Book of Remembrances! My Heart!~

Wow!~ Ten years ago on June 1, 2000, I had open heart surgery. When people hear the words open heart surgery they immediately assume I had bypass surgery as it is quite common. But, my surgery involved replacing the aortic valve. For many years now the practice of replacing a valve with a pig valve has been successful, but the pig valve would sometimes fail after ten years or so.

God bless Dr. Paul Kanaly of Oklahoma City. He decided to replace my valve with a metal valve. Yes... I said metal. It is coated with something similar to teflon. LOL No joke. The beating of my heart and the flow of blood keeps the valve moving in motion with the rest of my heart. Personally, I think it is a God deal in more ways than one. The story of how I came to get an implanted heart prosthetic is now mind boggling to me. Since I lived it day by day the reality of how close I came to meeting my maker at the time is very real to me.

Most of my life I was pretty healthy, and rarely went to the doctor. But, as a child my parents were told I had a heart murmur, and that I had to be careful with athletics and such. Being a kid I thought it was all nonsense coming from the doctors. Well, about the time I hit the age of 45 I was having numerous health problems and then the heart trouble started. *sigh*

I went to the doctor repeatedly telling him about the chest pains. The doctor here at home finally told me there was nothing wrong with my heart. In fact, he said I needed counseling. He, Dr. McB. had labeled me as a hypochondriac for all the complaining. I had even made trips to the ER on a few occasions with chest pain and they too treated me as a joke. It was frustrating.

There is nothing so scary as having chest pains day or night and not knowing what to do about it. Thank God my husband took me seriously during the first part of this ordeal or I would have lost my mind. He would haul me to ER and or the doctor and they would listen and even do EKG's. Nothing showed up or sounded abnormal. So I was patted on the head and sent home. The final straw came one night when the chest pain was so intense I could barely breathe when I woke up. Later at the ER they called Doctor McB., and he told them to give me some kind of cocktail and send me home. Apparently the cocktail was a mix of drugs commonly given to pregnant women to subdue them??? I refused the drugs and left.

Not long after that it hit again, in the middle of the night. My Husband and I decided it was useless to go to that ER. So, he took me halfway across the state (or so it seemed) to the ER at Carl Albert Indian Hospital in Ada. By the grace of God the doctor on call took me seriously. He said it could be my heart or my gall bladder or both. He put me on an aspirin regimen and told me to call his office and make an appointment. (This Doctor it turned out had a two year waiting list.) When I told the receptionist that he told me to call she made the appointment immediately. During the months that followed he and his staff treated me with dignity and professionalism. On more than one occasion he did an EKG and nothing showed. May God bless my Dr. Mason!~ My God is Able!~

One day he decided to try a test call an Echo Cardiogram or ECG. I learned from those tests that my aortic valve was severely closing. Because I do not live in the district they could only see me in the doctors office and I could not be referred out. So... back I came to the idiot doctor McB.to tell him because I needed his referral!! When I met with him he started the same old routine telling me there was nothing wrong with my heart. I had to set my foot down and tell him I was going to sign a release and have the test results faxed to him. He was so condescending and treated me like an idiot child. I went to the records and signed a release for the fax and left there feeling hopeless.

The very next morning I get a call from Dr. McB., who sounded almost in a panic. He said my tests showed severe damage and dysfunction in my aortic valve. NO KIDDING???

So, after months and months of this ordeal, He was finally ready to give me a referral and I went to see Dr. Kanaly the heart surgeon. Praise the Lord!~ Dr. Kanaly had the aura of a calm, peaceful, competent professional. He immediately showed me the "teflon coated" implant and said my valve was over 50% shut down. He also said I had a window of surgical success of three months. So, I knew it had to be done right away.

By this time I could barely walk down the hall without a rest. I would walk to the bedroom, stop and rest. Walk to the front room, stop and rest. My heart was pumping blood into the chambers and it was not pumping out fast enough so my heart was on overfill. It was very painful too.

In the few weeks leading up to my surgery, knowing the risks, I made my husband and my 11 year old grandson learn to do the laundry. :P Among other things.

The surgery was a success, obviously. I am so blessed to be here. Above all else I do believe that I was given a second chance to grow in my relationship with my God. The last five years have been a time of renewal for me. I am back in church, I have found what I sought for so many years. Amazingly, I found spiritual strength and so much more in my little United Pentecostal Church. Having grown up Baptist it is amazing the road I have traveled to get here.

During the days leading up to the surgery I felt so unworthy of God's grace that my prayer was not about me but about my grandchildren. I wanted to see them get just a little bigger. I have lived to see my first great grandson. I even take him to church with me. Praise the Lord!~

I have the Holy Ghost from my Jesus, to sustain me, comfort me, guide me, and love me. Oh!~ How I wish I could find a way to share this with others so they could understand what it is like to come through the darkness and into His beautiful light. Yes!~ My heart beats strong in more ways than one. My God is Able!~