Thursday, March 11, 2010

Day 1

We had a great first day at the Clinic today and felt confirmation from the Lord as a reminder of why He sent us here. Our day started off with an EKG, XRAY and blood work at 9:30.

If you follow me on Twitter, then you would have already seen my confession that I am a baby when it comes to needles. This was once again confirmed today. When the lab worker took me back to draw blood, she asked if I have had trouble with drawing blood in the past. Surprisingly enough, despite all of the years I have faithfully gone in for check ups, I really haven't had blood drawn all that much. She started off by tying the rubber around my left arm and thumping on my veins for a while, and then said the dreaded words: "Ok you'll feel a slight pinch now."

Slight pinch was a definite understatement and even more than that, she told me it was coming. I prefer a sneak attack. You see, I'm twenty-five years old, and any time I'm going to have something (shot, blood work, etc) that involves a needle, I inform the nurse to please just stick me and not count. Then, I start a specific breathing series to help get me through the pain. {Please don't comment that it's really not that painful. I have issues people!} Nurses struggled to give me shots up until I was probably 10, which is now embarrassing to admit on the blog. Someone cam up with the idea that I had to blow a balloon up as I was getting a shot. I can't remember if they actually used to give me the balloon to blow up or if I just mimicked it with my breathing, but to this day I still use my "blow the balloon up breathing" for when I get a shot.

Back on track now. The slight pinch hurt. And there was no blood coming out. So she quickly pulls the needle out and starts getting the other arm ready, while I inform her to not tell me when it's coming. She gets it started and then has to fill up seven viles of blood. SEVEN. It went quicker than I expected but was longer than I wanted. I was feeling a little woozy, as I had to fast before it and the whole time I was thinking "You are about to go through so much more than this slight pinch pain! How in the world will you make it ya baby?!?"

I don't know how I'll make it. I'll start finding out tomorrow, as I have a heart cath. We found out tonight that I will check in at 11 and they will start preparing me for the cath around 11:30. It should take about an hour to do the actual cath and then I will have to lay flat for at least 2 hours after that so they make sure the incision is closing. We had a really great visit with Dr. Krasuski today (the cardiologist.) He explained why the cath and what they would be doing for the cath. My dad totally took pictures. The embarrassing things we do for blog material! Those should be up tomorrow. Even cooler than pictures of my doctor, I will receive copies of pictures from the heart cath. We are talking the inside of my heart people! I am definitely excited about this souvenir! It was also great to talk with Dr. K and see how far things have come in 20 years. I have about a 4 inch scar on my left leg from when they did my cath from the first surgery. For this one, the incision will only be a few cementers long and will not even require stitches. Unbelievable!

I think that about catches everyone up with where we are now. Please say a prayer at 11:30 Eastern/ 10:30 central time tomorrow for the heart cath. Dr. K has done a thousand of these without any complications, but there still are some risks that can come up. We are claiming through faith that we don't even have to worry about them! Thanks again for supporting us on this journey!

Love you!
abby

1 comment:

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