For Today Has Enough Troubles Of Its Own

Good morning. Today brings me to my first post-hospital visits, first with a nutritionist at 10 a.m., and second and more importantly with my cardiologist at noon. Other appointments could be added as a reult of these two.

As it stands, I have regained my appetite with no nausea which are both good things. Bethie has been great to take charge of my diet and there has been much thought put into everything that I have consumed here at home: no salt added, no sugar, heavy emphasis on vegetables and fruits, water or fresh squeezed fruit juice, no caffeine, etc. Amazing diet! (with apologies to my good friend, coffee).

I feel stronger with a few exceptions and generally feel alive.

The big negative is a tough one. I still struggle every night to breathe and sleep at the same time. I have a cpap machine I am trying to adjust to using, and I use it every night for some length of time and during the days at times. However, I have not been able to fall asleep while using it as my breathing stops and the machine has not yet gotten me past the point of gasping for air at that point. I have taken much advice, read forums and websites (sometimes in the middle of the night on my tablet desperately seeking ideas), and so far I have not found a working solution. Many would say it takes time and patience. My best sleep came the second night home with nearly 5 hours. All other nights have ranged between 90 minutes and 3.5 hours of sleep (as best I can tell).

Yesterday, I began to struggle by about midday. My sinuses are congested and my nasal passages were compltely clogged (as they had been some of the night before). I started fading and wasn’t breathing well. We noticed a change in my skin tone and I spent a couple hours on the cpap while in the recliner. This really helped but only after we attached the cpap’s humidifier and added some drops of eucalyptus essential oil. By early evening I felt better and my color was normal. Had this not come about, we were planning on heading to the hospital. Glad we did not have to do that.

I could not help but notice in the local news that there was a huge protest on the highway to Querétaro yesterday or the day before that brought the traffic to a complete stop for 4 hours. I can only imagine the situation had we been stuck in that. There are other much longer ways to get there, but once on the highway, often there are few places in which to turn around, and drivers can become beligerent with others who seem to be making progress that they are not. Unlike an accident scene, there was no real way to even move forward once stopped.

So, for today here are some prayer requests:

1. For no problems getting to the hospital.

2. For productive meeting with the nutritionist. Something was amiss with my discharge and we received no nutritional info or warnings. Bethie looked up everything we are going by on medical websites.

3. For a clean heart check by the cardiologist. The lack of sleep could be damaging my heart. If so, pray it is evident and that the cardiologist would be especially interested in helping me resolve the sleep issues rather than pointing me toward other doctors or staff who so far were only interested in showing me cpap devices to rent or buy, but not really demonstrating much interactions with my particulars. He seems like a knowledgeable doctor and I am sure he does not want to see his patient’s heart deteriorating.

4. For a positive outlook/prognosis, including being allowed to contunue recovery at home. We are financially up to our shoulders and another stay in the hospital would take us in over our head.

5. For potential adjustments to the cpap device that might help it to help me.

Thanks for praying with us!

(You might be having doubts about this hospital and personnel, but this is probably the very best care available in our region. Many other alternatives available would have been worse. Had I not left San Juan del Río last week for treatment, I would not have survived through last Wednesday. We are grateful for what level of care we can get. Missionaries we know in other parts of Mexico are much further from this level of care. It is a risk and a cost of following Christ to the ends of the earth and we know that ultimately we are in His good hands.)

Advertisement