Pray for Jonah!

Jonah needs your prayers! Jonah is about 8 years old and came to us the beginning of January with complaints of vomiting, headaches and some difficulty walking. It was obvious after my exam that Jonah has some sort of intracranial disease which is most likely to be a brain tumor or perhaps TB. When I suggested to the family to try to go to Pt. Moresby, the capitol city, where they could get a CT scan of his brain, they expressed that they would not have the means to get there. So, we started TB meds in the hopes that this was in fact TB. He was also started on Decadron, a corticosteroid, to help reducing the swelling. I expected at least some of the symptoms would be reduced if not by the TB medicines then by the steroids. Jonah did begin to feel better!! However, when the time came to begin reducing the steroids the symptoms got worse. He again developed head pain and vomiting. In my mind that pretty much sealed the diagnosis, he has a brain tumor and there would be nothing more that we could do.

By this time we were about 5-6 weeks into his treatment. We typically treat TB with an initial daily regiman of 4 drugs (we call this A regiman) and then reduce the treatment. We use the A regiman for 60 days. We, therefore, had only another 2+ weeks to go and so we decided to continue in the hopes that we might still see some favorable response.

The Lord answered our prayers and Jonah did begin to feel better again...even with reducing his steroids further!!!! On the 14th of this month (March) Jonah received the last doses of a 10 week course of A regiman ( I opted to treat a little longer with A regiman since he was slow to respond)and I allowed him to go home on B regiman ( a modified course).

I am having to rebuke Satan often as he tries hard to cast doubt in my mind as to whether what I have seen represents the beginning of complete healing for Jonah. Satan doesn't want us to believe that God has the power to heal but you and I know otherwise! Please pray with me that God will see fit to heal Jonah completely and that He will receive all the glory!!

Jonah is scheduled to follow up with me in the clinic on Wed. the 26th of this month.

Thank You,

Susan

Photo taken by Dr. Erin Meier