Recovered and Gearing Up

Its been an interesting week!
Monday, Frank and I visited some local "mines" to determine where we will get the fill dirt required for the project - estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 cubic meters. Interesting to sit on the front porch of a mine-owners home and discuss the project, etc. The Dominicans are very polite with one another, and we seem to get some sympathy being associated with our Christian Clinic. We are putting together costs of this material from the different mines, some have equipment and simply dump the material into trucks, others only provide land, requiring us to bring heavy equipment to dig and load the fill dirt. 
Tuesday, started off as a normal day, working on the site drawing at home, then around 9:30 Dan stopped by to chat (This was no coincidence as you shall see). I suddenly had a very loud ringing in my ear followed by light-headedness and other issues. He decided it might be best to run me to the Clinic. The car ride caused me to lose breakfast, and upon getting to the Clinic Nicole was waiting with an EKG and Saline. I spent the day taking two bags of Saline and seeing how things went. A normal EKG (for me anyway) was good but after some discussion Dr. Canario's wife (a cardiologist) was working at a nearby office with an Echo machine. She saw no problems. An ER Doc here for the week then arrived back from a day in the Barrios and compared my EKG to one Dr Lystash did in December (email is great). Showed no change - reassuring. I knew this wasn't heart-related due knowing firsthand what a heart attack feels like, but I was worried due to a flash of sweating and the light-headedness. 
So after some persuasion I opted to stay at the Guest House for the night - glad I did. After being looked at by several doctors, things were looking ok with nothing too serious. Started some prednisone and another drug by mouth. Had a great talk with Stacy after we determined this must be an inner-ear issue and nothing more. Got nice messages from the family but wasn't feeling good enough to talk. Around 10:30 things went downhill - vomiting every 20-44 minutes and sweating a bunch with quite a fever. It was a long night. Laying still didn't seem to make any difference, getting up was about impossible, moving my head was bad also. Around 1am Dr. Jack Griffeth from Gainsville,GA stopped in to see how I was. He ended up rounding up two Saline Bags, started an IV and gave me some meds. This helped a bunch, almost stopping things. Around 6 he and Nicole upped my doses and allowed me to sleep pretty well for the next several hours.
Late morning things improved. With two bags of Saline and the meds I felt much better - still very dizzy but fine laying still. Spent the day resting. By that evening I could shuffle around a bit and even managed to get downstairs for a little. A dose of Valium helped me sleep and counteract the dizzies. 
This morning I awoke here at the Guest House like a typical day - almost anyway. Have felt better and better as the day has progressed. 
The site is staked off by the surveyors for grading to start, we have approval from the committee to start, and I hope we commence truly breaking ground tomorrow. Jeff and I set up a camera that we hope to use to let you see a very long (the next year or two)  time-lapse of the construction. See pictures below.

So each morning you awake, and even feel pretty good, stop and appreciate it. Our bodies are amazing complicated organisms created by God. Take care of your body and other people - for we are the Body of Christ. 

CAT 938 Loader

CAT D6 Dozer