10am local time

Aqa Aakhu continues to feel weak, however, the nauseousness has subsided. Her doctor lowered the supplement load today, that will help if she decides to take any at all! After 4 days of this, feeling better is a high priority. The other patients and companions are asking how she’s doing every day. All the patients have good and bad days. Most of the patients have been on chemotherapy at some point in their treatment prior to coming to the Oasis of Hope. Among the companions, mostly spouses, this experience is much better than what was experienced under chemo. Not the least of the considerations is seeing the patient get better even though they feel tired or nauseous or moody. Several of the patients don’t want to eat at various points in their treatment. Yesterday we noticed that carrot juice and oatmeal stayed down. The doctors gave Aqa Aakhu some intravenous nutrition last night to make up for it. It took 8 hours for it to get into her system! Dang! Thankfully she has a port, otherwise Aqa Aakhu would be more pincushion than patient. When you come here, get your port in the US before you leave and bring 3-4 of the special “port” needles. They’re $40 here.
Ps. Ports aren’t usually good for drawing blood so expect to get pricked a few times nonetheless.

Most of my time is spent tending to Aqa Aakhu, the internet, talking with the other companions and meditating. I brought books and our mancala game too. Haven’t played yet and finished one book so far. My spanish is getting a little better now that I’m using it regularly.

Ankhner / Khalfani