And the Beat Goes On..

While Terry made it through surgery, his recovery may be a little tougher than anticipated.  Part of it is attributed to having two surgeries on the same day, but a more important consideration may be that his body has been under assault from excessive amounts of hormones for years now.  His rest has not been as beneficial as someone with significant heart damage might need, and to compound that by having cancer in his thyroid, which is yet another gland influencing activity levels, and his own body was setting him up to fail.  All things considered, I believe he has responded in a rather heroic manner.


I have tried to explain to the medical professionals who work with Terry that nothing he is ever diagnosed with comes with an easy diagnosis.  His heart attack 10 years ago was undiagnosed until a faxed copy of his EKG was received by a cardiologist at another hospital.  By the time they had determined he was full of infection from a major staph infection 6 years ago, I had taken him to the ER twice, and our primary care physician's office once in one week's time, and he'd had multiple labs and diagnostics trying to figure it out.  They transported him to another hospital so they could see any problems in the back of his heart, and found patches of vegetation in his heart chambers, necessitating open heart surgery and 6 weeks of IV antibiotics.  


Those experiences pale when compared to what he's been through over the past 5+ years.  The vomiting and retching began the day after the 2004 presidential election.  Initially when these events started, he'd vomit for 12, 15, 18 hours or more.  He would hit patches of time when he wasn't vomiting regularly, but never felt well and certainly wasn't getting over whatever he had.  He had referrals to specialists and scopes and blood and lab work, and got nowhere.  But rather than having specialists who wanted to get to the root of his problems, he had doctors who got frustrated when they couldn't figure it out, and tried to put it back on him.  There is no question that Terry did NOT want this happening over and over and over, but it was easier for specialists to indicate he had a hand in whatever was happening, and then they could be finished with it.  There are no words to adequately describe my anger at these doctors who couldn't be bothered to do their jobs to our satisfaction and release Terry from the suffering he endured....for years.  


So, more than 5 years after this all started, and after our entire family had been impacted by Terry's health, we started getting answers.  Finally...but even thinking we had answers didn't adequately prepare us to find out just how long this has been going on.   When his doctor came out of surgery, I learned that the slow growing thyroid cancer he had had been slow growing long enough that there was more than just the one mass on it we knew about.  As a result, the lymph nodes came out, and he WILL have radiation.  The adrenal gland mass, which we hope to find has been the culprit behind the vomiting, had been growing and overproducing for so long that it had actually adhered itself to his aorta, pancreas, and kidney.  HOW does that happen?  How can someone go to multiple doctors, have multiple hospitalizations, and no one knows what's going on with him?


Two days after his surgery his vitals were very unstable.  His blood pressure was 57/43.  His heart rate was 50 beats, and was so irregular that his pacemaker, which to our knowledge has never functioned in pacemaker mode, was working quite a bit due to the irregular beats.  His respirations and blood oxygen levels were all low.  Was it because he no longer had large amounts of adrenaline in his system?  Was it because the physical strain on his already compromised body was all but too much?  I don't know....but I know I spent hours in the ICU watching his monitor doing the most fascinating things.  Fascinating, I suppose, when it's not indicative of potentially negative information where a loved one is concerned.  But I knew he was in good hands, so I tried not to worry.  


Terry's will to survive is extraordinary.  He's been subjected to three life threatening situations in the last 10 years, and despite the odds, finds a way to battle back.  Even with a damaged heart, he finds a way to keep going....he's like a Timex watch.  He takes a licking, but his heart keeps ticking....and aren't we glad?