Another round in the ER

I'm requesting your prayers as we've had some new complications come up in regards to my health. On Friday, I was feeling very lethargic/light-headed and ill. I ended up calling my doctor and was talking to my nurse regarding some other things (I'm going to be doing another drug research project for the CF Institute in Chicago). I happened to ask Kristin, my nurse, what my INR (the test to see how the comadin, the drug used to thin my blood to dissipate the blood clots) was. She said on Monday it was 3.8, which is pretty high. I called Dr Egner's office and told his nurse that I had cut myself on Tuesday changing the oil on my car and I had bled for 24 hours. She told me to come in and get my INR rechecked immediately on Friday, and it was now 4.4, which is critically high. They took me off the coumadin until Monday to allow my levels to lower. With an INR too high, internal bleeding can occur.

On Friday and into Saturday, the left side of my neck started to ache pretty bad. I also completely lost my voice. It wasn't in the back or on the side of my neck, it was the front next to my esophagus. By Saturday afternoon, it was starting to creep up under my jaw line. Considering all the complications with blood clots that I've had recently, Jennifer and I talked about it and we thought we should at least run over to Convenient Care to get it checked out.

We went to CC and the doc there said that if it was muscular, like I slept on it wrong, it wouldn't affect my voice box. He conferred with another MD, who worked in the ER, and they both recommended that we go to the ER to get some testing and lab work done.

We dropped Mady off at the Angelo's again (thank you!!), and returned to the ER. Dr Davis was my physician this time and we really liked him a lot. He was a Cardinals fan (the game was on) so that definitely helped. He ordered a CT scan to see what was going on. He said that sometimes blood clots can get infected, or there might be some type of abscess that he would send me to the OR to get removed. They really didn't know, it was perplexing to a lot of people. Although she wasn't working on my side of the ER, Lindy and her husband Adam stopped by to hang out with us while I was there.

After about 30 minutes, the CT scan came back with the news that I had a couple of enlarged and infected lymph nodes. There's not a lot that they can do for this, although they did give me a couple of IV shots of Morphine (never turn down pain medications) and ended up sending us home with a prescription of vicatin. Dr Davis also said that the CT scan indicated a nodule on my thyroid that we have to go back this week and get an ultrasound done to see if there's anything that would happen to be malignant. The good news is is that it's small, so it's early and I'm not having any thyroid hormonal issues at this time. They told us to keep watch on my neck that night and return if anything changes at all.

We left at about 6:30 and picked up Mady from the Potter's (the Angelo's had gone there for dinner) and went home.

This time around was a little easier for my regarding my fears. I see the Lord getting increase in my life. I've been battling nightmares since the last time that I came in to the ER. Not so much the fear of dying, but the fear of leaving my wife and daughter with no husband and daddy. It's almost too much for me to bear. I've really had to surrender this all the God, as he is the the Great Physician. His timing is perfect and his healing touch is available should he decide to touch my body.

I also saw a tremendous increase in Jenn's faith. She's definitely the glue of the family that keeps us all together. She's awesome at juggling responsibilities and taking care of me and Mady. Her composure in the ER was like a rock. I love her so much.