Our plans changed this month when I, Vanessa, had an accident, and fell nearly ten feet off of a ladder at another missionary’s building site. I have broken my arm, and bruised my leg, which then a few days later turned into a massive hematoma and three blood clots, two of which are deep vein thromboses. It could have been so much worse having fallen from such a height! I am so very grateful for God’s protection.
There is no useful emergency care in this jungle city of ours, so when we went to town to get x-rays, they told me that my arm was not broken. From past experiences, we knew not to trust their medical opinion whatsoever. To their credit though, we couldn’t see any obvious breaks either. Vann took a picture of the x-rays and sent them to Dr. Cole and his team, who from an iPhone photo of a handheld x-ray against the sky diagnosed exactly the location and severity of the break. Amazing skills. My arm will heal without a cast or surgery! After a week and a half of immobilizing it in a brace, I am now free to start moving it as much as possible – of course without any weight bearing - for six weeks. As far as breaks go, this is possibly the very least that could have happened. Praise God!
At first, the bruise on my leg wasn’t even a blip on my radar compared to the pain in my arm. For three days I was walking around, trying my best to participate in life with one arm, but on the fourth morning that changed drastically. As I was getting out of bed, I swung my feet to the floor and instantly recognized that pain. It was intense, and oh too familiar.
Ten years ago I had a surface vein thrombosis where, an entire vein in my leg shut down completely. It seemed that nothing out of the ordinary had happened that might cause a clot to form, but probably had something to do with my Fibromyalgia/Adrenal Fatigue symptoms of low blood volume and low blood pressure, and poor circulation. Back then, we found the one machine in Pucallpa that could diagnose what was happening in my leg. The doctor gravely informed us that it was “a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), my life was in danger, and I needed to fly to Lima immediately!” Of course, it frightened us. We believed that at any moment I could die. Under the advice of my doctors in the States, I took Coumadin, and was very still for three days, and then flew to Lima. The amazing doctor there, who happens to be the top cardiovascular surgeon in Peru, took one look at my leg with his portable Doppler ultrasound machine and told us that while my condition was intensely painful and unusual, it was not a DVT, and my life was not in imminent danger. I did however have to take blood thinners for four months.
So, this time around we didn’t even bother going to the doctor in Pucallpa. Vann put me on Coumadin for three days, and then took me to Lima to see the same doctor. The diagnosis unfortunately, was a bit different. I have three clots; two DVT’s and one surface clot that is about four inches long, and a massive hematoma. The treatment is the same however; I will be taking blood thinners for four months, and wearing a compression sock.
Living where we do, and working like we do is a risk, but God has already taken care of every detail. He provided every bit of advice from our precious doctors in the States who take their time to try to help us long distance, and the exact professionals that we needed on this side of the world. God is so good.
Doctor Cole’s team was just here and able to take a look at my arm, and Vann’s shoulder. Vann has struggled for several months now with a debilitating pain in his shoulder. It feels like it’s coming out of joint if he moves it a certain way, but has continued to work through it all. The doctor says that there is visible damage to his shoulder, but nothing severe enough to require surgery. Praise God! He should be resting it with heat and gentle exercises. That’s not going to happen because it’s Vann Brock we’re talking about here. He doesn’t stop. He works through constant kidney stone pain and migraines anyway, so just add chronic joint pain to the list. I pray for extra grace for him daily. He stays so kind through all of his long years of pain and hard work. I am so very blessed to work with him, and learn from him. Please help me pray for him.
The building project continues without me. Vann has had a double load on him with the construction, and having to take care of me and the family all at once, so progress has slowed down a bit this month. We have been very blessed by our missionary family here that has taken care of the children while we were in Lima, sent us meals when we returned, and have even provided our children their lunches at school so that Vann didn’t have to worry about one more thing. Have I mentioned how blessed we are?
The children went back to school this month! We were in Lima for their first day, so we missed that send-off, but are grateful for friends that are family to care for them and take pictures for us. Corynn is a freshman in high school!!! Ethan is in 8th grade, and Clara is in 5th! Over the summer we started going through an apologetics course with them to dig into why we believe what we believe. We are so very proud of our precious children, and how they are each growing in their walk with God.
Thank you so very much for all of your prayers and care for us. We couldn’t be here without your support. We pray for you, giving thanks to God for the privilege of living and serving here in Peru.
Physical brokenness, and my helplessness to accomplish anything on my own is a clear reminder that I should walk in brokenness, so that the only thing being accomplished through me is the mighty work of God. ~Vanessa Brock