Here's the scoop:
Micah has been slowly deteriorating in health since he came home Christmas Eve.
With chills, fever and headache we thought we were probably dealing with Malaria or Dengue Fever. The problem being, all the tests keep coming out negative for everything. Over the last several days, he seemed pretty stable with the fever having subsided and the pain relieving meds covering the headache, so we decided (perhaps foolishly) that I should keep my plans made months ago to accompany my parents to Lima on their return to the States and stay a couple of days with my mom before her actual return flight. So, while he's getting worse, here I am, like you, anxiously awaiting every tidbit of news, praying, trusting, trying not to worry, getting ready to fly back tomorrow morning if he doesn't end up joining me in Lima.

Here's a little summary of today.

The last few days have been spent almost entirely in bed. But today, Micah went straight home after going to the bank as his headache became pretty nigh unto unendurable, even with meds. A little later when I called him wishing he'd stayed in bed or rather gone to the doctor, he said he'd have to have money if he was going to go to the doctor! :/ poor guy.

The medicine never did fully kick in this time, so he was pretty miserable the several times I called. Imagine this: A migraine pounding through one ear, having to hold a cell phone to the opposite ear, trying hard to listen (concentrate? hah!) to a very concerned wife who is miles away trying to be convincing that you must in fact leave the house *again* and wait in lines to be seen by a doctor who may or may not know what he's dealing with, and be poked again. I do hope it wasn't that bad actually!

Anyway, he had very little intention of going anywhere at that point, so I had to call around and get more people involved, including our neighbor! I called our Peruvian family doctor who recommended seeing a neurologist who would take head x-rays. He even recommends that Micah fly to Lima for treatment.

After calling around, finding out which doctors are where in Tarapoto, we found that there is in fact a neurologist in town, praise the Lord! During that time, we made an appointment with the infectious disease specialist for 5:30. A close friend (one of 2 American expats in Tarapoto) took him to the clinic, accompanied by a brother from church and our oldest son. That doctor (infectious disease guy) said that the blood tests that had been done (at the national hospital, saturday) were very basic and that he'd like to run a more complex set. Everything came out negative, which actually concerned the doctor who expected an easy diagnosis. He said he wanted to admit him, but Micah had bigger fish to fry.

From there it was off to the neurologist who interviewed Micah and ran tests. We're still waiting for those results. Please pray that the doctors would be able to figure it out, if not that, then that they would guess correctly or, that they would not hesitate to recommend that he should fly to Lima where there are better facilities.

I am currently waiting for the neurologist's thoughts whether Micah might need to come to Lima before booking my flight back to Tarapoto tomorrow morning. :S

Please keep us in your prayers. I'll try to keep everybody updated.
Especially pray that this will all turn out to be an over reaction and a false alarm!!