Like many foreigners living in Cambodia (and even many Cambodians), we have a househelper who works for us, doing the many mundane tasks that need done on a daily basis which take so much longer to do here than in America. Our helper's name is Nyaw, but we refer to her as Aunt, which translates to "Om" (older aunt) for our kids and to "Ming" (younger aunt) for Ryan and I, but we all call her Om since that's what the kids call her. Confusing, I know. Anyway, Om is a believer who's worked for several missionary families and is a wonderful worker, almost bordering on workaholic. : ) She is a great cook (we eat a majority of Khmer dishes) and we depend upon her meticulous housekeeping skills to keep the dust and mud of Cambodian living at bay. She rarely asks off work, and until last year, was rarely sick. Then she began to have episodes of dizziness and weakness/fatigue shortly before we left for the USA in the spring, which continued sporadically after we returned.
The week that we started homeschool, Om got the flu or something like it, but had a hard time recovering, with more spells of dizziness and weakness for the next four weeks or so which prevented her from coming or staying at work. Since she normally keeps our house whipped into shape while Ryan works and I teach and tend the kids, things got messy pretty quickly. (In the dry season, if floors aren't swept every day, the tile floors get gritty and slippery.) We spent a lot of time tending household tasks late into the night that weren't getting done during the day, and praying for Om's health to improve. It was emotionally draining, not knowing each day if she could work and what to do to resolve the situation as our own energy was quickly waning. I write all this for you to know our experience (not to throw a pity party!) and to give you a picture into our lives here as best I can, knowing most of our friends in America can't relate to having househelp at all!
Finally, after consulting with teammate and nurse Debbie Coats, we took Om to a clinic ourselves to see if we could get to the bottom of the issue (she'd been to a clinic at least once in that time). That was two weeks ago, and after correcting the dosage of medication she was already taking (for mild depression and insomnia), she soon improved and is now back to her cheerful, hard-working self! We are so grateful, especially because when things were bad, we all thought (including her) that she may have to be done working for us, and we would miss her very much. The "bottom of the issue" seems to be that somewhere along the way, she was given advice that made her think it best to decrease her "medicine for the heart path" (translation = psychiatric meds) to one-fourth her usual dose. I believe that may have contributed to her physical ailments, compounded by a stomach ulcer which probably came largely from worrying.
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| Rejoicing in Om's recovery |
So, for now, the worst seems to be behind us. We are all grateful to the Lord (Om's a believer) for her recovery and for God's faithfulness when we felt overwhelmed by the situation. Thanks to those who knew about it and were praying for her and us!
