Heart Journey Update

On Tuesday, I spent the day at the University of Michigan to get some more testing done. Sometimes I feel I live from one test to another, and yet, when I look at the big picture, this is exactly what needs to be done. If you’ve ever gone through test after test, you wonder if it’s worth it, but what if, WHAT IF, the one test that you wonder about, shows exactly what the doctors are looking for?

In my case, with the CT scan, it was to determine if I had any blockages in my coronary arteries. When I had my PET scan back in July, it showed a possibility of one and so my heart failure doctor wanted to be certain that wasn’t the case. Thankfully, from what I can understand from the results on my portal, I do not have any blockages and everything looked okay! If I’m honest, I would’ve been frustrated if I did because that would’ve been a whole new issue with my heart and I’m not sure it can take one more, from my perspective.

Today I received the results of my ECHO on my portal and as for that test, I wouldn’t say there is anything new. ECHOs (an ultrasound of the heart) help define the severity of my heart failure. To put it plainly, my left ventricle is not doing well at all, but we knew that. Other parts are dilated, which we also knew. My EF is 30, which isn’t great either, but it has been that low previously. It actually has gotten all the way down to 15 a few years ago when I was quite sick, but thankfully it has made it’s way back up to 30. My previous ECHO showed 35. To put it in perspective, normal heart function is between 55-70%, and anything below 35% is classified as severe, which is why I have an ICD. I’m at a high risk for hard cardiac events, such as a heart attack, so this would also explain my episode of v-tach as well. Though my valves, from my understanding, are doing great! That’s a HUGE blessing, since my mitral valve is a replacement and the tricuspid is repaired!

Now granted, this is not the official hearing from the doctor, but from the impressions and from what I know of ECHOs (I’ve had plenty), nothing surprising has come up. The take away is that my heart is failing, but we knew that, and both of my teams of doctors (heart failure and electrophysiologists) are doing everything they can to prolong the life of this heart of mine. And let me be clear. Yes, my heart is failing and left untreated, well, that wouldn’t be good. But my heart failure is being treated and I still plan to live until I’m 90.

With that said, I just started a new anti-arrhythmia medication, in hopes of combating my v-tach. I received a call from one of my doctors on Wednesday and they were surprised my ICD (think of AED paddles in the body) didn’t go off with my v-tach incident. I had a 20-beat v-tach (just think heart racing like crazy, causing a heart attack) moment, but I never had a full-blown heart attack. Though when my doctor said I was having a lot of PVCs (extra beats in my ventricles) on top of that, I mean there were a LOT. That’s not so great, being that I just had an ablation in March. So, hopefully the new med will lessen the chances of me going into v-tach again, lessen the chances of my ICD going off, and lessen the number of extra beats. This medication does come with side effects, so we are praying that they are minimal and that I can stay on it. If I can’t, I will have to try another med that I will have to be hospitalized again for, for 4 days of monitoring, which we are trying to prevent. I did it once and would rather not do it again.

Heart failure is a journey. But isn’t everything in life? It doesn’t matter what you are going through, there are seasons of life and moments in life that don’t always make sense, but each one of them is just another step in the process. I fully believe that God has allowed all He has for His grander purposes and all I want is for His glory to be made known. Though, oh how I would just LOVE to be told that my heart failure was improving and that I’m not “high risk” anymore, At times my heart failure is so overwhelming, draining, emotional, and it takes a toll on my family and me. But I also desire to always be in God’s will. If that means moving from test to test to assure I don’t have any other issues, then so be it. Or maybe it’s to just meet a team I hadn’t met before and show them Christ’s love. I’ll admit, I’m a bit of an odd duck being 37 amongst the normally 70 years or older patients in those areas. But every time I go to Michigan, I see it as my mission field.

My friend, we all have a mission field. Your walls may look different than mine and that’s exactly how God designed His kingdom on earth to be. And that is why each of our purposes is SO important. Don’t EVER underestimate the power of God IN you. He has specifically allowed the circumstances in your life for this very moment. Don’t overlook the power of God in your life because you never know, it may CHANGE someone else’s life, by the power of the Holy Spirit.