Update on Amy’s Medical Condition

Many of you may have noticed that the number of posts, podcasts, and other things coming from us have gone down since 2019 rolled around.

Since Thursday, December 27th our lives have been pretty crazy and Amy has had several medical experiences she would rather have skipped.

This story actually goes all the way back to September 7th, when she had a pacemaker implanted. The results of this procedure were, well in a word, horrible. Constant pain, sensitivity, pacemaker moving around, etc etc and that leads up to December 27th.

After consulting with a different cardiac surgeon, the decision to do a pacemaker revision was made. The procedure was scheduled at 2:00 pm, December 27th (times is important to the overall story).

About ten minutes before 2, the new cardiac surgeon (who we love) came in, asked the appropriate questions prior to surgery and told us that he would see Amy in the operating room shortly.

2 o’clock passed, then 3 o’clock passed, 4 o’clock passed and shortly after that, the surgeon walks in the room and closes the door behind him.

The doctor was obviously shaken up and said the following, “The procedure prior to yours went horribly wrong and I am in no shape physically or mentally to do your procedure.” He followed that up by apologizing over and over.

He personally set up the new procedure to be done on Monday.

Amy and I recorded a podcast discussing this entire scenario. Unfortunately, there was an issue with background noise in the audio, and we couldn’t post the podcast.

The reason we wanted to share that part of the story is that it shows just how we never sure what tomorrow holds. We are pretty certain from the doctor’s reaction, that the person having the procedure prior to Amy didn’t make it.

It’s pretty certain that when that person went to the hospital that day, they didn’t think their time had come. The procedures that day were done in an outpatient area which would imply that it wasn’t a high-risk item being done.

We are more than certain that the surgeon didn’t anticipate the outcome that happened. He had just visited Amy a few minutes prior to starting and his mood was good and cheerful, exactly the opposite of when he returned with the bad news.

The Bible teaches us that we aren’t promised tomorrow and the person in this story is a real life testimony of that fact.

Now on to the next part of this long report.

The procedure for Amy was done on Monday, December 31st and everything went fine. It was planned that she would spend one night and that’s what happened. The doctor said everything went as he anticipated.

Things were going well until Amy woke up Friday morning. Her left arm was swollen, all the way down to the tips of her fingers. A trip to the Emergency Room showed that Amy had a large blood clot and other small ones in her left arm that was blocking the flow of blood.

After an injection of a blood thinner, and an adjustment to the blood thinner she has been on since her stroke in February of 2017, we brought her home with the assurance that it may take a while for the clots to disperse but that the clot shouldn’t get any larger.

Sunday morning when we got up for church, her left arm and hand were swollen even larger than they had been. Another trip to the ER and the ultrasound showed that the clot had indeed grown larger.

She was admitted to the hospital Sunday evening with an IV blood thinner drip used to control the problem. 3 nights in the hospital and Amy is now back home. She has to give herself blood thinner injections twice a day for 3 months.

Her return to work has been set back at least a week, but she is now recuperating at home and looking forward to getting back into a routine.

We certainly appreciate all the prayers from all over the country that has gone out on Amy’s behalf. We are looking forward to an amazing 2019, even if it has started with a little bump in the road.