Antoinette

On Monday afternoon I was just sitting at my desk in the office when I hear my name called, I turn and look at the doorway and notice a mama and her two kids walking by. I didn't recognize them as I didn't really get a good look. A few minutes later Jane one of the post-op nurses comes in and says, hey Maggie come down to the treatment room somebody is asking for you. I open the door to the room and their is Antoinette her little brother and their mama, saying Maggie! Maggie!  Her mama pulls out from her purse a laminated picture of me and Antoinette from last year in Benin when she was a patient for a long time with us.

Antoinette had something eating away at her face. We thought we had it figured out and had waited for months for a special antibiotic to come and were giving it to her to try and stop whatever it was that was taking away her precious face. I remember when she first came to the ward, she was like many of our patients. A little quiet and withdrawn but within a couple of days she had come out of her shell. She was a giggly fun little girl. In the end we found out Antoinette had TB and she was given treatment at a local hospital. I had wondered if the treatment had worked and praise God it has! 

                                                               

It was sooo great to see her and her family again. We were hoping our plastic surgeon could do some reconstruction to help her face look even better but the new skin is still to fragile, for now she will have to wait. But she looks 100% better than she did last year. It's these stories that make it all worth it!