It has been a tumultuous couple of days. Yesterday early morning, my mom woke up with pains in her chest, ribs, arms, and back. She waited about an hour to see if it would go away, but it did not. She woke up my dad who promptly woke me up. After talking with her for a few minutes, we decided to get her to the Emergency Room which is only a few minutes from the house and she took a couple of chewable aspirin on the way. There was no one else there, so she was able to get right in. The staff there did an EKG and x-ray but did not see anything suspicious. They did some bloodwork and tested for an enzyme that shows up if a person is having a heart attack. All the tests came back negative. They gave my mom some medication for the pain and she was feeling pretty good after a while. We were happy to see a man from the church come into the room and offer Communion. The test for the enzyme was repeated after 2 hours. This time, it showed up – but only slightly. The test was repeated again with the level being higher than the previous. The cardiologist came in and talked to my mom, dad, and me about the different options. He was very concerned and recommended a catheter to check the heart arteries. My dad has had the procedure done several times, so he and my mom were familiar with it. The decision was made and within a few minutes my mom was whisked away. I was glad that we were able to get a prayer in there before. The doctors found that one artery was 80% blocked and they were able to insert a stent into the area. By night time, my mom had all the necessary treatments and was back in her room. Everything was looking good, so my dad and I went home for the night. We thanked God for the timely ER visit and testing and the doctors who literally saved my mom’s life – again. As I fell into bed, my sister called to tell me that my nephew had been in a car accident. He was rear ended on the highway. Luckily, no one was hurt badly. My sister took her son to the Emergency Room to get a good check over, just to make sure. Of course he was pretty shaken and sore, but no other trauma. I thanked God for that. When my dad and I arrived back at the hospital this morning, we learned that my mom had not been out of bed yet. She tried, but felt very dizzy and her blood pressure was low, so they were giving her a little more time. While we were waiting, another Eucharistic minister stopped by and we had a little prayer service and received Communion. That made everything just a little more calm. By mid morning, her nurse came to help her out of bed. My mom said it felt good to stand up. But then, she said that her incision was hurting. She laid back down and the nurse took a look. There was a large, hard lump on my mom’s leg where they had inserted the catheter. The nurse called for help and I watched as several other nurses came in and all worked on my fragile mom who was suddenly in a lot of pain. The head nurse applied pressure to the area while the others got my mom laying back down in the right position, put her on oxygen, and monitored her vitals. The nurse made some phone calls while doing all this and the doctor came in after a short while. He was distressed himself and said that this complication is very rare. Further testing revealed a pseudoaneurysm – basically blood was leaking from the artery incision into the surrounding tissue. There are 3 treatments for the problem and they started with the one that was least invasive. The nurse who had done the ultrasound on the area previously came back in with the machine. Before she started her procedure, I asked if she was a praying person. She said she was, so we all said a little prayer before she started. She pinpointed the leak with the machine and applied pressure, apologizing to my mom for the pain that she was causing. She stopped now and again and took images and after half an hour, she said she felt confident that it was successful. We thanked her profusely and she thanked us for the prayer. When she left the room and got to the nurses station, I heard her proclaim, “YES!” and all the nurses thanked her. My mom now has to lay flat on her back another night and we will try it again in the morning. We’re praying that things calm down, heal properly, and there are no other complications.

I Found God today in knowledgeable, caring medical professionals, and relative safety for my mom and my nephew.