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We found out Sunday that the 6 or 7 year-old (I forget which) son of two dear friends of ours picked up something in a parking lot on Friday. It turned out to be a diabetes testing lancet, with which he proceeded to cut/stab himself. The wound in and of itself was not serious, but it was a used lancet. After a few days of bouncing around to a couple of emergency rooms and finally, yesterday, their family doctor, they have been advised to put Joel on a series of antibiotics and antiviral treatments focused primarily at preventing HIV and/or Hepatitis infection.

Not only are HIV and hepatitis major concerns, but the medicines themselves have some serious side effects, which is one of the reasons it took a few days to conclude that that was shat they needed to do. Within an hour of his first dose of one of the meds, Joel was throwing up, and he'll have to take this med twice a day for 4 weeks. Another med he has to take right before bedtime, because it is known to cause hallucinations (so, if he's asleep, maybe he won't remember the worst of them, or maybe he'll have the worst nightmares of his young life). It looks right now like he cannot take anything to help with these side-effects, either, as these meds are incompatible with virtually every other medicine on the market, even Tylenol.

Please pray that Joel will not have any life-threatening infections. Please pray that the side effects of the meds can be managed, somehow. Please pray for his parents, Chris and Amy, and his little Brother that they will be able to deal with this situation and help him through it. Pray that my family will have the strength and wisdom to know how we can help them through this trying time.

And please teach your children (or nieces and nephews or grandchildren, or etc.), again, if necessary, not to pick things up if they do not know what they are and where they came from.

Added to list

+1. Will pray for his tolerance of the medications and that all turns out well.

Prayers sent up!

Keith B wrote:+1. Will pray for his tolerance of the medications and that all turns out well.

I will be praying for the family and yours.

We will pray for the Lord's protection for Joel. Let us know how he's doing and thanks for giving God's people another opportunity to show our faith.

Chas.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:We will pray for the Lord's protection for Joel. Let us know how he's doing and thanks for giving God's people another opportunity to show our faith.

Chas.

Prayers will be sent from Irving.

he is in my prayers.

I got an update from Amy last night. Joel has not been reacting well to the medicines, but their doctor found a medicine for nausea yesterday that is compatible with these meds, so they're hoping Joel can go to school today. Yes, he's been so sick due to the meds that he hasn't been in school all week. Thank God that there is an anti-nausea med that he can take with these meds! I should get more info this Sunday at services. We all thank you for your prayers, but please don't stop now. Joel still has just over three more weeks of treatment still to go.

Lord Joel is your child and Father we cry out to You to hold him, be with him, strengthen him, and most of all let him experience Your love. We ask for healing for Joel and strength for the family, in Jesus name.

-geo

Prayer sent.

Good news yesterday! There is a slightly different variant of the meds that they were able to switch Joel over to on Saturday. He is reacting much less violently to the new meds. Still some nausea, but it's not keeping him down half the day like the old variant was, thank God! He's almost done with the antibiotic; now he just has three more weeks of the antivirals. Thanks again for your prayers, every one!

Continued prayers from here. Thanks for the update.

Thanks for the update and I will continue to pray for Joel and his family.

-geo