When Elise broke her leg 2 1/2 weeks ago, the doctor in Wenatchee told us that when a baby wears a cast, you never know what she might put down the cast. For example, he said a penny could burn a hole in a baby's skin in just a couple of weeks, so he recommended that every two weeks we take Elise in to have her cast cut off, have her skinned examined, then have a new cast put on. However, now that I'm in China this simple sounding task is a little more complicated, first because of the language barrier, second because we've never been to a hospital here in Wuhan because we just moved here, and third, because often Western and Eastern medicine are different so I wasn't sure what the Chinese doctor would think of the whole situation.
Thankfully, we have a friend in Wuhan who is an American and a pediatrician. She doesn't practice here, but she did recommend the best hospital in town to us. After seeing the name of the hospital, Wuhan University Hospital, I realized it was the hospital where one of my former students from 2004 is currently studying as a 4th-year medical student!! His English name is Ron. He is a dear friend and also a Brother. I quickly called him, and he happily agreed to help us. We were so thankful to our Father for His perfect care in arranging this whole situation.
So Tuesday our family spent the afternoon at the hospital with Ron. The only glitch was that we showed up too soon after lunch and the doctor was still out to lunch, but after the doctor arrived the whole process went very quickly! He was very patient as Ron translated everything and as we pulled up the x-ray of Elise's leg on a cd on my little netbook. But, just as I had imagined, the doctor didn't want to cut her cast off, so instead he ordered her to have an x-ray just to make sure there was nothing stuck down her cast damaging her skin. (Sorry, Mom Peggy!) After viewing these new x-rays, the doctor said the fracture was very small, it was healing well, and that Elise could walk on her cast!! That was great news because Elise already has been walking on her cast, so this at least gave us some relief that whenever Elise does hop up and start walking before we can grab her and sit her back down, at least she won't be damaging her leg. He said 4 more weeks in the cast and again, not to be worried if she walks on it a bit. He then said we didn't need to return to the big hospital at that time, but that we could just go to a smaller hospital to have her cast taken off at that time. He was a very kind doctor, and the whole experience was really pleasant overall. Plus, we got the chance to visit with our dear friend, Ron!
So thanks for all your thoughts on behalf of Elise. They've been answered!! Our Father has been faithful to minister to her little body, and her spirit has not been destroyed. ( : She's still going strong. I'm sure she'll be thrilled though when the whole ordeal is finally over so she can play outside on the playground and take a bath without a tight bag on her leg!
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