A Call for More Prayers!

We need to get all the prayers flowing again!

My latest doc visit today was to a vascular surgeon who specializes in blood clots. Unfortunately, I didn't get very hopeful news, sorta good news, bad news.

We will start with the bad. The doc said that he wishes he could have gotten to me in September when this all began. According to him, my leg will never be the same. There is a pretty extensive clot running from above the knee to well into the calf area, in the principle vein. The clot has hardened. It likely has destroyed the valves in my leg vein. The doc feels that he could have restored up to 95% of my leg if he had seen me early. He says that most dox still proceed with the standard treatment for blood clots: start the Coumadin and let it go at that. He says for the 5 years he has been in Fort Worth, he has tried to get other dox to recognize that something can be done, but the word is not spreading very well. I already know that I will be on Warfarin (generic Coumadin) the rest of my days. Now I learn that I will have to add compression hosiery to that. Yucky, but I can deal with it.

Now the good (or maybe only better) news. The doc plans to do a procedure on me where he goes in with a needle-sized hole behind the knee and does something to deal with the clots. I'm not sure exactly what, but he mentioned ballooning some of the vein and checking out some potential problems in my lower abdomen. So, from behind the knee, he will go both directions, up and down my leg, to try to improve my condition. That oughta tickle! I will be out of it enough to not feel anything, thankfully! It was hard to tell from what he said if it will be an outpatient procedure or a one night hospital stay. We plan to do this before the end of the year. His prognosis is that I will get anywhere from a 20% to an 80% improvement in my leg.

So, you know where I'm going next: we gotta pray for the 80% - or better! So, I need you to please pray for me and ask anyone else you know (who knows me) to pray as well! I really like this left leg of mine and I want it to be healthy. It's like we have been together my whole life! My doc's name is Dr. Broker, if you want to mention him to God in particular. Thanks so much for all the prayer you have poured into my health over the last year! I can definitely feel God working. So, once again...

Prayers up!

Another Doc Tomorrow

Tomorrow I go see a new doc. This one is a cardiovascular surgeon. I don't know if he can help me, but I at least want to ask. Is it possible to go into my leg veins and extract the clots that are there? Without risk of any chunks breaking loose and hurting me elsewhere? When I hear from other docs that my body will eventually break down the clots in my leg, but that I'm likely to have permanent damage from the experience (varicose veins, perpetual swelling), then my question is: if we can go in there and get the clots out now, can we prevent some of that long term damage? It might not be possible. It might be too risky. I won't know until I ask.

The wonderful people at our church are still praying for me way beyond what I deserve. And everytime I'm there, many of them ask me how I'm doing. Many say I am walking better - and I am. Thanks for noticing! But honestly, with my betterment requiring God to reknit my nerves from my back to my feet at the lightning rate of 1mm per day and whatever aeons of time until my body breaks down the blood clots, I really can't tell on any given day how I'm doing. I'm telling my loving inquirers that I am daily trusting God to be doing His silent & slow healing work in my body, even though I might not be able to notice it. That I hope one day to wake up and things will suddenly seem better.

In the meantime, I do everything I can and feel like doing. I get to go to work everyday. I get to enjoy my family. I sleep well at night. I just go a bit slower and step more deliberately everywhere I go. I really enjoy my life. I just have this stupid swelling, numbness & pain going on in my leg. God is being good to me and I am just charging ahead in full faith!

Prayers up!