So, most of you on Facebook knew Greg was having the heart catheterization today and gave us lots of prayers and good thoughts and juju and we can't thank you enough for that!
As per usual, Greg did not have an "ordinary" catheterization. He had a left heart catheterization and a right heart catheterization. When he came out of the operating room, he had one IV in the left arm, a catheter near his groin on the right side, a catheter near his elbow on the right side and a catheter in the artery in his right wrist.
Below is a drawing of Greg's heart and what the doctor found (click on the picture for an enlarged view):
Part of the reason for the "double" cath is because they needed a closer look at his Mitral Valve, as that has shown up as potentially being a problem over five years ago. It was time to really look at it and fortunately, there is no significant stenosis of that valve. Mitral stenosis is a narrowing of the heart's mitral valve where the valve doesn't open properly, blocking blood flow into the main pumping chamber of the heart (left ventricle). The picture above shows that Greg does have some mild blockage, but it's not enough to do any sort of by-pass surgery, so that's goo. The stent he had placed over ten years ago is still doing well.
The most significant finding is that Greg has what is called a "stiff" heart. A stiff heart occurs when the heart muscle thickens in response to high blood pressure. While initially this thickening helps increase pump function to maintain blood flow to the body, eventually, the pump starts to stiffen and pressure starts to build up in the heart leading to shortness of breath and fluid retention both in the lungs and in the legs. This is referred to as congestive heart failure. Greg's heart failure was caused by too much of a chemotherapy drug called Adriamycin.
The doctor ordered another Echocardiogram, even though Greg just had one in March. Now that we have a diagnosis for Greg, I'm assuming the echo was needed to specifically review the "stiff" heart issue and the echo was able to done right in the room, so we didn't have to schedule another appointment for that.
Greg does have to have another nuclear radiology exam next week. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the test, but it's not one he's had before.
Because they had to give him extra fluids to help to flush out the dye or whatever they use, there was a lot of time just waiting and I had some shopping to do, so I ran down to Walmart to pick up a few things. It was actually the first time I've been in a big box store since early March! I made sure to wear my mask, and was pleasantly surprised to find so many others also wearing masks, including all the employees. I have not found that to be the case in our local grocery store. I did my best to stay away from everyone, and was leery of even going there, but I had to pick up a prescription today, so I didn't have much choice. I got back in plenty of time to get Greg ready to come home, and just as he was finally eating something.
We finally got home at about 4:30 and Greg went right to bed. The next couple of days are going to be a little rough for him, because he cannot use his right wrist. That means no pushing up to get out of a chair or get out of bed, or using his cane in his right hand. That is where they went into an artery. If he does do that, he could develop a huge hematoma in his forearm, or blood could go spurting across the room! If that happens, it's a 9-1-1 call for an ambulance! Goodness knows we don't need to add an ambulance trip to his repertoire! When he had his last cath, about 20 years ago, he had a "plug" in the artery near his groin, and blew the plug! I was 25 miles away at work and called a neighbor to run over there and take him to the hospital and met them there! My dad had the same thing happen, and ironically, so did Greg's dad! I'll be keeping a close eye on him, and they gave him a sling to wear, so he remembers not to use that right hand/wrist. We'll see how that goes.
So, we are on the way to figuring out what's happening with his heart. Now, if we could just get the tests done on his diaphragm, to see what can be done, we'd be really happy! For those that don't know, we found out in March that the left side of his diaphragm is paralyzed or "frozen." That is a huge part of why he can't even take ten steps without wheezing and being out of breath. The tests that took six weeks to get scheduled were canceled because of COVID-19. I sure hope we don't have to wait another six weeks to schedule those tests. It really sucks when you can't even walk down eight stairs without being out of breath!
Again, thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes. We're getting there! I have to say, Greg is probably the strongest person I have ever met and I am always astonished at how well he handles all these health issues. He truly is Iron Man!
Love, Peace and Prayers to all!
Julie
I'd like to start off by apologizing for not getting this out sooner as I know that many of my Facebook friends have been waiting to hear the results. My work day was a bit messed up and I had to finish working once we got back from the hospital, and then well, other issues in life got in the way.
Let me start by saying GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME, AND ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD! That should give you a bit of a clue about how the Esophagogastroduodenoscopy went! HA! Decided to use the "big" word! LOL I'm sorry, I'm just a bit giddy about all this!
So, here you go! The doctor told us that if he had not known Greg's history, he would have given him a clean bill of health! There was no narrowing of the esophagus and absolutely NO SIGN OF CANCER! He was completely amazed at how awesome everything looked!
Of course, we need to hold on a minute and can't start rejoicing just yet, as there is always the possibility that there is cancer underneath what can be seen on the outside. So he took some biopsies and we should have the results from those in a few days. We also have a PET scan scheduled for Friday, which will show us if there is cancer in any other parts of his body, including anything that may still be in his esophagus. The previous PET scan did not show any metastases (spreading), so we need to continue our prayers that nothing shows up on the PET scan.
As we don't know the rest of the results, we cannot even begin to hazard a guess as to what might be next. Assuming there is no cancer and no more treatment, then he will be able to have his PICC line and removal of the PEG (stomach) tube! I know he will be incredibly happy to have that stupid tube gone! And, it is my goal to have that all gone before Aaron's wedding on October 7th! I know it sounds a little selfish, but I know Greg wants it all gone as soon as possible, too.
Please continue to keep Greg in your prayers, as they are most certainly working! Per James 5:14, (Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.) this past Sunday at Church, we had the Church elders and the rest of the Church body pray over Greg as they have done time and again and our prayers are being answered. THANK YOU, FATHER GOD!
Not sure if that's the right thing to call it, but what else would you call it? He had surgery and they put in a feeding tube. They used the method shown in the video from yesterday's post if you want all the gory details.
We got to the hospital at about 9:45 this morning. Thanks to a suggestion from my dear friend, Wendy, we asked the nurse to have the anesthesiologist put in Greg's IV line. If you will recall, in recent weeks, he has had notoriously bad luck with having IVs put in because his veins are shot from all the chemo he's had over the years. The anesthesiologist did a GREAT job and it took only one poke. Greg said he didn't even feel it! That made me very happy! Thank you, Wendy! Until Greg gets his Hickman installed, we will only ever allow an anesthesiologist to put in an IV again!
OK, so a couple weeks ago, my brother had open heart surgery. He's doing well, but had some fluid in his lungs that needed to be removed and he was having that done today. I thought that was something that was going to be done in the doctor's office, but I guess not! As we were sitting in Greg's room in the surgical area, I heard my maiden name, and then my brother's voice! I walked out and saw my brother was in the room almost across the hall from us! Was certainly not expecting that! It was nice to be able to see him and his wife. We didn't really get to chat, because they had to take him to the procedure room to get that fluid off is lungs. I understand he's doing well now!
Greg was taken back to the OR around 11:15 and was back by noon! Dr. McDreamy said that everything went well with the tube. Unfortunately, Greg was in a LOT of pain. Now, Greg can handle pain. He's in pain daily. I've never seen him complain or fuss the way he was this time. The nurse called Dr. McDreamy, and he said he wasn't surprised because the way they had to position Greg, he probably didn't get the full effect of the local anesthetic. Poor Greg! He was able to get quite a bit of morphine while we were in the hospital and that helped, but not as much as one would hope. He's pretty sleepy here.
We didn't leave until about 1:30 p.m., and had to wait for the nurses to show me how to flush the tube, because it's not going to be used for a while (hopefully!), we don't want it to clog up, so I will have to flush it every day.
When the time comes that we will need to use the feeding tube, we will meet with the dietitian again and have some home health care set up, along with getting the "food" ordered for him. I'm not sure what the insurance is going to cover for all this, and I know that Medicare will not cover it because it's not permanent. Whatever it is, it is. I'm not going to worry about it. God will provide.
In case you're wondering, here's a picture of the tube. I'm guessing that you'd be surprised if I didn't post a picture of it! HA!
Eventually, the gauze underneath it will not be needed, but obviously, we need it for now. The other end of the tube actually has closures on it just like a blow-up mattress! That made me giggle.
We'd certainly appreciate your prayers that Greg's pain ends quickly! I really HATE to see him in so much pain!
Blessings to all,
Julie
