After the bible study, a boy came running over to his mom, complaining of a bug bite on his leg. Jenn eagerly said, “Oh, we have two nurses with us.” Luis showed us his leg—unfortunately, his leg was infected and swollen.
He appeared to have an abscess on the side of his calf with redness and swelling covering a large portion of his leg. “That needs to be drained,” I said. Taylor agreed.
Before we knew it, we had all the necessary equipment for the procedure; we even found a lollipop for this dear boy. He knew it was going to hurt, but we promised relief once we were done. With many people holding him down, we drained his abscess. After about 10 minutes of agony, we were done. After he calmed down, he said his leg was no longer painful (except with touch)!!
We dressed his wound and shared with the family how to keep it clean and covered.
Two days later, we returned to check Luis’ leg. It looked better but it was still hard and inflamed. Taylor and I weren’t sure we needed to redo the procedure, but we prayed against further infection and we left him until the next follow-up. However, his father had rolled his ankle that morning. His wife left the day we drained of the procedure for a month-long trip out of the country, and dad was caring for his five children, including a little girl with cerebral palsy who needs CONSTANT support. We prayed for healing for his ankle, expecting the injury to not interfere with his fatherly duties. He didn’t have much relief.
Today (two days after the last checkup), nobody was home when we arrived to check on father and son. However, as we walked back to the truck, they came walking back. Dad was walking WITHOUT a limp!! He said his ankle is fine!!! Praise the Lord! We also checked Luis’ leg—it looked better than it did 2 days ago, convincing Taylor and I that another procedure would not be necessary!
It was awesome to see how the Lord provided these healings and kept Luis’ infection from worsening, despite the dirty living conditions. It was also amazing that I got to use my medical knowledge and help a little boy in Nicaragua!! I felt so blessed, and it has quenched my thirst for my job as a medic—for now, anyways….
