Maureen McGuckin in the villages

In a letter received 10 May 2004, Ed and Catherine write:

Greetings,
 
Our daughter Maureen and her friend Cathy Easton are about halfway through her six week 'patrol' in Papua New Guinea. We do not expect to hear from her until they have finished their travels, because the area in which they are walking is very remote with no phone, e-mail, or snail-mail services. Please continue to pray for them, especially for the following:

For Maureen and Cathy to work well together as a team.
 
That they will be able to support and encourage each other, since they will probably not see any people other than villagers during the six weeks they are traveling.
 
That they would be safe from any danger or spiritual attack.
 
That they will be healthy, especially that they will not come down with malaria or dengue fever.
 
That they will be strong in the Lord and find time to pray and tune in to His will in a very unstructured environment.
 
That there will be good cross-cultural communications with the village people. (Most of the people in these villages do not speak Gapapaiwa. These are different language groups from the area Maureen grew up.) 

That the people in the villages they are visiting will catch the excitement of learning to read and write in their own language.
 

That Maureen and Cathy will be able to accurately analyze the sounds in the languages they are visiting and will have wisdom in adjusting/improving the alphabets that they helped develop in workshops they gave there two years ago.
 
That there will be good cooperation from the people in the villages when they hold Writers' Workshops to help people practice literacy skills.
 That they will have chances to share the vision of having the Bible in one's own language with the people in these language groups.
 
That they will have chances to show the love of Jesus to the people they meet.
 
Thank you,
Ed & Catherine McGuckin    Below: a photo of Maureen and Cathy

----------Forwarded message ----------
From: "Ed McGuckin" 
Subject: Maureen is sick
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 08:32:32 -0500

Greetings,
We just got this e-mail from Maureen's friend Michael Smith. He works at Ukarumpa, our main center in PNG. We'll try to ring Maureen later today, when it isn't the middle of the night there. We'll let you know what is happening with her as soon as we know.

We're thankful that this occurred at Taupota, the first village on their route with road access to Alotau. If it had happened earlier in their trip she would have had no way out except walking.

Please continue to pray for her. And continue to pray for Cathy, doing the workshop without Maureen.

Thanks and blessings,
Ed and Catherine

*****************************************************
Hello,
Maureen went to Alotau [the provincial capitol] Tuesday afternoon.  She got sick in Taupota village and decided she would be better off going to Alotau rather than staying and being stressed out in the village and unable to contribute to the workshop.

She and Cathy arrived in Taupota a little ahead of schedule on Thursday last week.  On Friday she developed painful pink spots on her right knee, then her left, then the bottoms of her feet, then her legs, then her arms, and finally her face.  She also had something malaria-ish over the weekend.  Her eyesight is affected too, with blurriness, and she is not comfortable keeping her eyes open.  So today she left and went to Alotau, leaving Cathy to continue with the workshop.  Tomorrow [Thursday PNG time] she will go to the hospital to get checked out.

I spoke to Maureen briefly on the phone just now [Wednesday night].  She is feeling quite overwhelmed.  She did not want to talk for long.

Michael

From:  "Ed McGuckin" 
Subject:  Update on Maureen
Date:  Fri, 14 May 2004 09:50:31 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greetings,
Thank you for your prayers regarding Maureen. Here is the latest info from her, but no clear answer as to what she has. The oldest info is first with more recent ones below.
Ed and Catherine
******************************************
Hi Mom and Dad,
As you have heard, I'm sick. I'm completely worn out. I'm going to the hospital for the third time today, after I send this, to see if they have my lab results yet.
Love you,
Maureen
*********************************
The red blotches on my arms and legs  are slowly shrinking and fading. My elbows, nose and ears are just about back to normal. I can walk without pain now (it only feels like extra pressure on my feet), and I can see regular skin colour on the soles of my feet in between the red spots, instead of it being all red. My feet have stopped being swollen. My knee joints are still acting up though. It's very difficult to walk up and down stairs. On the surface, they have turned from pink to purple and ITCH. My eyes are fine.

Emotionally, I think 1 month must be the limit for me on non-stop cross-cultural interaction. (Do you know, in a standard PNG village house, no one expects to sleep straight through the night? And I didn't either.) In addition to the illness, I wasn't tolerating situations by the end.  I've been giving too much, to people whose world view I am required to adapt to. As a result I'm finding myself not handling communication with others very well. Not even positive communication. All I'm wanting at the moment is to be left alone.

Thank you all for you love, concern, and prayers,
-Maureen-

******************************
Since the blood test results are so long in arriving, I called and explained to Dr. Jean at our clinic [an American doc at Ukarumpa, our main center in PNG]. She advised that I take a course of penicillin. She said it could be a virus but it also sounded like it could be rheumatic fever, scarlet fever or a streptococcal infection, which can all be improved with a course of penicillin.

We'll see if/when the lab results come back. In contrast to Dr. Jean's thoughts, the doctor at the hospital informed me that I had migratory poly arthritis, and a platelet disorder causing bruising under the skin (ITPP). Very different!

***************************************************
I finally got the lab results this afternoon. Haemoglobin 17.2g/dl Platelets 208,000/c, malaria slide negative, ESR 17mm/hr, WhiteBloodCellCount 4,200, Differential Granulocytes 90%, Monocytes 4%, Lymphocytes 6% My blood pressure was 80/60!

Dr. Jeff [another American doc at Ukarumpa] called this afternoon after I'd phoned the results to a nurse at the Ukarumpa clinic. He said to continue the course of penicillin. He said, 'It's about as clear a mud what's happening here.'

-Maureen- 

From: 

"Ed McGuckin" 

Subject: 

Latest on Maureen

Date: 

Mon, 17 May 2004 08:28:03 -0500

Hello again,

Here's a bit more information from Maureen. Thank you for your prayers for her.

Ed and Catherine

****************************

Monday, 17 May

Dear Mum,

I am continuing to feel better. I still have faint red/purple spots on my knees, legs and arms, but they are fading. My elbows, ears, nose, and toes have stopped hurting, and stopped being red, altogether. My nose and ear are peeling now! My knees itched very very much for 3 days, but stopped today, and are just purple. I am so thankful to be feeling better. Now all that's left is to get rid of the tiredness, and get to the point of wanting company again.

I read the information Dad sent [on a possible diagnosis of Ross River Fever]. Thanks Dad! Very interesting. I also looked up other information online. So, what it says is that the streptococcal infection (such as strep throat) sometimes becomes a more wide spread infection, two versions of which are Rheumatic Fever and Scarlet Fever. What I got doesn't fit the symptoms of scarlet fever. But there are enough symptom  similarities between Rheumatic Fever and Ross River Fever, that until I can get more detailed information, I have to say it could be either of them, from the general symptoms I've had. 

-Maureen-

From: 

"Ed McGuckin" 

Subject: 

News from Maureen

Date: 

Tue, 18 May 2004 13:02:47 -0500

Greetings,

This is the latest from Maureen, sent to us Tuesday night and received Tuesday morning! Thanks again for your prayers.

Many blessings,

Ed and Catherine

************************************

Cathy returned today! She is well, though tired. She [was able to finish her work].

 

I cooked spaghetti for dinner. And we both ate lots and lots! Maybe I'll
gain back those 2 kg I lost this last month.

We'll start talking about travel arrangements tomorrow.


love,
-Maureen-

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