Perseverance Under Trial

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Blessed is the man who perseverses under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised." James 1:2-4,12 (NIV)
Sorry I have fallen behind on the updates here on my blog, so lets try to catch up. Leaving off with feeling like the doctors are finally getting behind the high blood pressure, things take a more serious turn for the worse. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday bring the spiking blood pressures again and I call Gary at work to come home and take me to Royal University Hospital emergency. I am rushed in ahead of others to see a doctor and again test after test is done and something very small shows up in the blood work. The emergency doctor tells me my sodium is low and would highly recommend that I be admitted to hospital. When the doctor that does the admitting comes to see me the many monitors that I am hooked up to are signalling high blood pressure and very fast heart rate. So no questions asked I was immediately admitted to hospital that evening of March 2nd. A room came available to me around 12:30 am and I was promptly moved up to the ward.
My first night was shared with 3 elderly men who could not get out of there beds, couldn't feed themselves, and shared special sounds like snoring and, well you get the picture. I think I may have had my first experience of what it would be like in a nursing home. Fortunately that would be short lived and I was moved to a private room that afternoon - Yah!! So more tests, lots of blood work, Heparin shots twice a day to keep me from blood clots, because I was not moving around much. A heart stress test was done on Thursday which had not been properly explained to me, which I later found out should have never been done. Gary was with me at the hospital, but was not allowed to come in when the test was administered. So I was injected with a drug that brings on the stress of the heart which is normally done by exercising on a treadmill. It basicly makes you feel like a billion tons is lying on your chest, you can't breath and your entire body seems extremely heavy. Anyway that is done and I tell Gary he can go back to work that day I should be fine. He was barely gone for an hour and my sister called him back because things had gone from bad to worse again. This time I felt like I was going blind and experiencing a severe heart attack. He got to the hospital and things seemed very hazy at this point for me. As I recall the series of events following that attack nothing seems to make sense. The thing that stands out to me is Gary giving me a big hug when he got to my room and then proceeding to tear a strip off the doctor. The doctor tried to help us understand what may have happened and puts the responsibility in another doctors hands. The was the beginning of blaming others and many different opinions by many different doctors, which made things very confusing for both Gary and I.
After that eventful afternoon with my heart and my vision the doctors had me moved to the observation room. I felt like I was being demoted and a sense of hopelessness came over me. By now I am finding it very hard to get around on my own, so I am being wheeled around to the bathroom and to the shower. Of course blood pressure medication was started the day I was admitted to hospital and the meds are starting to have some positive impact. I am taking 4 blood pressure medications plus on the nitro patch to help keep my heart rate down. I have also been placed on a heart monitor, so that the doctors could stay on top of when my heart rate would go up. So that in turn brought on many ECG's that always showed all was okay. Being on so much medication to bring my pressure down, now I am starting to struggle with low blood pressure. Convincing the doctors of this seemed to be quite a challenge until I started having nightmares. An adjustment was made to reduce some meds and change a few. I also started taking a sleeping pill so that I could get some proper sleep. Everyday I would ask if I could move back to a private room hoping things were improving with my health. I ended up being in observation for about 5 days and then happy to be back in a private room. I still needed help getting to the bathroom and to the shower. Someone from the family was always around, so they were able to help me and I didn't have to bother the nurses.