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In Quito Again

The following was written on Saturday, but not posted because internet access options changed unexpectedly:

Well, where to start. It's Saturday and I'm back in Quito, this time with Taylor. We came up this morning with Sandy and Trish. Ellyn has been up here all week with Dustin and much has happened.

On Tuesday Dustin went to an office outside the hospital for an MRI of his knee. Those images revealed an infection in the femur. On Wednesday Dustin went into surgery again. Unlike the arthroscopic surgery of the week before, this time the doctor made a three inch incision on the inside of the right knee and drained the infected bone. Dustin has been making good progress ever since. Today marks his third day without a fever, and when we saw him today he looked so much better. In fact when Tay and I walked up to the front of the hospital at 1 PM, Ellyn and Dustin were sitting out front, enjoying the sun. I was surprised to see he wasn't in a wheel chair, but using crutches.

Right now he's on the bed taking his IV antibiotics and making something with some construction paper. Quite a few people in Shell gave gifts for me bring up today. He started with some physical therapy this morning and the therapist will be back this afternoon. It sounds like if he does well with the therapy he may be able to go home on Monday. Earlier we had been told Wednesday was the day he would be released, so this is good news.

I was able to get back to work this past week. Getting back to Shell on Sunday was a bit hard. I was tired from spending five days in the hospital, and it was hard leaving Dustin in Quito knowing he wasn't well and that we still didn't know what was causing the fever. On top of that, Taylor was out of sorts because our family life had been turned on it's head. By Monday though, he and I had settled into a routine. Trish arranged for people to bring evening meals to us and that was a huge help. I would come home each day at 3 PM with Taylor and do his homework with him. He would then go to a friend's house to play and I'd head back to work for an hour. Friday was a holiday, so we slept in and then had pancakes. After that he went to a friend's house to play and I went to work for the day. In the afternoon on Friday he made a gingerbread house with Molly and her kids. It's quite an impressive house!

Ellyn is going to take a break from the hospital the next couple nights and stay in one of the mission guest houses. Shrek has finally made it to Quito. Maybe I'll take Dustin to see it tomorrow, even though the boys saw the movie when we were home this summer. Even if I don't, we'll work on getting Dustin up and around more so he can build up his strength. It's going to take a while after two weeks of laying in a hospital bed. The Lord has been good to our family. Despite the hardships there have been blessings, and He has always been with us, and always holding our right hand.