It has been 10 months since my last angioplasty!!! Back in February I had an appointment and my SVC stents were narrowing just enough that I could have set up angioplasty to open them back up. After talking with my doctor, he did agree we could wait until my next appointment with my cardiologist the first week in May. Depending on how everything looked in those scans would determine when I would need to schedule an angioplasty, which I was hoping I would still be able to push back.

But then Covid hit and who would have imagined we would be on lockdown for two months?!! After a lot of praying and discussion with my husband and doctors, I rescheduled my heart appointment from May to July, meaning that my angioplasty would get pushed back. By this time I was confident my stents needed to be open!

I told Tim if it wasn’t for being in the peak of this pandemic I would have called my doctor sooner to get in. Not too long after I had rescheduled in February, the chest pressure got tighter, the shortness of breath became more labored and fatigue was just too much. If this covid is as highly contagious as reported, chances were pretty high I would get it. My body feels extremely weak and vulnerable right now so I figured the wiser decision instead of putting off my angioplasty any longer was to actually go have it done. This way doctors could open my stents as much as possible giving my body a better chance of fighting any virus that I might come across!

So, tomorrow Tim and I will be heading to Iowa City for my procedure at 9am. A HUGE answer to prayer this week was that some restrictions were lifted meaning that Tim can actually come in to the hospital with me!! I was prepared to go in alone but am extremely grateful he will be with me for the nurses to harass him to make sure he gives me a sweet kiss and he will of course add some sarcastic encouragement as I am wheeled away to the operating room!

While my symptoms have been pretty intense, I have still been making the most of our family time together. I have been trying to maintain the health that I do have without putting too much pressure on my heart and bad lung. So speaking of trying not to overdue it…yesterday the kids and I went to one of our favorite spots on the bike trail. Asher had his bike, Leah had her rollerblades and I walked.

Now that they are older it is actually a good workout for me as I try to keep up with them. Well, we decided to do a different loop…a short loop that I thought brought us back to where we started. My plan was to do one mile and then just hit some of our other local spots. However, my husband was not with us like he normally is to navigate and I was wrong…dead wrong! The loop did not bring us back to where we started. It was not just a mile so it did not even come close to where we started!! Our one mile walk turned in to FOUR miles!!!

On the hottest day of the year!!! The kids handled it well overall, although by the time we made it back to our car they were complaining of sore muscles which resulted in me telling them they needed to be thankful they even have legs to walk with!! I was feeling their pain too and trying to find the positive haha!

Leah’s face says it all…

And yeah…as you can see my SVC syndrome was in full force! My chest was thumpin, my head was pounding, my breathing was painful and my face was deep red purplish?!

But the same way I encouraged my kids, I encouraged myself! I first thanked the Lord for factoring in my bad decision making and providing me enough air in my lung to make it back home!! Then I thanked Him for the fact that if I could do four miles in 90 degree weather knowing my stents are closing, even though it was a challenge, I still did it!!

I am eager to get back to Iowa City in the morning so that I can get my stents opened and work on getting my body even stronger.

I have been overwhelmed by how many of you have reached out to us and we are so grateful for your continued thoughts and prayers! I look forward to updating you in the next few days when I am feeling up to it!!