He is back in the hospital at Emory. He woke up Thursday morning with a little swollen spot on the bottom of one foot. He had gotten a much needed pedicure the day before as an early Father's Day gift and we just attributed the swelling to that. The heel of the other foot became slightly swollen too about mid-morning, but again, just thought it had something to do with the pedicure. Some friends had been planning on taking him to dinner that night and he rested most of the day so that he would feel up to it. Although he felt a little more swollen as he got ready, it wasn't anything really noticeable or worrisome. I dropped him off at 7 and by the time he returned at 11 both feet were huge and one hand was beginning to swell. I knew something was definitely wrong.
After some convincing, I packed a bag, we put him in the desk chair and rolled him to the car so that we could head to the hospital. I decided it was best to bypass Henry and just go straight to Emory and that's what we did. It was a hectic night, trying to arrange for someone to be with Trenton for the night and then the following day....prepping meals, juice cups, ect as well as packing for an unknown amount of hospital time. Not to mention, just the thought of having to suddenly leave him again. Although I knew he would be fine, I just hated to leave him in the middle of the night. We arrived at the ER around 2am and spent the rest of the night there. He was transferred to a room around 6:15am. The general consensus was that the swelling was caused by an allergen, not his heart. Good news! But then the BIG question, what was the allergen??!
Friday, he continued to swell most of the day. Feet, ankles, hands, one arm, his face (particularly around his eyes), and even his "back side". I'm most thankful that his throat/tongue/airway never became tight. We would have moved into an entirely different situation then....ICU, breathing tube, ect....not even something I want to think about! I am so, so grateful that God protected him from all of that.
Treatment has included, A LOT of benadryl and steroids, cutting out almost all of his meds, a lot of discussion with his cardiac surgeon, consults from an internal medicine dr. and now we will also be seeing a dermatologist sometime later today. They are getting as many people involved as possible, so that all angles of this situation will be taken into consideration. So I am asking as many people as possible (I know that countless people are already praying) to pray and intercede over the next day and a half. We need definite answers and solutions. I'm so thankful this wan't caused by some issue with the work they've done on his heart, but we need the right intervention to prevent causing problems with his heart. Internal medicine says, this really looks like an allergy to aspirin.....Cardiology says, without aspirin, the stent could very quickly close up and cause major problems (i.e. blockage, blood clot, heart attack) and the apsirin + Plavix regimen is most definitely the best treatment....Dermatology isn't here yet, but I'm praying that they can do some sort of skin testing rather than just taking "trial doses" so that he doesn't have to go through swelling again and they don't have to guess at which med is the culprit.
Today, he is able to move his fingers some and the swelling in his feet and face has definitely improved. He was in an immense amount of pain from all the swelling and was unable to stand or really touch anything with his hands. It made getting comfortable in the bed almost impossible and he couldn't do anything at all for himself. We were super excited when he woke up this a.m. and the swelling had gone down some!! He is able to rest fairly well, because all of the meds he's getting to reduce the inflammation really make him sleepy. This is certainly not about me, but I am not resting so well...so I just ask that you pray that God will give me energy and keep me healthy despite all that going on.
We know that "ALL things work together for good, when we love, serve and follow God"!! I pray that we will be faithful in this truly, trying time and have the discernment to see God at work. There are often factors and challenges that we deal with daily, that we don't necessarily share through the blog, but we know that God sees and knows about them and through all of our prayers He can meet every need regardless of it being spoken or not. I know that He is good and that any testing that may be thrown our way from he devil can be 100% turned around for good when we give it to God! Thanks for keeping up with us! We promise to live a calm and peaceful life.....one day! ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment