"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
--Jeremiah 29:11

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Prayers are Working!

Right after I signed the consent (after hearing about the possibility of perforating the esophogus and emergency surgery, stroke, etc.) for both procedures, they hooked up the interrogation device for the pacemaker and Dr. VanHare discovered that Conway is back in NORMAL SINUS RHYTHM!! On his own (well, more likely with the help of God), he has a normal atrial rate. Therefore, there is no need to proceed with the TEE or cardioversion. I told them I didn't believe them. They then got on with the investigation of why that mode switch isn't switching. They've paged Medtronic to figure this out because the initial suspicion is now thought to be uninvolved. While they try to figure out this pacemaker and tweak the settings, they are getting to the business of giving him his 'loading dose' of amiodarone and getting the Heart Failure under control again. Thank you God for listening to all of Connie's prayer warriors and sparing him these procedures.

That was the good news. Now for the not so good. He will be here "at least five days" according to the docs because they think he could go right back into flutter at anytime, especially since the amiodarone doesn't really become effective for 7-10 days after it's begun. He will likely be on Coumadin much longer now too than the three weeks we were originally planning on because they want to keep him on it until they feel confident that the amio will control the flutter. That way, if he goes into flutter again and is already at a therapeutic level then he can be cardioverted right away and it would make our life much easier than waiting for his INR to get up and risking the clot issue. It would be the safer way to go, speaking of flutter. Of course falling and bleeding wise it is not so safe, but you have to weigh the pros and cons, I guess. I'm pretty bummed about being here for five days at least. I know I feel more comfortable with him being monitored closely, I just think about poor MK and everything else that one deals with with a stay that's longer than a day or two. Okay, enough of my pity pot! Thank God our little boy is avoiding yucky drugs and risky procedures. For all we know, there was a little clot hidden somewhere in there that wouldn't be visible on TEE due to the baffles and he'd have had a stroke or something major afterward.

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good (even when I start questioning after six needle sticks in a 4 hour period!).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Praise God! Sr J

Donna Beckemeier said...

Our Great God always knows what He's doing. You hang in there, take a deep breath and hold on to faith. I am thankful that the procedure has been avoided. And hopefully they will get that little gadget figured out and fixed.
We love you all and continue our prayers.

Donna Beckemeier said...

I really wish I could be there for you right now. But know that you are in my heart, thoughts and prayers.

Unknown said...

You're in my prayers, always! God is good, all the time :-)

love,
Morgan

Unknown said...

Praise the Lord! I'm so glad to see this update. Praying that he will stay in NSR while loading the Ami.
*sigh* I know you didn't want to hear 5 + more days....Eli was in for 3 weeks when he received his Ami load. Praying this is NOT Connie's experience!

Take care!

Jenn said...

our thoughts and prayers are with you and pray that you don't have to stay in the hospital too terribly long. i know every day is long, but i pray that nothing will come up during his stay and that the meds do what they need to.