Okay, this is it... I’m in my LAST semester on the island of Dominica! Liz hasn’t updated the blog in a while, and since we can both write here, here’s another shot on my part.

Christmas Break:
We had a pretty good semester break! Liz was able to get away early in December with Ellie so she could beat the rush of students flying out. She went home and got to be with a couple of her best friends from high school. They spent a few days in Little Rock, then Kristen flew back to Atlanta. While Liz was in LR, she got Ellie’s annual checkup done at Dr. Bob’s. A few weeks later we got a call from Dr. Bob saying that Ellie’s heartworm preventative (Revolution) had failed and she was positive for heart worms! We are currently waiting on a confirmatory test from a second lab before Ellie starts any treatment. We decided it would be best to have Liz get an apartment in LR this semester so she can stay and take care of Ellie through the treatment (we suspect the confirmation will be positive). Ellie cannot get her heart rate up while on treatment since it is potentially life threatening. So, please keep Liz and Ellie in your prayers as they are back in the states to take care of this. Liz is also hoping to find a semi-part-time job to help pay bills and such as we have no formal income.

New Years Eve was a blast with one little exception!
We went up to Little Rock and stayed downtown after going to a NYE party at the Peabody with Brad and Erica. That night at supper was quite an experience too. We planned on going to our favorite hibachi grill, Seki Sui. Liz made reservations and everything! We get there and they wrote us down for the wrong time, and since we didn’t show up for our “time” we couldn’t get a seat (they were booked solid till late). We proceeded to call or drive to other hibachi grills in town to find out they too were booked until late that night. We were starving and ended up eating at a Mongolian grill. The food was pretty good and cheap, but it ended up giving Erica and me food poisoning. That was ROUGH!

Bad news #2: We had the opportunity to go see a specialist eye doctor in Oklahoma City one day. The bad news is that he diagnosed Liz with an eye condition we kind of feared she might have. Her brother Rob has the same eye condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa (or RP for short) For those who don’t know what RP is, here is some brief info:  Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of genetic eye conditions. In the progression of symptoms for RP, night blindness generally precedes tunnel vision by years or even decades. Many people with RP do not become legally blind until their 40s or 50s and retain some sight all their life. Others go completely blind from RP. Progression of RP is different in each case.

RP is a type of hereditary retinal dystrophy, a group of inherited disorders in which abnormalities of the photoreceptors (rods and cones) or the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the retina lead to progressive visual loss. Affected individuals first experience defective dark adaptation or nyctalopia (night blindness), followed by reduction of the peripheral visual field (known as tunnel vision) and, sometimes, loss of central vision late in the course of the disease.

Above: Normal Vision

Above: A patient with severe RP

We do not know the inheritance form that Liz has right now. She will go back to OKC for further testing. Hopefully it is the recessive form like Rob’s. Also, we do not know how fast it is progressing. That is something we won’t be able to find out for another 3-5 years when we are able to check progression with the baseline report we received over break. We look at this situation as an opportunity to grow and learn together. While it’s not something anyone wants, we feel that God has given us this hurdle in order to help us and others. Since there isn’t a current cure to stop the progression of RP, we are going to do our best to learn about the condition, stay up with the current material, and use our experience to help someone else if at all possible. Right now, Liz doesn’t have real serious symptoms. She was diagnosed with an early-moderate case. She has lost some peripheral vision (which she doesn’t really notice), but she has significant night blindness.

Back to some good news: We got to eat some really great food and see our families over the few weeks back. It was great to have Christmas at home. We played Wii non-stop it seems. I went on an 86 mile 4-wheeler ride with my buddy Xon and about 15 other people. It was insanely cold as we ended up riding after sun set. Also, My parent’s moved into a new house before Christmas and it’s amazing. I’m very proud for them. Dad also got a new pool table for Christmas and he’s a regular shark! I think I might have won 2-3 games out of the 15 or so we played. We played a mean game of Cranium at the Hale house too. Aunt Andrea, Lauren, Liz, Reece (who bailed out on us), and I won!!! We're the serious gamers though, I think. It was still fun.

Above: Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Above: Good sports...

Finally, we would definitely appreciate any prayers you can give us. Living apart for 4 months, living on loans, going to med school (4th semester is no joke so far), caring for a sick dog, finding a part-time job, living with an eye disease and learning my Dad’s mother isn’t doing to well with her health has put a lot on us. It’s definitely something God can handle, and we ask for His strength daily. We thank you for your support and keeping us in your prayers. 4 more months and I will be back home to my wife! Also, we don’t know where we will be for 5th semester (for those of you who are wondering what we are doing after Dominica). We might be in Miami or Saginaw Michigan. Hopefully it will be Michigan, but that decision is up to some faculty members or random selection, nobody really knows?

-Justin