Thoughts and Prayers for those in need

Backwoods Savage

 

Condolences Gasifier , prayers up for the whole family.

 

X2 sorry i missed this earlier

 

Praying for you, BrianK . Hope they found something out.

 

X2

 

X2

 

So sorry to hear this, my prayers for you and your family. May JESUS bring HIS COMFORT and PEACE.

 

Please keep my mom in your thoughts. We finally had to move her to a full time nursing home today. She has lost a lot of her mental capacity and most of her physical strength. My sister hurt her shoulder and back again lifting her. Hope she makes the transition ok. We won't be able to see her. The place had a virus outbreak a month ago.

 

Prayers brother. I sure understand about this. Very hard on everyone.. Sorry . I also hope your sister heals soon .

 

Sorry that your mom has declined to that point. You and your family supported her in her own home for a long time. I hope it is a good place, but no visitors makes it especially tough. Prayers for your mom's adjustment.

 

She just got the nurse to call me, I talked to her, she said I needed to come get her out of that place......told her I was at work, which I am...

 

Thanks!

I shared this with family and friends on Facebook last night:

Modern medicine, or miracles?

Folks have a tendency to criticize both doctors and modern medicine in general, and pharmacology in particular.

I would not be alive right now if it weren’t for both, as well as obvious Divine Intervention. Good people have prayed for me around the world. If it weren’t for their prayers, frankly, I wouldn’t be here right now

I have familial inherited high cholesterol and high triglycerides, as well as inherited atherosclerosis from both my mom and my dad’s side, with heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and stroke on both my parents’ sides.

My siblings and I therefore inherited a double dose of all these genes. I’m the middle child of five siblings. We’ve already lost my older brother and older sister to heart attacks, at 54 and 49 respectively.

My cholesterol has been as high as 650 and my triglycerides as high as 1300. These are pathologically high numbers with enormous risk for atherosclerosis. I’ve paid the price with a heart attack, triple bypass, diabetes, hypertension, five strokes and recent advanced congestive heart failure.

Late summer and fall, my cardiac output collapsed from 40% (which it’s been for 12 years since a heart attack and triple bypass) to 18%. Normal is 50-55%. I have severe left bundle branch block and extensive heart muscle scarring due to prior heart attack(s?) and ischemia. I was rapidly getting symptoms of severe congestive heart failure this fall, with leg swelling, fatigue and bad shortness of breath with any exertion or laying flat at night.

On Friday the cardiologists surgically inserted a bi ventricular pacemaker with a defibrillator in my left upper chest. I had thought it was simply to delay the inevitable.

However, it turns out that with advanced left sided cardiomyopathy due to advanced left bundle branch block, these special pacemakers can actually cause the left side of the heart to physically and physiologically remodel, shrink and return to normal size and shape, restoring cardiac output; my left ejection fraction could return to its former output of 40% in two to three months.

I had the pacemaker surgically implanted on Friday at noon. Already on Monday, just 72 hours later, I no longer had shortness of breath or wheezing with minimal exertion, I can lay flat on my back with no shortness of breath, my ankle edema is mostly resolved, and I did errands all afternoon without fatigue. I felt better Monday than I have since August.

They also started me on Praluent, a twice monthly injection that blocks cholesterol production in the liver, and Vascepa, a prescription only high dose of Omega 3 fish oils that lowers triglycerides. That combination of medications has brought my cholesterol and triglycerides down to the lowest levels of my adult life.

They also added Farxiga, a diabetes medication that also drastically improves outcomes for patients with congestive heart failure. It’s a natural diuretic that functions by causing the kidneys not to reabsorb as much glucose from the urine, thus spilling glucose in the urine, lowering blood sugars and blood pressure and alleviating the symptoms of heart failure and diabetes.

The addition of Farxiga to the metformin I already take has rapidly resulted in an HgA1C (three month average blood sugar) of 5.6. My blood glucose is now “normal,” no longer in the pre diabetic, let alone diabetic, range.

These results are due to good diligent medical care with techniques, technologies and pharmaceuticals that simply were not available in my younger adult life. If they had been, I think my older brother and sister would likely still be alive.

How much of my current dramatic improvement, despite being on the cusp of cardiovascular collapse just last week, is the result of modern medicine, and how much is a result of the ardent prayers of good and holy men, women and children, many of whom are not known to me personally?

I have no idea. It’s one of those questions - on a long list of questions - I’m going to ask if and when I make it to Heaven.

In the meantime I do truly believe that, despite all the top notch medical care I am receiving, I wouldn’t be here if not for prayer.

And for that I am grateful, and owe many of you a depth of gratitude I simply cannot adequately express.

​

 

Thats very sad for sure. I understand that its something that you and your family have given allot of thought to.. Your post makes me wonder what Im going to do with my wife one day. Just like you sending them to a home is the last thing you want to do and Im sure its hard not to feel guilt.. Hang in there Jeff..

 

Prayers for you and yours.

 

My mom would try to escape. Ramming the aides with her walker, trying to get through the door before it locked shut. It was a nice place, but to her it was jail. We had to do it, because she needed 24 hour supervision. It makes you feel terrible, but you have to live your own life.

 

Brother, don't let that be a question. Know for a fact the you WILL see JESUS and spend eternity with HIM. Just trust in HIS NAME, ask HIM to forgive your sins, and accept HIM as your SAVIOR. Have faith that HE can do this.

 

Thanks y'all for the encouragement. My wife and I have done most of the things she needed since dad died in '01.
Early this year is when she needed more care than we could give and my sister retired and started helping most of the 16 hr days. I guess the hardest thing is knowing I can't walk up to her house and see her. I used to stop by everyday and make sure she had plenty of wood in the Fisher stove. I didn't go see her as much lately......
The changes were really hard for me to handle.

 

Need some prayers guys/gals My Dad was put in hospice yesterday after a battle with alzheimer's , He is 83 and his body is just shutting down. This has to be the toughest thing I have been through.

 

To me, this is an amazing mystery. We don't even know them, and yet they're prayers are heard, and often effective.
So keep at it friends. The prayer list has become quite busy lately.
All that said...; I got the feeling that God isn't yet done with Dr. BrianK.
Strength and courage. To everyone.