Angels Among Us

Angels Among Us ~ Fighting Daily with Heart Failure pt. 3

My nurse’s name was Amy and the Dr.s NP was Linda. Through all of this, God placed some wonderful, God fearing people to take care of me. I’d never had a heart catheterization and I was kind of nervous but they put me at ease.

The team that was going to help do the procedure came to get me on Mon. morning. They explained the procedure, how the Dr. would numb a place in my groin, over the main artery, and guide a special catheter into the heart, checking pressure along the way. I woke up with a Swan sticking out my neck, not the bird, a catheter that can measure pressures in the heart. Everything went as expected.

Because my heart was enlarged, the catheter was floating around and didn’t stay in the “wedge” where the Dr.s wanted the readings from. I had to go back Cath Lab. A different team of people came to get me. They introduced themselves as Jim and Lisa. Everyone, Dr.s, nurses, blood lab workers,etc., were very good at introducing themselves so I’d know who they were. When I was in the lab, I was introduced to Dr.Jones, another nurse, Brenda and a tech, Tom, that was reading the ultrasound. The Dr. was going to have to re-thread the swan to get the end in the wedge. He wasn’t as gentle as the previous Dr. He was ripping the tape off my neck, pulling little hairs as he went. Lisa put a blue covering over my face to make the area sterile,turning my head, leaving a tiny little space to breath through. Then, the Dr. says, “Oops, I put the wrong size catheter in. I’ll have to do it again” Tears are starting to form and roll down my cheek. I can only see the feet of someone I thought was a tech. He asked me if I was OK and squatted down to see my eyes and holding my hand. He wasn’t in the room when we started. I just kept staring into his sunglass covered eyes. I felt comforted and that everything was going to be OK. When the Dr. said he was finished with the catheter, the tech stood up and the nurse came around and took off the blue covering. When I looked around to say goodbye and thanks to the tech that made me feel better, he was gone. I asked where he was and no one knew who I was talking about. I immediately thought he was an angel.

Psalms 91:11 – For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.