What happens next

Thursday, June 15, 2023

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What happens next

Brothers and sisters, to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over the hearts of the children of Israel, but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed.

Along with Andi and Margaret, I met a few of my VIPs today. Norma, who schedules my heart stuff, Fran(zisca), who does everything, Dr. Bill (Kessler) who gave us a few reasons to choose open chest surgery, Dr. Mark (Pirwitz) and another Michelle, who has a wonderful smile. Chi and Leanna did my EKG, I kept looking at them and then apologizing for wanting too much eye contact.

“You can never have too much eye contact,” Leanna told me a minute later, when they were done with their work. Ten leads and stickums, scattered all over my chest, arms and legs – OK, let’s skip the eye contact until that’s done.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Dr. Mark brought his two team members with him into our smaller-than-I-expected conference room. Andi and Margaret got the only chairs. I gave each of them a sheet of thoughts I’d put together, “my two cents,” I said. This decision would influence and be influenced by 1) physical, 2) emotional, 3) spiritual, 4) intellectual and 5) relational facts and factors. Thinking through those with Margaret and Andi, then writing them out, made decision-making yesterday in our small conference room not just possible, but simple and straightforward.

Dr. Mark explained the minimal procedures, which would have been their certain choice for me, except that my very important LAD (left anterior descending) artery is 70% blocked at a critical juncture, where it splits in two. That along with the at least three-years-old complete blockage of the right coronary artery made the decision more complicated.

But over time the right artery has thrown off a number of collateral arteries to bypass the blockage. I don’t feel it, but it’s like a river in there, blocked and then backing up and making new channels for itself. Maybe just leave that to itself for awhile? Don’t fix what ain’t broke?

We decided to do both the valve replacement and stent in the left artery without open chest surgery, which involves a ten inch or so cut through the sternum to get to both the valve and artery, and then six or eight weeks of recovery time.

Instead, Drs. Mark and Bill will complete two separate procedures a couple of weeks apart through my groin, first the arterial stent and then replacement of the aortic valve. Of course there are initials for everything, first a PCI, or percutaneous coronary intervention, and then a TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Sometime in that process I’ll also have a coronary CT angiogram.

These two guys have accomplished nearly a thousand of these miracles. Although Dr. Mark is younger than me, he does look a little like my dad if I squint, so I told him so. I feel safe with him. He liked that.

All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.

During her mom’s 44 day hospital stay, Andi kept a gratitude journal on the wall in her room. She filled out one page, then added another. She filled that up too, and added another.

This time she has a beautiful blue notebook to record “The Sandel Heart Saga, Part 2,” which she began on June 12 after dropping me off at the hospital for my heart cath. She continued writing yesterday, and caught several of the funny, telling, or important comments various folks made. She also took my picture with the three doctor teammates from the Ascension Texas Cardiovascular Clinic. That clinic feels a little like home, just as Dr. Mark feels a little like my dad.

We shared some iced coffee and cream, along with banana bread with Andi once we got home. I drank hers (sugared) and she drank mine (non-sugared), but she didn’t say a word.

God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ.

 (2 Cor 3-4, Psalm 85, John 13, Matthew 5)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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