Health Update

God is good!

Despite His great faithfulness in the past, there have been times along this journey where I have been incredibly afraid and have doubted God’s goodness and even his love for me. It was during one such fearful moment back in May when God showed me this promise in Exodus 33:14, “The Lord replied, ‘I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.’” And once again, I can see that He has proven Himself faithful to His Word and continues to “personally” go with me!

My angiogram in August confirmed that I indeed have blood clots blocking the flow to/in my lungs which disqualified me for the clinical study. However, thanks to God’s grace, the sign of blood clots is actually a good thing because that means that there is an identifiable reason for the pulmonary hypertension. Not only is there a reason, but there is also a way to fix it – a cure! A cure for something that I had been told was incurable! HOPE. I just found out on Wednesday that I am a good candidate for a rare procedure called a Pulmonary Thromboendarectomy (PTE) in which these old blood clots are removed from the pulmonary arteries. I will be having the surgery in San Diego at UCSD where a team of doctors has performed more of these than anywhere else in the world, currently about three times a week. Also, my best friend and her family just so happen to live in San Diego which is a really cool miracle!

I am scheduled to fly to San Diego on November 14^th, spend a couple days in testing at their facility, and assuming all goes well will have my surgery at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, November 19^th. I am very excited, and my family is working on getting excited. J It is a very serious open chest surgery and I will likely be in ICU for several days and then in the hospital another week to 10 days. My mom and dad and sister will all be with me for the surgery and we will spend a very grateful Thanksgiving in the hospital! I will stay in San Diego for another couple weeks and then return to Houston around the second week of December for complete recovery. Let me know if you have any questions, serious or otherwise!

I continue to be humbled by your love and sustained by your prayers.