23 Aug 12

     Good news!!!  I had the CT this morning and a consultation with the urologist, Dr. Richard Herlihy, this afternoon.  I am not having the pain as before but there is still some microscopic hematuria but not grossly bloody as it was a week ago. The  CT did not show a stone!!!!  The urologist is a very busy man but made arrangements to see me almost immediately.  He also gave me some special gadgets to help dilate strictures which I’m sure we can use fairly frequently in Bere.  We got into Oklahoma City last night at 10:00 pm.  Yesterday was our wedding anniversary and we spent nearly the whole day in the air leaving N’Djamena, Chad Tues. night. We were thankful for the Adventist Medical Aviation plane and pilot Gary Roberts who was able to fly us to N”Djamena on Monday.  All the “roads” around Bere are impassable because of high water and mud.  They say it is the most rain in 40 years. The internet service has not been functional for the past week and the phones don’t work much of the time.  The last phone call from there today said the hospital census was low and little to do for patients as no one can get in or out.    
     Now that we are here we plan to stay about a month to be sure all is well and do some visitation and relaxation. I am to see Dr. Herlihy again in a week to see if the hematuria has cleared and how I feel. There are some things we need to do at home that we did not have time to take care of at all before we left in such a hurry in Jan.  No, we still have not received our container of goods from here yet but it is impossible to be delivered for at least 2 months until the rains let up and it begins to dry up somewhat. Olen and Danae plan to take their annual leave during Nov and Dec.  My French needs to improve a lot yet.  We plan to take our annual leave next June and July and go home via East through Thailand, Cambodia, and China.  Our oldest granddaughter, Rachel, is in Ubon, Thailand as a student missionary teaching English as a 2nd language.  
     Maybe I am a “slacker” but the pain was so intense and we found a way home to get it checked out.  See Danae’s blog.  Maybe this week at church I can give a talk about a moving stone versus the solid Rock and Matt 16 etc.  Moving stones can be very painful but Jesus wants to be broken on the Solid Rock and be ready to meet Him when he comes for His children.  
Our email is: drbland@sbclobal.net and dfbland@gmail.com  
Our address  is: Hopital Adventiste de Bere, 52 Boite Postale, Kelo, Chad, Afrique. 
Love,  Rollin and Dolores