God is on MY Side...

Psalm 56:9 

My doctor’s orders were to take 6 to eight weeks to heal from my surgery. During this timeframe I was on a lot of pain medication which caused me to sleep for most of the day. I was to follow-up with my doctor if I noticed anything that wasn’t a part of my “new normal” and certainly to follow-up with my oncologist about getting my staples removed and follow-up treatment.

About a week after being home my breathing wasn’t right and it seemed like my heart was almost skipping a beat. I knew something was off and I thought perhaps it was due to the medicine but I didn’t want to take any risks. I called my oncologist on his “after hours line” and he got right back to me. He was concerned that I may have a blood clot which is normal, however very serious after the kind of surgery I had and the fact that I wasn’t moving around a lot. He instructed me to go to emergency immediately. The first thing the doctors checked was my heart, so I had an EKG done. Then they checked for blood clots and saw none and then finally I had a CT Scan and waited for the results.

The results came back and the doctor informed me that my heart was enlarged. Enlarged?! I couldn’t believe my ears and quite honestly, I was fed up. Hadn’t I gone through enough? Was I under attack? Was it not enough that I had cancer at 25, had two surgeries and now this? The doctor was adamant that this was the case and wanted me to stay until the next morning so I could see a cardiologist. I spent yet another night in the hospital. The next morning I waited and waited and found out that a cardiologist wasn’t going to be available for quite some time. I asked to be released. I just couldn’t spend another hour in the hospital. I had just gotten out of the hospital and I wasn’t expecting to go back so soon. The doctor was against my decision and made me sign a waiver to leave. It honestly didn’t sit well with me; I just couldn’t believe that after having two surgeries that an enlarged heart wouldn’t have been caught so I gladly signed the forms and agreed to follow-up with a cardiologist of my choosing.

Upon returning home I called my primary doctor to let her know what was going on and she referred me to a cardiologist. I scheduled an appointment for the following week. When I went for my appointment they ran several tests and the doctors confirmed my thoughts that my heart wasn’t enlarged, but it did appear that there was some fluid on it and that was normal given I just had surgery.

Later that week I had my staples removed and it was pretty painless until they got to my lower abdominal region. I was finally on my way to truly healing and happy to be on this road of recovery. I knew that cancer was removed from my body, both surgeries were now behind me and although totally unexpected issues with my heart had arose, they had been ruled out and now the staples that were binding me together were gone. I had a little pep in my step; I think both figuratively and literally. It was like the staples really had me bound and bent over, but once removed I was able to stand a lot better on my own. I guess I never considered my entire journey. I now know it wasn’t and still isn’t going to be easy and some days will be harder than others, but one thing I do know that is certain is that God is on my side and with Him I can overcome anything.