Persevere (St. Paul); Never Give Up (Churchill)

Cheri's blog last week ended with her hope to endure her Dr.'s appointment for the next morning. Much has happened since.

Before that, in recent months, I had become "conscious" of something about her that before was just background noise. When puttering around the house doing chores with typical multi-tasking aplomb, she is always humming a tune. I learned pretty much to ignore it. The song is usually one from something we had sung in the past, an anthem from Sunday or some new hymn we learned at the seminary. At times, she gets stuck on one and it annoys even her. But then, we all get tunes stuck in our heads from time to time. A week ago today, I noticed that the songs were gone.

By the end of last Sunday, we decided, along with our family and closest friends, to send her home. I did not give thought then to the reality that she was in no condition to ride an hour in the car, much less about 20 hours on airplanes. But we were in a very difficult place, seeing few options. The hope for a turn-around was waning.

Monday morning, she summoned what remaining energy left to ride 45 minutes to her Dr. In Durban. He took one look and said he is sending her to the hospital. This is not really the best place for someone with latex allergies and few defenses left. He wanted to have her admitted by a dermatologist. An appointment was obtained promptly. Within a few minutes we were in the waiting room of a large dermatology practice reconciling ourselves to the idea of hospitalization. Her skin was inflamed - the color of a pomegranite. Wrapped in sweaters, she looked like a street person. The office staff kept looking at her, puzzled. Soon we were shown to an examining room.

There we were met by an associate in the practice, Dr. Hoosen, a lovely young Indian woman. Gentle and calming, she put us more at ease. Her working diagnosis was severe eczema. She prescribed several medicines - prescription, OTC and those made at the office. To rule out cancer, she took a piece of skin for a biopsy. She did not think it was what we thought it was, the Stephens-Johnson syndrome. We were a little encouraged.

Next morning, Cheri said, "I feel better already." The itching had diminished. She slept better. Things looked promising.

At 8am Tuesday morning, I answered the phone. It was the Dr.'s office. "When can you be here? Dr. Naidoo is coming in from his sabbatical to see you." First thought - is this terrible or promising? I woke Cheri up and we were in Durban about 90 minutes later.

Enter Dr. Rajan Naidoo, sophisticated, elegant dresser and charming. The biopsy showed that she has psoriasis, a common skin ailment that, for most people, appears in their thirties and forties. It is mostly genetic and can be managed. Dr. Naidoo was unlike any other physician either of us had encountered. He was encouraging, worked with us as a team, made us feel part of the plan, affirmed us at every step. Cheri and I thought about the same thing - all the prayers coming from so many different directions. Dr. Naidoo said that prayer is what brought him in that day.

Within the next day or two, the songs returned. They will never be annoying again.

Praise God.