Rachel's Doctors Appointment

Hi, my name is Yafo (that's Hebrew for Jaffa, Israel--where Todd lives), but they call me Yafi. Rachel and her brother (Todd) call me the 3rd child of the family. They also call me spoiled, I just like to think I have very loving parents! Anyways, since Rachel and I have become best buds while she's been here (and I've had to take care of her while she's not been feeling well) she asked me to write tonight's update.

Her doctors appointment with the asthma/allergist specialist went very well. We were all encouraged that the doctor spent as much time as was necessary listening to their (Mark went along too) concerns about Rachel's health. As far as doctors go, I think they were pretty pleased. A real answer to prayer!

They tested her in a very simple way for asthma. (She was afraid they'd have to do a big test that would send her into an asthma attack. She'd heard these were no fun and didn't really want to have to do that. Thankfully, the doctor didn't even mention that test!) Praise the Lord that it does not appear she has asthma! However, the doctor does agree something strange has been going on, so after seeing that an inhaler helped her breathe even better, he gave her some samples to try for the next couple months. The whole family looks forward to seeing if her tight chest relaxes some on these treatments. It seems to be already working because she was able to be around everyone else's food tonight at dinner without any problems! She also hasn't had any tightness since being at the doctor's office (about 5 hours now). She's quite excited about this! I do know, though, she is a bit concerned because some of her allergens are present in the inhalers she needs to take. She thinks that over time they might begin to affect her in other ways. Time will tell.

They also scratch tested her back and found she is still allergic to those despicable cats, as well as ragweed, an assortment of grasses and weeds, and a couple trees. Mark tells me some of the welts were quite big! The exciting news was she isn't allergic to mold (well, the 4 they tested), like they thought, so that is good news for the upcoming move.

Speaking of which, the doctor seems to think she should be okay to travel along with Mark next Tuesday (they weren't sure if she was going to be able to or not). They are both pretty excited to hear this news. The doc even said she may get a "holiday" from some of her environmental allergies because they have different allergens in Scotland. This was also exciting news! I think Mom, Dad and I are a little sad they'll both be gone this time next week.

It's getting late so I better make sure Rachel gets to bed soon because she has to get up tomorrow morning and go have some blood drawn at the doctors so they can test for even more things. It was nice chatting with you all. Please keep praying for my Mark and Rachel. They wouldn't be doing so well without you! Good night!