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Kasalehlia! We are the Kihleng family and we are missionaries to the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. This blog is to keep friends and family (and whoever else is interested!) updated on what we are doing in the islands. So check back here often to see updates on our ministry as well as our ever growing family!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Kaylinn's Medical Situation

Some of you I'm sure are already aware of what is going on with us and our little girl, Kaylinn, but I'm going to go ahead and explain the entire story here for those who are just hearing the news.  Most of you may remember her choking incident last November.  Though she coughed up a piece of plastic at the time and seemed fine after that, since then she has had many episodes of choking, gagging, and even her breathing stopping for a time.  It would terrify us at the time and then as she would recover she would seem fine.  Our doctor always just told us to keep observing.  This summer though the amount of episodes increased considerably - sometimes she is awake when it happens and it appears she is choking on something; other times she is asleep and we find her blue and not breathing.  Her pediatrician is now pretty concerned about it and the possible causes.  She has named a number of possible causes including the possibility that she may have NOT coughed up everything lodged back in November or even could have developed a cyst.  She has now referred us to a specialist off island.  We have tickets now for Wednesday, September 7th to leave for Hawaii (that is Tuesday for those of you stateside) and Kaylinn will have her first appointment that afternoon at 1:30.  We are told she will be seeing 3 different teams of specialist during our time there and they will determine what should be done after our initial consultation on Wednesday.  

Specific prayer requests at this time:

  1. A safe and uneventful trip to Hawaii - there is always the concern she could stop breathing again while on the plane.
  2. Wisdom and guidance for the doctors that will be seeing her.
  3. That Lord willing, it will be a minor problem, easily fixed.
  4. Specifically, that the issue will NOT be a congenital problem as if this is the case, our insurance will NOT cover any of the testing and treatment.  We believe the issue is related to her choking incidence and that this will not be a problem.  
  5. And pray as well for our 4 children staying behind on Pohnpei and the church families that have so willingly offered to stay with them and take care of things here for us.  
We will keep you updated here on the blog as often as possible over the next weeks.  We do not know at this point how long we will be in Hawaii.  The Patient Referral Representative in Hawaii told us it could be anywhere from 1-2 weeks or longer, there is really no way of estimating until they have more of an idea of what her problem is.  Meanwhile, Kaylinn is doing well.  She seems fine during the day, pretty much as if nothing is wrong.  But then she will just randomly stop breathing and we never have any warning signs of when it's going to happen.  We can't leave her alone for a second, even while she is sleeping.  Needless to say, I haven't had much sleep!  

Thank you for praying!  Please check back here for updates!  

4 comments:

Mark said...

we'll continue to pray. D' Luceros.

Dana said...

We're praying for your sweet Kaylinn. Praying for strength for all of you.
Prayerfully,
Mark and Dana McCutchen
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Lynn said...

We will be praying!

Deborah said...

We are praying for you guys for safe traveling mercies and for wisdom for the specialists for answers for your little girl!
Gerald and Deborah Tilson