Prayers Needed!

Some of you have inferred from my last post that I am worried about something and you would be right. Here's the story.

On Saturday, Mark noticed that the lymph nodes on the left side of his neck felt swollen. During the day, the swelling continued, and he started to notice hives appearing on his body. By Sunday night, there were an amazing amount of nasty looking hives [actually they really look like bad bee stings] that were itching and hurting, and the swelling of the lymph nodes had reached epic proportions. He was on the phone to his family doctor first thing Monday morning.

His doctor didn't know what was going on and sent him to see an ENT [ear, nose and throat specialist] on Tuesday. He too was baffled, but put Mark on an antibiotic in case it is a bacterial infection. He also scheduled a CT scan of the area of the lymph nodes so that they can see more of what's going on there.

By Tuesday night, he was literally covered with hives and we asked our Home Teachers to come and give him a blessing, which they did. This morning, there were more spots and he went back in to his family doctor, who sent him immediately to a dermatologist. The dermatologist checked him out, did a biopsy of one of the sores [each little hive seems to scab over and then the area looks like a nasty blood blister and then a big bruise begins to form - very weird] and potentially has a diagnosis. It has a name that Mark can't remember but it's a viral thing.

So now my poor sweetie is on prednisone, an anti-itch medication, the antibiotic [still just in case] and had the CT scan this afternoon. Once there are some results from the biopsy and CT scan, there may be more information.

For now, it looks like it could go on for 2-3 more weeks [ARGHHH!!] and the poor guy is miserable. I hate this for him. I can't begin to tell you how I hate it for him. The pictures really only show the very tip of the iceberg with the hives. It's sad. Very sad.

So, add him [and us] to your prayer list if you would. I know that when we put our needs in the hands of the One who can really do something, things happen. And once again, I am reminded that we can't do it alone.

**Edited note: Mark tells me that actually, on Sunday night and Monday morning, there were only a very few little hives, nothing much to be concerned about really -- but they have multiplied at an amazing rate.