Rumors 31 Aug 2012

Today we got a phone call that Ron, Dolores brother, had died but it was not from the hospital and was from the pastor of Jay church. He had been told that by some other people and was calling us to see if indeed it was true.  We had not heard anything like that before. We had talked to him at the house as he was leaving to drive to Oklahoma City for check up and probably get a tracheostomy as the tumor was incroaching on his airway. So it would have been possible to be true. We immediately called several people to find out. Dolores’ sister had not heard anything either.  We did not have the phone number of the OU Health Science Center or know which place to call but I did have the phone number of his oncologic radiologist and called there. His office was very helpful.  I had talked with him the day before. They said according to the hospital census he was still alive and transferred me to the hospital ICU and found that Ron had a trach done Thur. and was being moved to regular room 426 today. He is scheduled for some palliative radiation Sept. 4. Through various phone calls we did trace where the rumor came from, an older person that gets a bit confused sometimes. So Ron is still alive but needs our prayers. We had thought we would have to cut short our visit to Texas with our son in order to go back and help take care of arrangements but was not the case.
There was another rumor that we came home because I was dying with malaria which of course was not true at all. I had had malaria in April but recovered with treatment. We are alive and well now. There was another rumor previously that I had malaria and was too sick to be moved home. When I had malaria I continued to work doing surgeries while I was taking the treatment. 
We are still planning to head back to Chad Sept 24.  Be sure to look at recent blogs at  www.missionarydoctors.blogspot.com to see what it is like there now with floods.
Love,  Rollin and Dolores
Our emails are: drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland@gmail.com 
Our address:  Hopital Adventist de Bere, 52 Boite Postale, Kelo, Chad, Afrique