OPTIMISTIC ALTHOUGH THE BATTLE RAGES AS I WRITE

When the Ortho­pe­dic Dr. opened Zito’s hip on Sat­ur­day, he was sur­prised to not find a sim­ple fis­tu­la which all 3 pre­vi­ous Doc­tors had expect­ed. Instead, he had to open Zito’s leg almost to his knee. The infec­tion had worked its way com­plete­ly down the bone from the head of the femur in his hip to just above his knee.

NINETY min­utes lat­er, Dr. Li, Zito’s sur­geon, had flushed out as much of the infec­tion as he could. The top part of Zito’s inci­sion had to be left open for drainage pur­pos­es. Zito did have to receive a 2nd unit of blood this morn­ing to boost his red blood  cells so his body could bet­ter fight the infection.

Zito is receiv­ing sev­er­al IV antibi­otics, and will be in the hos­pi­tal AT LEAST till Fri­day, Aug. 9th. On Fri­day, Dr. Li will deter­mine if he can close the inci­sion and send him home or not.

Pas­tor Fred and Zito BEFORE surgery.  Fred is our Chil­dren’s Direc­tor and an excel­lent caretaker.

Pas­tor Fred is stay­ing with Zito, for this hos­pi­tal doesn’t sup­ply patient meals. They pro­vide a bed in each room for 1 fam­i­ly mem­ber to sleep, so that per­son can help the patient with his needs, AND go fetch food for both him­self and the patient. When I called Pas­tor Fred just now, he was in a “cha­pa” (Moz. mini bus taxi) hav­ing just bought food for both him­self and Zito.

Zito’s week­end costs totaled $800 includ­ing room, antibi­otics, pain med­ica­tions, blood, and dress­ing changes and a min­i­mum of 4 more days to go.

ZITO’S BALAMA TEAM SEND OUR THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE SELFLESSLY SENDING LOVE GIFTS SO THAT ZITO MAY HAVE THE BEST CARE AVAILABLE. IT IS GIVING HIM A CHANCE TO BEAT OUT THIS MASSIVE INFECTION THREATENING HIS LIFE.

ZITO TOLD ME IN THE PAST THAT HIS HEART’S DESIRE IS TO HAVE A STRAIGHT LEG SO HE CAN WALK NORMALLY. I TOLD ZITO TO ASK GOD FOR EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED. ONCE HE BEATS THIS INFECTION, ZITO’S PRAYER WILL BE ANSWERED.

ALL OF YOU ARE PART OF ZITO’S HEALING TEAM, SO KEEP THOSE PRAYERS COMING! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD!

Fred says Zito is in fine spir­its, eat­ing well, and able to walk to the bath­room even with that long inci­sion on his left leg. I take my hat off to Zito for he may be the qui­et, shy type, but there is a lot of strength and brav­ery in the heart of that 90 lb. (40kg) young man.

If there are any changes before Fri­day, I will let you know. For now, it is PRAY, WATCH, AND THANK THE LORD FOR A COMPLETE AND SPEEDY HEALING. 

Zito knows there are a lot of peo­ple pray­ing for him, and he asked me to tell you THANK YOU!

BLESSINGS AND LOVE FROM ALL OF US ON THE BALAMA STAFF.

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF