Last Tuesday morning in Santarem I began having extreme pain in the area of my right kidney. The pain became so intense that I was admitted to the hospital and put on strong IV anti-inflammatory and pain medicine. (For those of you who have experienced kidney stones, you can probably sympathize with me!) The doctors thought I had a kidney stone but an ensuing ultrasound Wednesday morning showed nothing. I felt much better and was released from the hospital believing that whatever had been there was flushed out.
On Thursday, Becky and I flew to Fortaleza where we planned to take advantage of the trip and spend a couple of days at a nearby beach to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary (it was June 12). I would then be preaching at our Fortaleza church on Sunday and we would be having meetings on Monday and Tuesday with a number of church leaders to discuss the growth of PAZ around Brazil.
During those days at the beach, I again began experiencing waves of pain but controlled them with oral medications the doctor had prescribed before leaving Santarem. However, on the drive back from the beach to Fortaleza on Saturday, excruciating pain began to dominate my body. We went to the emergency room where I was again given IV medications to ease the pain. I returned to the hospital this morning for an ultrasound which showed no stone in the kidney but some swelling of the kidney. I was then given a CAT scan which revealed a large stone stuck in the ureter just above the bladder. It has apparently been there since Tuesday, so I was admitted to the hospital and tomorrow they are going to go in with a laser to break up and remove the stone. They will also put in a catheter between the kidney and bladder to allow the kidney to freely drain and minimize any chance of infection. That will stay in for about a week.
The surgery is scheduled for Monday around 11am Eastern Daylight Time. Would you please pray with us for complete healing of this condition? We are scheduled to fly back to Santarem Tuesday night and the hospital there can remove the catheter next week.
I’ll write again after the surgery. Thank you so much for your prayers!
