Thursday, November 6, 2008

Prayers Needed for my family

I am asking for prayers for my brother and his wife. The following is an e-mail I recieved a few days ago.

I would like to inform you of a recent development concerning my wife Charity’s Health.

After a routine visit to her regular doctor last Monday (10/27) to treat what she thought was bronchitis, she was sent immediately to the Emergency Room.

Initially the Dr in the Emergency Room suspected the she had Pneumonia because of her chest X-Ray. Her Lungs sounded clear, She had NO fever, All Doctors & nurses commented that she appeared “Normal & healthy” although her breathing was shallow and her heart rate was elevated (@ 115-130 bpm). As a result she was admitted to the Hospital.
Monday through Wednesday she was treated as if she had Pneumonia (IV Antibiotics, oxygen, and albuterol breathing treatments.) Thursday AM she had an optic inspection of her lungs that showed a clear fluid was present so infection was not suspected, but her lungs were inflamed.
The doctor then did an Echocardiogram (a sonogram of her heart) Thursday evening and it revealed an obscure extra beat was present (like a 5 legged horse galloping), indicative of a heart working too hard. This did not and will not show up on the EKG that was taken in the ER. An angiogram (Heart Catheter) was then performed Friday AM and it revealed no blockage of her arteries and her pumping capacities and pressures were normal and a small amount of fluid was removed from around her heart.
Her Final diagnosis is Congestive Heart Failure that they think was brought on by a viral Pneumonia that had spread to her Heart (they have only speculated that this is what happened but have NO substantial proof).

This is a condition that is EXTREMELY RARE for a 31 yr old Female in relatively good health and has all the doctors puzzled.
This is a condition that may or may not improve over time. She will have weekly visits to the Cardiologist to monitor for changes & improvements and he will constantly tweak her medications as necessary.
She was released from the hospital on Saturday (11/1) at about 1pm. We had a disappointing (Heart breaking) evening on Saturday with the last second loss UT suffered to Texas Tech, and fortunately her Heart was at least strong enough to take the loss.
My Wife is relatively OK as of today ... She is home resting, she has been very tired, and her vitals (pulse rate & blood pressure) have only slightly improved.

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