Dr Sue

I was approached by one of our church pastor's recently. He told me the story of his sister-in-law, who for over two years had been sick. Like the lady in the Bible, she too had seen many provincial doctors and spent all available money - with no improvement. Hopelessness now pervaded the family home. Please, could we help?

The sweet lady had a fever, a cough and significant weight loss. In Cambodia, that is as plain as a Kiwi kid who is covered in red spots. Yet, in two years, there had been no chest xray; no TB test. It gets a little disheartening - talk about 'take the money and run'!

TB was confirmed within a few days. It means a 6-month course on some pretty mean medications, but there is light again.

Inseperable - Kamein and Srey became best buddies when they met at the Healing Home. They were inseperable from both one another and from the little fluffy toys that Sue gave them - to keep. Kamein's mum had the 'mystery illness' that was plain as day to Sue. Srey came with her mum and brother; her brother is also a TB sufferer.

Abandon house!

Left, right and centre - top pic, we have the wedding in progress; 'kitchen' is in the foreground. Middle pic is party 2 - and right outside our front door is the chuka-chuka-chuka generator!

Weather-wise, the last couple of months have been mostly wonderful. Global warming which buried Europe under snow and shut down a hunk of eastern USA has also blessed us with wonderfully cooler temperatures. It makes such a difference, not living in a private, sweaty bath day after day.

However - and there is a however - this is also wedding season, housewarming season and generally 'let's roll out the tent on the street and have a party' season. There are plenty of businesses here that do just that - raise up a tent outside the hirer's house (they do it in sections, so it can be 5 metres long; it can be 45 metres long), fill the tent with chairs and tables; then raise up a second tent that operates as kitchen central. No street-party is complete without a generator and a sound system that is amped to shake the moon.

On Wednesday we saw that a double-blessing was coming our way. We were sandwiched in, with parties happening left and right - and generator outside the front door. I think there was a wedding to the left and a business-blessing party to the right. That was a serious party - a good 30 metres of tent there. I had to walk my little spider scooter through the middle of that gathering to get to work, as that's just not good form to do in a wedding tent!

Thursday started bright and early - 4.46am to be reasonably exact. Party 1 sound sytem kicked in with a yodelling monk. The amplifier was set at a modest 110 decibels. A couple of minutes later and Party 2 fired up their system. Party 1 still had plenty of knob-wind on their decibel dial. The competition was on. Sue was less than delighted.

We survived that night ok. Parties must not be hurried. Friday night, and the speakers were getting tested for maximum bass output. Sue had this hunted, haunted look in her eyes, like a lady not to be messed with. We abandoned house - off to friends who live just far enough away to be safe. Ahh, the serenity!

The fight for Saroun

These last 10 days hav been very difficult for a sweet young lady, Saroun. She is just 35 years old and suffering from serious heart failure. Sue's guess is that she has had high blood pressure for a couple of years at least, leading to heart enlargement and her present condition.

Saroun came to us with her sweet, poor village mum. Eight nights ago Saroun went into unconsciousness, resulting in a mid-night dash to an ICU. We got her back the next day and have continued to care for her. However, today Sue rightly judged that she was too sick to continue with us as we continue to live under the 'no dying permitted' ultimatum.

We succeeded in having her transferred thru' to CSI, a most excellent Christian clinic here in Phnon Penh. Now, CSI believe that her heart is so weak, it is unlikely she can continue to live. Late this afternoon Saroun has been taken by ambulance back to her home, about four hours from here. It is tough.

Sue with Saroun last night. We moved her into the front room so that our other patients did not get too disturbed.