The Heart

Today, like many days, has been an emotional day. It's hard to remember what happened when, but the day included (and all as it relates to my mom):
HBP
Nausea
Vomiting
Chest pressure
Leg jerking/spasms
A harsh scare of high heart rate that made about 6 nurses all come in here and yell this and that to each other with bring this and that and page doctor and do this. That was actually a very uncomfortable moment. It also really upset Mom. It started with vomiting, then the high heart rate from the vomiting and along with it some high blood pressure. She's just really, REALLY tired of dealing with the nonsense that comes with cancer and the treatments. Who can blame her? She's had more to deal with than most of us can begin to imagine.

After that I just read some Scripture to her for a while until she fell asleep. Her oncologist came by to let us know they were taking a closer look at her heart because of the chest pressure. It could be one of the side effects from that particular type of chemo. It's too long of an explanation to go into, but yes, it can cause a heart spasm type of thing. That would cause the pressure she was feeling. They did a CT scan this evening to see what else they could find with her heart. Of course, they want to rule out heart damage, etc. If there was any kind of plaque in those arteries, they'll be able to tell as well.

I was thinking earlier...a long train of thought that it's too late for me to go into right now, but I was thinking...good will come of this. We may never know what it is, but what if it had something to do with finding heart plaque? Maybe they'll find it; maybe they won't. But if they did, it could be a great way to foresee something to be able to prevent it later. God willing, they won't find anything, but ...

So this evening Mom was actually feeling better, and I could so tell. No, she's nowhere near to what she was last Friday before the chemo started, but I'll take any victory. There are lots of small victories that I don't want to forget, and I'm trying to keep track. This is one. It's no small one to me. To have the 5 minute conversation we were able to have tonight because she felt that much better brought me some pretty good almond joy. She even wanted to make a phone call. AND she smiled a very real and hopeful smile. Nice. Very nice.

How to pray:
-that there would be no heart damage or abnormal scan results
-appetite. Now that the nausea seems to be under control, my mom really needs to eat, eat, eat to get her strength back.
-nausea. before she can eat, the nausea has to be kept under control.
-regulated blood pressure and heart rate
-infection-less stay at the hospital
-uh, and this is more of an overall request - pray that this Gustav tropical-storm-turning-into-hurricane would uh...steer clear at least for a while.