Through the Valley of the Shadow #4

Just a quick note to update: I am trying to do this blog while we are in the hospital again. We made our third trip to the ER on Friday night (Mar 14 at 10:00). (The first ER was that Monday morning, the second ER was three days after we went home) Monty was not doing well most of the afternoon/evening, which was so the opposite of the 5 days previously. We had some friends over and watched a movie (a good recommendation: The Queen) and Monty asked me to rub his neck and shoulders, that he felt tight. If you remember..........that is what he said the Sunday night he had the heart attack at home!!! When we were getting ready for bed, I could tell he was just off. He had a fever and was breathing really hard. He had taken a nitro, which helped. I called the home health nurse who told us to go to the ER. So, it would seem that he has pheumonia and a lot of fluid on his lungs. We will be here at least tomorrow when his cardiologist will decide whether it is safe for him to go home.

So, here is my next entry from my journal:
March 1, 08….9:40 P.M.
Oklahoma Heart Hospital Day 6
O LORD God, where would I be without You. I cannot imagine. You are my Strength, my Tower, my Refuge, my Fortress, my strong Deliverer, my Peace, my Protector, my Provider, my Savior, my Friend!! My heart rejoices in You, LORD, for You are my strong shelter in times of stress. You have been the place where I have always run to as my hiding place, even from the time of my childhood!! I pray that You will be that for our children and grandchildren. I praise You for Your love and wisdom. You are too wise to ever make a mistake and too loving to ever do anything unkind. And so, tonight (which is now 10:30), after the events of the day and all that You are doing in our lives, I praise You……..I trust You…….. I wait upon You.

I need to journal the events of this day so I will not forget all Your benefits. After getting a full night’s sleep at home alone, I came up here about 8:15 and found Monty sitting up in bed and looking so well. He had just eaten a good breakfast and was saying to Kaylyn that it is so amazing that he could feel 100% after having had such a heart attack and all of the other things that had happened to him this week. He was waiting to get a shower and for the dr on call for Dr Kerns (Dr Ghanni) to come and dismiss him. We got him into the shower, which he did by himself. Then Monty sat up in the chair. After about 15 minutes, after his nurse had hooked him back up on his monitors and walked out of the room, Monty said he thought it was hot and wanted to go out for a walk and cool off. His cardiac rehab nurse was here to take him for a walk. We turned the air down. Then he said he was feeling nauseous. He said it was because of the nurse's perfume…….well, she didn’t have any perfume on!!!! Kaylyn has a really good sense of smell and she didn’t notice any perfume.

So then the color began to leave his face and we quickly helped him back in bed and I called for the nurse. She came in, turned around and called to page Dr. Ghani. She came back in and had others come to help her, got an ECG started, started him on some nitro. He began sweating profusely once again, drenching the bed, etc and was completely pale. The ECG showed he was having another heart attack right then. Within 15 minutes Dr Ghanni was here and they were prepping Monty to go back down to the cath lab to see what was causing the heart attack.

Philip, Nick and Gwyneth were on a Team Young Life bike ride out on sod farm, NE OKC, which is a 32 mile ride. And Christina was running in a 10K race. As this started happening, I received two phone calls from people who would pray. I said “Pray” and hung up. Rachel called and I stepped out of the room while they were working on Monty. When asked about the pain/pressure on his chest, he said it was worse than the time at home. I told Rachel another episode was happening. She hung up and called Nick and said she would be here as soon as she could get the children take care of. From that time of getting him into bed, it was a whirlwind. Joy, our hurse, was incredible in taking care of everything. Within an hour he was back down in the cath lab. Sovereignty.

Dr. Mark Bodenhamer, good friend of Philip's who is a renown cardiac, thoracic, heart surgeon who had been such a huge help to us, had come up and was going over everything and telling us all that was going on. Monty was having another heart attack in that same place and Dr Ghanni was a great interventionist and would go back in the brachial artery (in the arm) and look to see if the LAD had occluded above or below the stent.

Rachel arrived just as they took him down. Dr Ghanni had told us before they took him down that he was not sure what he would find when he went in there. And then he gave us the same warning of what could happen, which included death. Kaylyn and I had seen the whole thing and knew that he was in serious trouble. We went back downstairs again to the waiting room with our fourth pager now. This time felt really scary in that he was in such bad shape when they took him and he was in the middle of having the attack. The bikers were as far away from the cars as possible and it would take them an hour to ride back to the cars, and then drive all the way over here. Christina was on a 10K race and was on her way here when she finished.

While we were in the waiting room, Rachel asked me if I had cried yet. She said that she had not seen me cry and just wondered if I had done it in private. But, LORD, I know that my times………Monty’s times are in Your hands…………..and I trust You with that with all my heart. I say with the Psalmist that I do not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen for I am settled in my mind that You, Jehovah, will take care of me and him. "What time I am afraid I will put my trust in You" is what I have said since I was a little girl. Now I am living that. And I assured Rachel that I do cry sometimes and that I have real emotions. About that time, a close friend (waiting with us) got up and said he had to leave, but would come back. I stood up to hug him and when I did he burst into tears, into sobs, and so did I. I told him that this has to be so hard for him because Monty is like a Father to him……….and sobbing, he said, “More than that”!! It broke my heart for him. I have asked You to use all of this in any way that would bring You glory. But here we were in the midst of this tragic time, and it was like You just turned on the faucet of my eyes to show Rachel that I can cry. It really was kind of funny, the timing of it all. You have a great sense of timing!!!

After about an hour, Dr Ghani met with us to say that the same artery had completely occluded with blood clots. He was able to suction them out as best he could, but that the part of the heart that artery feeds the blood, may be dead and not demanding the blood. Thus the blood that is there just pools. The next 48-72 hours will be critical. Philip, Christina, Nick and Gwyneth got there just as he was beginning to brief us………….Your timing once again. Sovereignty. You brought them safely back on the last half of their ride and to the hospital. What we were hearing was so much to process. Mark came in shortly after Dr. Ghanni had started and pretty much repeated it all and then some. The options are nil right now and it is up to God and Monty to work this out. Mark said to keep our fingers crossed and with some good luck, he will be fine. (That did not work for me since I know You!)

Tomorrow they will do an echocardiogram to see how much of the heart is dead and not functioning to have a better idea of what the next step might be. His kidneys seem to be doing better handling the dyes and will be flushed again. It was all kind of a blur. It was a shock to all of us. I have known for a long time that You were about to do something…………and Monty and I had even talked and prayed about such things. We are more than happy to be Your agents of reconciliation and to share the goodness and peace of Your forgiveness. Your forgiveness is more real to us when we are ministers of that forgiveness to others. So, I say again, use us for Your glory alone.

Joy told me tonight before she went off shift, as she gave me a big hug, that she loved our family and was so impressed with us and our love for each other that was obvious. I told her that if she would be a woman of the Word and let You rule in her life as she trained their children, that this could be her family 30 years from now. She was a believer and full of Your joy and peace. We loved her and I ask You to use this in her life for years to come. She was such a blessing to us today!!!!!