Friday, July 15, 2016

Test Results

In my last post I had written about the stomach/abdominal pain I was having and the tests that were scheduled. An ultrasound showed I do not have gall stones, but they discovered a mass on my liver. After seeing Dr. Golden, a gastroenterologist, I had an MRI to get that mass checked out. The results of that test showed a hemangioma, approximately 2 cm in size. Dr. Golden said a hemangioma is usually of no concern. Chances are it's been there for a long time. Mayo clinic's definition of hemangioma -  Liver hemangioma (he-man-jee-O-muh) is a noncancerous (benign) mass that occurs in the liver. A liver hemangioma is made up of a tangle of blood vessels.

My next test was a scan to check gall bladder function. That was normal.


I couldn't get in to do the last test, an endoscopy, until July 14. During that time the pain gradually got better until I didn't have it at all anymore. I almost cancelled the test, but the day I was thinking about it I had another bout of pain so I didn't. Nothing showed up on that test. My esophagus, stomach, and duodenum looked fine. He did take a biopsy to check for a certain bacteria that can cause ulcers. I don't have that result.


Sooo... if all the tests are "normal", what was causing the pain? We asked Dr. Golden if stress can cause that kind of pain and he said, "Yes. The muscles in the stomach and intestines sometimes go into spasms". So my conclusion of the matter is that it was probably all related to the extreme stress of the past winter. Possibly I had an ulcer that was healed by the time he did the endoscopy. Very likely. Stress also causes an increase in stomach acids which can cause an ulcer. I was also taking a lot of pain pills for headaches that were likely caused by stress too. Those are also hard on the stomach. Probably a lot of the pain was also muscle spasms. That is MY conclusion. :)


So how should a Christian handle stress? Could I have done something different and just breezed through those difficult times feeling 100% fine? I don't know that answer, but I know the Lord was with me. I picked up a book written by Elisabeth Elliott, Keep a Quiet Heart. In the front she had a poem by Amy Carmichael.



Thou art the Lord Who slept upon the pillow,
Thou art the Lord Who soothed the furious sea,
What matter beating wind and tossing billow
If only we are in the boat with Thee?

Hold us in quiet through the age-long minute
While Thou art silent and the wind is shrill:
Can the boat sink while Thou, dear Lord, art in it?
Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?

The last verse especially blessed me. Can the boat sink while the Lord is in it? There were times I felt I was going down, but with the Lord in "boat" I didn't go down.

Another quote that has blessed me is, "We rightly praise God in the good times, but we learn to know God in the hard times". That is very true. Like Jacob said when he woke from his dream, "Gen 28:16  And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not." I discovered that once while singing "Nearer My God to Thee".  "Then with my waking thoughts Bright with thy praise, Out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise..." Bethel is what Jacob named the place where he had the dream. "Surely the Lord is in this place...." I believe God allows hard things in our lives to cause us to draw closer to Him.

When Thou Passest Through

"When thou passest through the waters"
Deep the waves may be and cold,
But Jehovah is our refuge,
And His promise is our hold;
For the Lord Himself hath said it,
He, the faithful God and true:
"When thou comest to the waters
Thou shalt not go down, BUT THROUGH."

Seas of sorrow, seas of trial,
Bitterest anguish, fiercest pain,
Rolling surges of temptation
Sweeping over heart and brain -
They shall never overflow us
For we know His word is true;
All His waves and all His billows
He will lead us safely through.

Threatening breakers of destruction,
Doubts insidious undertow,
Shall not sink us, shall not drag us
Out to ocean depths of woe;
For His promise shall sustain us,
Praise the Lord Whose Word is true!
We shall not go down, or under,
For He saith, "Thou passest THROUGH."
Annie Johnson Flint





Saturday, June 11, 2016

Cleveland Clinic # 1 Heart Hospital in the USA

Where do I start... So much has happened this year! Before I write anything else I need to give a little update.

In February we packed up and moved our family of eleven from Griswold, Iowa to Holmes County, Ohio. Let me just say that that was not an easy feat to accomplish! I am still trying to recover. We temporarily moved into a small house in town until the farm house was empty. We lived in that small house for two months and made many good memories, although we were very glad to stretch out in a bigger place. So, we moved twice in two months. The second move was only two miles and we had unpacked only the bare necessities at the first house, so it was a lot easier. As of now we still have a stack of boxes in the basement that we have been ignoring, mostly because we were too busy to get to them. It almost makes us wonder if we actually need that stuff if we've had it stored for 6 months. We really do need some of it. The garden desperately needs to be sprayed and a lot of the gardening stuff has not been unpacked. Irene wants her flip flops, but has looked in vain... The canning stuff needs to come out soon too.

Health wise I feel like I have been on an emotional roller coaster. The week before we moved I started with pretty bad pain in my stomach. My Iowa doctor thought possibly a stomach ulcer from stress. Stress? Yes! Stress! Hmmm... Anyway, she gave me Prilosec and in a few days I was feeling much better. Since I was also haveing a lot of headaches (stress?!) she gave me something for that too. Sometime after we moved I started having pain again. This time it was more on my right side sometimes and I began to wonder if it's gall stones. I recently had an ultrasound that showed I do not have any gallstones so we're still puzzled about that pain. I have two more tests coming up. Another gall bladder one and an endoscopy to check for stomach ulcer. Part of my roller coaster experience happened because of that ultrasound. A nurse called out to schedule an appointment with a gastroenterologist because they discovered a mass on my liver. He thinks it is possibly a hemangioma, which is just a mass of blood vessels and usually of no concern. My liver counts were all very good, and he said if the mass were a tumor they probably would not be good. Yesterday I went for an MRI to check that out some more. I don't have the results yet.

Switching doctors when moving is a real headache. Insurance told us they can fill one time with the Iowa doctor then we have to have one from Ohio. Well, since we were new patients, we couldn't get in for three to four months! What were we supposed to do?! Finally we heard of this doctor who works with the Amish. We contacted him and he told us to come to his house on such and such a day and he will help us out. That was so nice! He took a keen interest in my health history. He was not impressed with just taking pain medicine for my headaches. Since I had a coronary dissection he encouraged me to get a brain scan to make sure I don't have an aneurysm.

I have finally gotten in with Cleveland Clinic, and now that I'm in the system, things are moving along. On Wednesday I saw my new cardiologist for the first time. Dr Kim specializes in SCAD. We had to go to Cleveland for that visit. Cleveland is a good 1 1/2 hour drive. We got up at 4:30 and left a little before 5:00. Because of some tests I couldn't eat or drink. We got there on time at 6:45. No one was at the desk where we thought we were supposed to go, so we went back to the main entrance and asked the lady there. She told us that yes, we were at the right desk, but lab doesn't open until 7:00, so we went over and sat down to wait. Lab was a very busy place that morning and we didn't get out of there for almost an hour. From there we went to radiology where I was scheduled to have a CT scan of the vessels in my neck and head. Since we knew this might take awhile and Edward couldn't be with me anyway, he went for some breakfast.  After signing in and waiting a bit in the sub waiting area I was called in. The lady put an IV in my arm and then I was sent out to wait again. Soon I was called in for the scan. I could stay dressed this time, but I had to take everything out of my hair. The scan actually didn't take long at all. The IV was for the contrast dye - unpleasant stuff! All of a sudden this warm feeling goes through you and you get a metallic taste in your mouth. After a few moments it's gone again. They told me to be sure to drink a lot to flush it out of my body.

Now that the lab work and CT scan were done, I could eat. We had about 45 minutes until the next appointment. The first thing I wanted was a large cup of coffee! I had not slept well and gotten up early, and wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything. We went down to the cafeteria for that. Ah! Now I felt much better. :)

My last test was an echo cardiogram, and from there we went to see the doctor. That was very interesting! The doctors in Omaha didn't know much about SCAD. She specializes in it. She had received all my records and showed us the pictures of the catheterization they did when I was having my heart attack. With all the SCAD patients she has seen, my cath pictures were the first where she actually saw the artery dissecting right in front of her eyes. She showed all that to us. At the beginning she said, "Here is the LAD artery. Here is the catheter. Here is an abnormality and then all of a sudden the artery just simply disappeared. That was when it dissected further and was completely blocked - no blood flow going through, which is why we couldn't see it. She said if you would not have been in the cath lab when that happened the out come would have been very different. Then she showed that here they come with a wire to open it and here they are placing the stents. Very, very interesting. She said several times she is very impressed with those doctors. They did a very good job. Placing stents at the top of the LAD is hard. I remember when he was doing it I thought the doctor seems very impatient or in a bad mood because he was yelling. Now I realize he was probably scared and working really hard and fast to save my life. Thank you to that doctor, and I don't even know who he is. I assume he was on duty in the cath lab that day. I don't know if he ever came to my room to see me. We are so thankful to God for the wisdom he has given these men. Afterward, she showed us the pictures of the CT scan I had that morning. No aneurysms showed up, but my left carotid artery has an extra loop. That is not normal, but should probably not cause any problems. It is a marker indicating abnormalities in my arteries. She doesn't think I have FMD because nothing else showed up. She gave me a complete physical examination looking for other markers. So I found out I am extra flexible and my skin is extra soft. I never knew that! The lining of the arteries is connective tissue. So if my joints are extra flexible and my skin extra soft, it indicates the lining of my arteries might also be so. Anyway, that's how I understood her. I had stopped taking my cholesterol medication because I simply do not like having to take it. Well, my LDL (bad) cholesterol is too high, so she put me back on a different one and also switched me from Prilosec to ?? don't remember the name. The rest of the meds she kept the same. So I thought I should tell Dr. Holmberg he was doing it right. He used to tell me he really doesn't know how he should be treating it, since there is so little information out about SCAD. My only restrictions are no lifting heavier than about 50 lb and no sudden jerky movements like roller coasters.

It was almost 12:00 when we were done. We went up to the main entrance and handed our ticket to the valet service. Cleveland Clinic is such a huge place and we didn't know where to park. Since valet service was only a couple dollars more than other parking we took advantage of that. From there we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. And then we drove around looking for Starbucks so that we can make it home without falling asleep! :) After all, I had to drink a lot that day to flush the dye out... On The way home we stopped at Lowe's and Walmart in Wooster. It was 5:00 by the time we came home. My bed felt sooo good that night.