully he will clear her then to begin this treatment.   We don’t know how long after she begins this treatment that it will hopefully start working and she will regain her ability to swallow.

This, of course, is discouraging as she must remain eating through the feeding tube in her stomach until she can regain the ability to swallow.   In addition to this, she has a very large brace on her neck (you can see it of the picture of her on the blog) which she must wear until the bone graft, which was done on her third vertebrae, heals completely.   They want her to wear the brace for four months to ensure it is fully healed.  As you can imagine, one cannot lay down wearing a brace like this so sleep remains difficult.

We just wanted to share a little bit more because we know that you all have been praying for Ruthie and this helps to know exactly how to pray.   As we have already shared before, Ruthie has mentioned so often how she feels that it’s been the prayers of others and God’s response to those prayers and the overall support of everyone that has gotten her through this whole ordeal.   So, on behalf of Ruthie, thank you so very, very much!!!

Mom and dad were so thankful that we came.  We were able to help a great deal.  Probably, the biggest support for them was helping them get over the hump of getting everything figured out once Ruthie was released from the hospital.  There was definitely a lot medications and processes to work out with taking care of her and so it was good to get a system in place.  As you could imagine, Kim was very, very helpful in this regard.  Mom and dad were so thankful she was there.  And Simeon also provided a good reason to smile amidst all the difficulties.