Sharing our story

[Guest guest]

Dear folks,

Our baby Isaac who was born in Taiwan this July 27 has clubfeet -a

kind of congenital foot deformity needed medical intervention right

after the birth. Believe it or not, we didn't experience such a

shock or desperate sorrow from his feet situation. From our six

times of ultrasound, we didn't get a tiny piece of news about any

kind of deformity like harelip or more-than-ten-fingers (my medical

dictionary is not at hand) or something else. In our heart we

believed that God would undoubtedly give us a perfect baby (now we

understand Isaac is a perfect baby God has promised to us). When our

baby showed up with a pair of twisted inward abnormal feet we just

had the faith that God will definitely heal him. And we simply

believed that the treatment was just some massages at home in our

leisure time (you know I am a ENT doctor but our male midwife said

so). Later we realize that since God gave us a baby like that He

must have some deeper purposes. If we had learned that how many

troublesome moments were waiting for us on the way we could have had

lost our heart and not have been so optimistic. Thank God using our

poor knowledge on this field to protect us and keep His joy and

peace in our heart.

So we went to see a orthopedic doctor in Taiwan and started the

treatment there. After four times of weekly changing casts we saw a

lot of progress. Yet God was not satisfied with the doctor (if you

are a Taiwanese I am sorry to say that. I didn't mean to despise

your medical caring level since the situation in China mainland are

even worse). Actually He prepared a perfect doctor for us. When we

had to stop our treatment in Taiwan because of my leaving from job

expired and needed to go back to China, we horribly found that we

could not find even one qualified doctor in this area to handle our

baby's situation.

Later on, we started surfing the internet looking for relevant

information fanatically and meanwhile went a couple of times to

Kunming meeting some experts who twisted our little baby's tiny feet

harshly (when they did that I felt my heart being squeezed) and

promised that if we did it their way and wore their magic splint

boots our son would be cured. Fortunately the searching of internet

ended up finding one qualified doctor in Shanghai of China where is

about two thousand kilos from Yunnan and another one in Bangkok of

Thailand. If you learned how inconvenient to see a doctor in China

and how terribly high price of the accommodation in Shanghai are you

would agree that we went to Bangkok is a wise decision. Currently we

have stayed in Bangkok about a month (mostly Melody, and I went back

and forth). The doctor God has prepared for us is called Dr. Amnuay.

If you log in the website WWW.clubfootclub.org you would find his

name on the qualified doctor list, who uses Ponseti method to treat

clubfoot. The Ponseti method is the most popular and the most

effective nonsurgerical way to treat clubfoot. Dr. Amnuay explained

that the main part of treatment consists of manipulation, serial

casting, heel cord cut and wearing brace. For correcting the

deformity,the manipulation must be done on the right way to avoid

making the feet worse, called rocking bottom, which is a situation

that cannot be corrected. Now we understand why God led us to

Bangkok for treatment because the doctor said if Isaac's feet were

continuously manipulated in Taiwan and in China, Isaac's feet would

unavoidably become worse.

In Bangkok, Isaac has had five times of weekly casting. Actually we

joke ourselves by calling the cast the most fashioned long stocks

for baby. His feet showed an over-corrected look, which is the

treatment trying to achieve. This Tuesday, we had the Achilles

tendon cut under local anesthesia. The Tuesday before, Dr. Amnuay

said that he was going to do the tenotomy under general anesthesia,

but Melody wasn't comfortable with that. Last Wednesday Isaac

started a cough and a runny, stuffed nose. While the cold was

getting worse, we eventually went to see a pediatrician who

diagnosed our son as acute bronchitis and called a cancel of the

Tuesday surgery. Since we have been prepared for this point for a

long time, we are disappointed of the postpone. We went back to the

Baptist guest house and prayed to our lord. After prayer, we got

peace in mind and still prepared for the surgery as scheduled. You

know, just as we wished, the surgery was done on Tuesday under local

anesthesia. It's a very small surgery that the main purpose is to

cut his heel cords. I was invited into the operating

room so that I was able to help out with something like holding

Isaac's feet and leg while the doctor was putting on the casts.

Meanwhile I took some picture also. It's not a scary scene at all.

You may say that it's because I am a doctor. But don't forget that I

am his father, who is never able to play a doctor's role in the

family. The operation is a simple procedure. Because the cut is so

small that the doctor described it as a mosquito bite (if you have

seen the swellen and redness on Isaac's forehead and arms of the

mosquitoes bite you would say that it is not small at all ) you are

hardly able to recognize the cut after three or four weeks later

when the cast is taken off. According to our doctor, this surgery

was successful. He said that he could not promise a 100% of cure to

Isaac's situation, at least a chance like 90% up. But as you may

know, we do not count on the doctor's skill or statistic figure. It

is Lord who we place our faith on. He will heal our son and use him

to bless many nations because it is His promise. Praise His name.

It's totally out of our expectation, especially as a Chinese, that

our doctor and his wife are going to treat us for dinner this Friday

evening. He said that he is a serious Buddhist for 4 or 3 years but

interested in discussing religion with us. The dinner is based on

friendship instead of a relationship of doctor and patient, but we

still cann't figure out how we deserve his friendship. Anyway, we

prepared a Thai-English Bible for him as a gift, thinking that the

Gospel is the best gift. So please pray for this, asking God give us

a chance to convert him. Here are more prayer requests, listed as

the followings:

-- It has been a long time that I felt like to resign from my

present job, which has been keeping me from my family and the

serving field, but hard to make the final decision. However, to take

care of our baby's feet problem needs to leave my work for quite a

long time. It's hard for me to stay in that position any longer. God

uses the situation and His own words (Corinthians I 7:23-You were

bought at a price;do not became slaves of man) to call me to serve

Him in a different way. So please pray for the prcedure of

resignation may work out smoothly without irritating my employers.

-- After the resignation, I intend to run a clinic to support my

family, and at the same time the clinic can also be a media to reach

and serve the people in need. Pray Lord to prepare the place, the

financial support, medical equipments, and two to three doctors and

nurses with the same vision as partners.

-- Pray that we can surrender ourselves more to follow Jesus and

always be submissive to Lord's words.

-- Continue to pray for our son Isaac's treatment. Pray that his

feet can be in a proper position when the casting is finished and

the brace he needs to wear for the following 3 to 4 years will be

all set and fits his feet perfectly.

-- Pray that my body weight is not increasing as fast as my baby is.

Also pray that Lord may heal my heel pain due to the flat feet and

always holding Isaac's eight kilo(19.6 pounds) chubby body.

For the easiness of your concentration, I will just stop here with a

grateful heart. Thank you for your participation in our life through

your spiritual and financial support. May God¡¦s presence of peace,

joy, strength and contentment encourage you each day in all He has

you doing.

Many thanks, appreciation and love,

,Melody & Isaac

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