Father's Health Update

Friends

Peace be with you. 

Before I go any further, please know that I’m going to update you on a bit of a health situation I had recently but you should know right from the start that I am healthy. There’s just been a development that, I think, my parish should know. 

At 3:30 in the morning on Friday October 11, I awoke feeling uncomfortable. That’s not unusual. Usually I need to stretch out my back or legs because they’re sore from biking or lifting weights. However, after a few seconds, I knew this was different. My heart was beating very fast. It had happened to me twice before and, to stop it, I needed to breathe and calm myself. I tried doing that but, if anything, it seemed to beat harder. I got up and walked around and contemplated calling my doctor. After ten or fifteen minutes, it felt like it was not going to stop so I got in my truck and drove to the Emergency Room at Mercy Hospital. They hooked me up to a heart monitor and a saline IV and got an EKG. They tried to get my heart to slow down by having me breathe into the back side of a syringe but that didn’t work. So they administered a drug called Idenozine that immediately slowed my heart down. After an hour or so of observation, they let me go home to rest. 

In the follow-up conversations I have had with my doctor and a cardiologist, they are of the opinion that I would benefit from something called an Ablution Catheterization. One way to describe what’s happening is to think of a dragon boat race, where there is a person whose job it to bang a drum to keep all the rowers in sync rowing together. I have the equivalent of a joker banging the drum really fast making everyone work really fast. To fix the problem, we need to give that guy a way off the boat so someone with a better sense of rhythm can take his place. 

The procedure is scheduled to take place Monday December Second and is meant to be outpatient, meaning I should be able to leave afterwards to recoup at home. I will have to take some time to rest that week and I won’t be able to lift anything heavy for a time. I will have to cancel the Mass on Tuesday December Third and Wednesday December Fourth andI won’t be able to schedule any appointments that week. But, I should be able to celebrate the Masses for the previous and following weekends and be back to my “normal” self (whatever that is) by the week of December Ninth.

The doctors assure me that this is not a sign of heart disease. It’s an electrical problem not a plumbing problem. My plumbing (i.e. my heart, veins, and arteries) appears to be totally fine. If it weren’t, I’d have trouble running and biking but I don’t. And there’s a 95% chance that this will fix the problem and it will never be a problem again.

I do ask for your prayers for the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff who will do the procedure and patience with me if it takes me a little longer in December to respond to emails and calls. Know of my prayers for you too.