So… What Happened?
Back to Us
Good question! Even the doctors are kind of stumped and using their “best guess” with Nicole’s illness. This is a quote the doctor gave us: “The doctors are inconclusive on what exactly occurred, but the prognosis as of now states that she likely had a virus that caused several symptoms, as well as she was given a strong drug which she reacted adversely to, coupled with extreme exhaustion and dehydration, her body began to show many dangerous symptoms of something that could be life-threatening“.
At the clinic in Vanuatu
So what did that look like? To give context, Nicole is a person who normally sleeps 8 hours a night. We hosted a medical team from America and Nicole was in charge of feeding them, as well as cleanup, etc. (there are only a handful of us that hosted the team). Nicole worked super hard crawling into bed around 2am and waking up around 4am and she did that schedule for a week. The last two days she began to even neglected herself; taking care of Ni-vans (people from Vanuatu) and the team over herself, she drank next to no water… yup things are compiling if you are following. I (Seth), then helped (along with our coworkers) take most people back to the airport on Friday. As a husband my wife just looked tired, run down, and maybe a bit frantic… but who wouldn’t? I told her to go to bed and I will take care of things for the day and the weekend. I told her, her only job is to rest and take of herself. Adding to the matter, we just got our truck the day before she started to get sick, and our container came that same day as well. So yep, lots of paperwork and logistics that I had to take care of. I checked up on her, making sure she had food and was sleeping, but I was not able to be by her side the entire time. She was tired and restless and that continued from Friday through Sunday. I stayed with her on Sunday, watching over her and making sure she was eating… I thought she was just tired and a little sick, but thought it was weird that she could not sleep. That was not normal for her at all. I went to a pharmacist on Monday (because nothing is open over the weekend here), got her some sleep medication and thought, “this will help“. She then proceeded to have the first of many “episodes” that Monday morning. I gave her that medication and she seemed to even out. But then things started going downhill from there… just completely unable to go to sleep that night, and her body started even fighting itself. We had to wait until morning for the nearby clinic to open…
Tuesday morning our lives changed. The doctor gave Nicole some medication to calm her body down but she still couldn’t rest. After several hours Nicole seemed to be “back to normal”. But then she had another “episode” and the doctor was very concerned. The doctor was concerned because he didn’t know what was causing these “episodes” and for so many severe symptoms to be present. They began tests but the testing capabilities in Vanuatu are limited. The doctor was forced to give her a very strong drug which she reacted adversely towards. She is now labeled “allergic to that drug“. Her heart rate and blood pressure were spiking and dropping rapidly, her body started acting up involuntarily, moving and fighting itself, she tried to sleep but her body would not let her. Nicole literally said “good-bye” to me at one point. While dealing with all that, I then started the process of dealing with: the insurance company, hospitals, air ambulance, border control, embassies, and much more… making phone calls and taking care of my wife non-stop for 50 hours (not going to lie, I was coming to my personal max having averaged 3 hours sleep/night for 3 weeks before all of this, then Nicole started with her sickness so I didn’t sleep but for moments here and there for almost a week, only by God’s grace was I able to have energy to make good decisions. Thank you so much for your prayers throughout all of this! I literally had to massage Nicole almost continuously for the last 20 hours or so to keep her body calm. So after 50 hours… the plane came!
Being Medi-Vaced
Getting the Spinal Puncture
We were medi-vaced to Brisbane, Australia. Doctors did innumerable tests on her Thursday through Monday: Tests, spinal puncture, many infectious disease tests, screenings, EEG, and MRI, and much much more.
EEG Test
Off to the MRI
Talking things through with Nicole, her memory is spotty for those 10 days. She literally has pockets of memories but by and large, June 8-18 are almost completely vacant from her mind, even though for me (Seth) I will never forget those days.
First day out of the hospital
Seth did my nails so I would look pretty!
We were discharged Wednesday; a lovely Christian family has been hosting us since. We got to spend a lot of time with several good Christian families. We have Nicole’s consultation on Monday (Today), if they approve, we will then start the process of heading back to Vanuatu.
Getting discharged!
We cannot say “thank you” enough… so many people shared and reposted our updates. We have been reminded how connected the body of Christ is and how much everyone loves and supports us. The countless people who lifted up prayers for us has been overwhelming, in a very good way! God truly heard your prayers and we don’t take your gifts of prayer for granted. We believe God used your faithful prayers to perform a miracle, healing Nicole and thwarting any spiritual warfare that was waged upon us. THANK YOU! So what’s next…
Thank you Novembers for the flowers!
Up next for us:
- Transition well.
- Finalize things for our truck and container.
- Start making trips up to Big Bay and get ground ready for our house building.
- Start revising the firm foundations teachings and get it ready for the conference in August.
While we have your attention; We are still looking for people to come and help us build our house in September. Sorry for any delay or up dates on that, but the past 3 weeks have been a bit crazy for us. Please write us on our email stokingthefires@gmail.com if you are interested in helping out. Thank you in advance!
Last side note… people have asked how things are going “financially” for us. This will be our one and only post about it so we can be faithful to you our supporters and keep you up to date:
- This medical emergency “as of now” was an unexpected cost of around $3,000 (plane tickets back, hotels, transportation, cost of living, etc).
- Our truck cost an extra $3,000 than expected, we originally expected to buy one truck but thought the purchase was a better buy; more reliable and ability to buy parts on our island.
- About $2,000 more than expected on taxes for our container… hard to predict and guess on that…
- And our solar system cost about $5,000 more than expected. The batteries we had to purchase were a better quality and are expected to last over 25 years versus changing our batteries every 5 years, which would be about $2,500 every change out… long term another good buy, but money-wise another hard decision.
We made every decision in prayer as well as sought counsel from our Pastor at our home church and had him involved in every step of the process. Many people asked us about “how we are doing financially“, and so we wanted to mention that briefly and explain clearly so we can be faithful to you.
Please pray for us as we make decisions for Nicole’s recovery and start integrating back into full-time ministry. We want to do this wisely, but are eagerly wanting to get back to our people and the job we love, while balancing longevity and making sure Nicole is 100% and not compromising her health.
Got to ride in a 1910 Sunbeam
Joyride: 1910 Sunbeam
We are always humbled and privileged to call ourselves…
YOUR FEET to the unreached, Seth and Nicole Stokes. We love you all!
Stoking The Fires 