For the past 10 days, morning and night, the great and sweet MTC physical therapists have been working with Sister Anderson's knee--trying to keep the pain bearable and the swelling down. Nothing much changed and they finally said,"We are treating the symptoms, not the cause. You need to see the doctor." The doctor's PA at home had said she thought it was a sprain. Sprains take a while to heal, but even we could see we were getting nowhere. Still, without these sweet kids insisting, Sister Anderson would probably not have gone to a doctor. She figured she was just impatient.
Yesterday, we saw a highly recommended doctor. He did an Xray. Then he came in, looked into
Sister Anderson's eyes and said, "Your knee is gone. You need a replacement. You cannot fulfill your assignment until it is fixed." She needs to go home for the needed surgery. She was devastated. He showed us the xray--it is bone on bone with cysts developing from the pressure. And, to make matters worse, the other knee is almost as bad. He explained that the medical care and expertise she needs is not available in Argentina.
The senior missionary coordinator had driven us to the appointment. We brought her in and he explained it all to her. He said we would need to get a doctor who does about 200-300 knee replacements a year; this is too important a joint to leave to anyone but an expert. Recovery time is very individual--6 weeks to 6 months. She will need physical therapy. Then he gave her a cortisone injection-which has helped the pain considerably. He is very knowledgable; we trust his diagnosis completely.
Sister Buchanan said this is not an unusual situation. Missionaries, young and senior, have to go home for various reasons all the time. There is a protocol in place. She had a few examples of people whose lives had literally been saved by discovery of medical problems while at the MTC. One of the men in our small training group is in the hospital right now having had emergency surgery for a problem that would have killed him had it happened in the Congo where he was due to go the next day.
That afternoon, we met with President Cardon, the MTC branch president. He was most encouraging and soothing. Once we get a clean bill of health, we can go back on our mission--probably to the same area. He assured us that all would be well and that this should be looked on as a blessing in disguise--what if we had been in Argentina when it happened?
So we feel at peace. We have been advised to keep the blog going as we relate how we try to stay mission-focused during the next few months. We will be officially released, but in our hearts we are still on a mission. Just taking a detour. We will put our hands in Heavenly Fathers' and trust that He is in charge. Whatever He wants us to learn from this is part of His plan and will bring us closer to being what He--and we--wants us to be.
We will be home tomorrow. Sorry, Leslie, Harmony, Tyler and Julie. Please remember us in your prayers. We love you all and are grateful for your support. We are not going to be of much use to anybody during this time. We will be focused on correction, recovery, and gettin' back out there