It all started with the AMBULANCE!

I was at the airport where Emily & I had taken Mike Sawyer for his departing flight, only to find out that it was delayed by 7 hours, when I received a call from Joyce frantically asking me to come home immediately. I could tell by her voice that something was wrong. She told me she couldn't breathe, couldn't stand, her legs hurt, she was dizzy, and her heart was beating very rapidly and strongly. I immediately thought 'heart attack' and yelled to Mike, who was still in line, to wait for me at the airport...I had to go to Joyce!

Jumping into the car and heading back to town I quickly realized it was the height of the morning rush traffic and I was headed in the wrong direction...I would never get there in time. I called a doctor friend, Margarita, and ask her to call an ambulance and send it to our house...which she did.

The traffic wasn't going to allow me to get to house in time to take the kids to school either, so I called our tutor, Dahlia, and had her call a taxi to take the kids to school. Finally I arrived at the house and the ambulance was still here and Joyce was sitting on the couch with the attendants working on her. Her heart had slowed and after checking her pressure and pulse they felt certain it wasn't a heart attack, but that they needed to get her to the hospital immediately to find out what the cause was.

Her blood test at the hospital quickly revealed a problem...her red cells, platlets, and hemaglobin were all drastically low and they had been perfect just 10 days earlier. The doctors decided to do an immediate endoscsopy and it revealed a bleeding gastric ulcer. While they were doing the test I had to run back to the airport to get Emily & Mike and return them to the house. Then it was right back to the hospital where the doctor showed me the results...he had injected medicine directly into the ulcer and then place rubber bands around it that would slowly starve it to death and cause it pass through the system. There was also a problem with some clots in the stomach.

Now I had to leave the hospital and go to the school to pick up the kids and get them home for lunch. After lunch it was back to the hospital where the doctor told me everything went well...he didn't believe the ulcer was cancerous, but would do another scope in 3-6 weeks to determine if a biopsy was necessary. He also told me there may be complications such as bleeding and perforations but he wouldn''t know that for a day or two.

Leave the hospital, go home, make a grocery list and head to PriceMart. Return to the house, unload the groceries, and back to the hospital to check on Joyce. She's out of the recovery room and in a room of her own and is resting; although she is very uncomfortable.

Back to the house, get the kids fed, the girls ready for their dance recital which starts tonight, call a cab to take them and soon I'll head back to the hospital to visit with Joyce. Thankfully Emily is here to take care of the other children...a God thing!

Please stay in prayer for Joyce to regain her strength...she is our strength!