God is so..so..good!

The past seven months have been absolutely exhausting. I would improve for a few weeks, only to have another issues pop up. We would have an inch of progress on one thing and lose two inches on the other side. My doctors and I grew frustrated these past few months, especially lately.

But…over the past month, my cardiologist and I have had the best experts at Mayo, Cleveland Clinic and Georgetown review my case. So, this past month I underwent additional testing to rule out further heart conditions and/or need for another heart surgery.

Today, we finally got answers as to why I keep having chest pain. Its called pericarditis. As it was explained to me, the layers of the pericardium rub against the heart, causing extreme pain. As for now we will treat with medicine and there is no need for surgery!

…Being the typical patient that I am who doesn’t follow the textbook, it didn’t show on my EKG, but showed on the Cardiac MRI. (The MRI is a story for another time..but be sure to ask my mom about the teal socks). Last week as I sat in the cardiologists office and we talked about what the MRI could find, my cardiologist explained, “I know you want answers, but you do not want constrictive pericarditis, that would be a bad diagnosis”.

I’m not sure who was more anxious me or my cardiologist as we awaited the results of the MRI.

Praise the Lord that it is not constrictive pericarditis. My prayers are with anyone who has that diagnosis tonight.

As  I was dropping off the results to my cardiologists office today, ‘Dr. Yale’ happened to be walking through and took a moment to review the written results. After looking at them, he told me “Kristin, this is a victory and we are running with it!”

Praise God that we have a victory and we now know exactly how to treat it. Often times, another diagnosis feels like a defeat as my list continues to grow. Even though this was another diagnosis, I have known all along that something was not right. My Victory of the Heart came in the ability to trust myself enough to continue to advocate for more tests and the proper answers. I will not miss the hospital stays, tests and all that comes with it, but I will miss my 6th floor nurses, who honestly are one of the greatest blessings of my last 7 months. They came to know me by name and have fought for me, cared for me and encouraged me when all hope seemed lost.

I would like to start adding a prayer intention at the end of each post and encourage each of you to send them via the comments or the like, I would love to pray for you.

1. Anyone who suffers form Constrictive pericarditis.

2. For my doctor’s wisdom (My body doesnt respond as it should to some treatment methods and yet others provide improvement)

3. A prayer of gratitude for all who have supported me along the way.

4. For all the nurses who have cared for me.