Heart Reflections Live

It's 9am and I've just farewelled my husband again by ambulance for another cardio-inversion. Please pray for prompt, swift treatment at the hospital, and that God would graciously preserve him again theough this procedure that does carry quite a risk.

He heart suddenly popped out of rhythm while I was showering this morning. It seemed more stressful in the midst of screaming babies and worried big sisters.

Knowing Max, he'll be keen to get fixed and outa there! We'd planned a family trip out today for last minute Christmas shopping, and I'd also planned to catch up with a very dear old friend I'd known since kindergarten, we don't understand God's timing, but we do trust His heart and His Sovereignty.

Will let you know how things go...

Labels: testing times

It's 3am and yet again I'm requesting prayers for my dear husband, whose heart has gone into rapid AF for the third time in just over a month. Please pray the usual as per the last few blog entries.

I never intended my blog to become a list a prayer requests- don't get me wrong great things are happening in our lives, we've just a had a busy month- too busy to blog much- but this is a great concern to me that this has happened 3 times in just over a month for no apparent reason. It's a test of my faith, and I'm starting to wonder if it's time for Max to be on medication for his condition, or, dare I say it, if this the beginning of the end...

I covet your prayers this night wherever on the globe you live. My 7 year old daughter woke as max was led out to the ambulance, so no doubt will spend the rest of the night in our bed- will keep you posted.

Thank you Jesus for Your Peace

Labels: testing times

Well, they had a good team of Doctors on at the hospital, who didn't muck around with Max's heart condition. He was cardio-inverted pretty much straight away- fixed him first zap!- and I spoke to him in the ER over the phone just under 2 hours after it happened. He's resting now,awaiting discharge.

Thank the Lord for HIs mercy and Grace- YET AGAIN!!- and thankyou for praying.

If you've never read any of my posts about Max's heart conditions: He has tricuspet artesia, pulmonary stenosis and transposition of the great vessells. He has NEVER had heart surgery, takes no medication at this point except for 1/2 an aspirin per day and fish oil capsules, and for the last nearly 8 years has had several episodes a year of rapid AF attacks, the only treatment being for him cardio-inversions, as medications such as amiodorone alone won't put him back in normal rhythm. There's a good chance he is the oldest living person on Earth with these conditions. He horrifies his doctors by visiting developing countries to preach, ends up in hospitals, and lives to tell the tale, bringing much glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we praise for each extra day we have with our walking miracle!

Labels: testing times

Yes, my hubby has survived his 30th cardio-inversion! I spoke to him by phone about 4.30am. ER was fairly quiet and he was treated straight away. He should be coming home by taxi soon. Thankyou for your prayers. I got bits of sweet sleep between the babies waking. ( Hubby went into AF on his baby night shift-LOL!) The children are sleeping, the sun is shining. My heart is thankful and bursting with praise to The Lord of Heaven and Earth!!!!

Labels: testing times

My Reaction to the news coverage of Queensland's Doom and Gloom State budget was to thank the Good Lord for our free water, herbs, and the fruit and veges to come, glory in the happy, healthy, smiling faces of our four children, turn off the TV, put on my Smoky Mountain Hymns DVD, and do a happy dance! :-)

I think I'll relax with a Tasha Tudor book tonight and choose joy...

Labels: testing times

Please pray if you are awake and happen to see this. My husband Max has just left in the ambulance to go to the hospital for what will be his 29th cardio-inversion. This is his first one he's had since he nearly died in Vanuatu on Feb 4th.

Please pray for competency in the medical team at the hospital, which would have just changed shift, and for God's hand of mercy and protection to be upon him.

Thankyou
Claire

If you want to know more about his very rare conditions, try putting" heart' into the search blog box at the top of the page, as I've posted a few times on this.

Labels: testing times

Labels: testing times

I'd been meaning to post an "I'm Back" post the last couple of days but hadn't gotten around to it. Instead I'm posting a prayer request again to uphold my husband , Max, who has just gone off to hospital via ambulance again, for cardio-inversion No. 27. Please pray for peace and grace for Max as he undergoes another one, for God's hand of protection to be upon him, and competency in the Emergency team.

I prayed for him when he awoke in AF, and his heart rate actually slowed down a little by the time the ambulance arrived. I'm hoping and praying he'll be back in normal rhythm by daybreak- it's 3.30 am here now.

The twins and the rest of us are all fine. I had a longer than normal hospital stay starting from the last Saturday in November. The rash had spread all over me and Max came home to find me with a fever. I was admitted, but still had to wait till the 2nd December for my Ceaser, though they considered doing it earlier. Praise the Lord, I had no post-op complications this time, prayers were answered, but at 40, now 41, I found it that bit harder to recover ( it was my third major uterine surgery) so was in hospital 12 days, we then spent over a week at my parents' place while I recovered and while hubby continued to shop for a new vehicle to fit us all in! We finally got a Chrysler Voyager. We'd been shopping for months to find a people mover that had enough room inside not only for people, but for a twin pram and the other paraphernalia we carry. Our new van even has the letters "Jah" on the rego plate- how's that for God's stamp of approval!! We had no internet at Mum and Dad's, and then our computer crashed!, so we've been offline for a while.

Anyway, we covet your prayers for Max this Lord's Day, I'll let you know how it all goes, and plan on posting a testimony soon of how God has blessed us with our children. God bless you all.

Labels: testing times

Well, here I am burning the midnight oil at 35 weeks along, longing to meet the dear little ones inside. Why am I up so late? Well, I'm very uncomfortable AND ITCHY!!!!!

Since last Friday, I've developed a rare, late pregnancy condition called PUPPP. I have big itchy lumps and welts all over my abdomen, thighs, buttocks, top and bottom of feet, top and palms of hands, and it is now spreading over my arms, towards my chest. My hands and feet are PAINFULLY ITCHY. Is it dangerous? NO. What is the cure? None , except to give birth. The rash usually disappears within a week of giving birth.

The last few days has been a rush of medical appointments, seeking relief, and hoping for an early ceasearean, but the doctors want me to hang in there till Tuesday- Please pray for grace for me to endure it. I've been given anti-histamines, but they are very weak, and apart from allowing little pockets of sleep, aren't very effective. I can't use soaps or shampoo in the shower, and one natural relief treatment- Bi-carb and water really backfired. It nearly burnt a hole in my stomach, well blistered my skin anyway! I'm mainly alternating ice packs for relief and using Mylanta as a lotion- similar to Calamine but less drying. Also rubbing cut potato over some areas afforded short-term relief. So anyway, sorry about the midnight whinge, but I covet your prayers at this time. I handle pain far better than itching!

Counting down to Tuesday....

Labels: pregnancy, testing times

My miracle man hubby turned 44 this month! How blessed we are to have such a man as head of our home! In our situation, every birthday, anniversary and Christmas becomes a milestone, as we are so blessed to have him in our lives...

You see, my beloved has 3 major heart defects (tricuspet artresia, pulmonary stenosis, and transposition of the great vessels). Max has never had surgery for any of these, and any one of these conditions can cause death before the age of 16. We are so aware of God's Soverignty over our lives, His calling on Max, and the exhortation to number our days.

People often ask us how we cope with this uncertainty "hanging over" our heads, but I believe that God has given us a special Grace in that department, and we've learnt to trust in Him , not our circumstances. We have just about clocked up 6 months without me having to call the ambulance in the middle of the night, which is great as we had a bit of a bad run earlier in the year, what with wasp stings and various other unknown factors. Sometimes I think God allows an attack, just so Max can witness to a certain doctor or nurse on duty, or pray for someone in the next bed without the peace and hope we have.

So, what happens when Max has an attack? His heart goes into AF (Aterial Fibulation), which coupled with his defects, leaves us in a life and death situation. He needs oxygen very quickly, as soon as the ambos arrive. They often put at least one canula in him too, and phone Emergency to let them know Max is on his way again. They immediately stabilize him with amiodorone at the hospital and once his heart rate has calmed a bit, they cardio-invert him to put him back into normal rhythm. Then he's fighting to get outa there and to get on livin' life!

I'll never forget the time he had a turn early one Sunday morning. I rang our Youth Pastor to be on standby to preach, picked up Max from hospital after his cardioinversion, he put his white shirt on, dots and patches showing through, rocked up to Church and he got up just in time to preach!!

People sometimes ask us why God doesn't just heal Max- I don't know, maybe we have a better testimony the way things stand now. God often uses me to share spontaneously with people in hospitals while we're waiting about our faith in Christ in our situation.

The most important thing I learnt when this first happened nearly 6 years ago, and yes back then I thought I was going to lose him on our oldest daughter's first birthday, was that no matter what happened, Satan would never triumph and that God would get the glory!! That brought us joy in the midst of possible pain and adversity, and it taught me to have no fear for the future. If I feared I would have missed out on nearly 8 years of marriage, 2 beautiful daughters, and the little twin boys who are coming late November.

I just want to encourage you to trust God for your future, live to glorify Him, and to treasure the little moments of the life He has granted you.

Labels: contentment, family life, Milestones, testing times

What a weekend we have just lived through! It started off nice and peacefully. I was enjoying my weekly sewing lesson with our neighbour, Pat, and listening to the joyful sounds of our children helping their Daddy in the garden. I came back home through our back door, delighted by the sight of 2 of our home-grown roses arranged beautifully in our crystal vase on the dining table.

Hubby had indeed been very busy in the garden for a couple of days. The weather had been lovely and fine, but not too hot, after extended periods of much rain. I began to prepare lunch, the children came up, and then I heard my darling hubby scream in pain and he came running inside for an ice pack. He'd been pruning bushes and had totally forgotten about a large hornet or wasp nest that had been hidden on the inside of it.

The ice took the swelling down somewhat straight away, and the pain eased after about 5 minutes. He'd been badly stung 3 or 4 times. Saturday night/Sunday morning, he awoke between 4 and 5 am with tachecardia, he checked himself with his stethascope, and as he did so his heart slipped into A.F.: time for the ambulance... and to pray up for his 23rd cardio-inversion. I sat with him as we waited for the ambulance, and not considering the stings, I said, "I hope it wasn't the spaghetti and meatballs I cooked for tea!" Sounds weird, I know, but food poisoning can set this off in Max's body too- his heart conditions are extremely rare and unusual...

Just the week before, I had asked him, "What do we do about church on Sunday, if you fall ill on a Saturday night?" "Carry on as normal" he said, "And call Michael to be on standby to preach if the hospital won't discharge me in time." Well, now I was living the scenario I hoped would never happen! I stayed up praying for hubby and for wisdom, contacted Micheal and arranged for him to pick up most of equipment and the hall keys to set up while we went to the hospital. Thankfully hubby was "fixed" heartwise- (again)- no-one at the hospital believed that the stings could have played any part in it and they didn't pay much attention to it. After a quick drive home for a change of clothes and a last minute job on the laptop, we arrived just in time for communion and for hubby to preach- still with his circles stuck on him from the hospital!!! That's dedication!!

He still wasn't feeling too well that afternoon, and the hand began to swell badly again. After praying he managed a restful night's sleep but went to our local GP to get the swelling looked at. She removed a sting and sent him home with some antihistamine tablets and cream AND the firm opinion that the poison caused his heart emergency, as he had no other warning signs this time...

This afternoon I drove him passed the wasp nest, and he took dominion over it with a can of spray- from the car for safety- then I drove around the house so we could enter safely in the back door. We hope that's the last of the wasps or hornets we see around here for a long time.

HORNETS BEWARE- YOU CAN'T STOP MY HUBBY FROM PREACHING!!!

Labels: Faith, family life, testing times

Sorry for the lack of fresh blog articles this last couple of weeks, we've been caught up on the sickness bandwagon, thanks to a nasty flu bug that had been circulating our daughter's school community for a while.

Our eldest daughter fell sick and feverish first. Three days later, she was basically over it, but Yours Truly picked it up and it thought it might stay a while. And it truly wiped me out. I fell ill on Tuesday, felt slightly better Friday morning, so I decided to cancell plans to go to the Doctor: Very Bad Decision. In the meantime, Zara caught it too, so I was trying to look after her as well. Thankfully children are very resilient, and after a few doses of Panadol( which we rarely use) Zara's fever had gone.

Anyway Friday night, I went downhill again, very listless, feverish and the following evening, hubby took me straight to the hospital (along with our elder daughter, who caught a touch of it again off me!). They put me on a drip and after finding my blood pressure was only 95 over 45, ordered another. Then I caused a commotion by nearly fainting on the way to the toilet!

Hubby had already taken both our children to stay at my Mum and Dad's for the night, and we both finally joined them at nearly 2 in the morning. They all went to Church, next morning leaving me at my parent's place to recuperate till they joined me after lunch.

It had been a long time since I'd missed a Lord's day at church, so that felt a bit weird, but I was so grateful for the rest and prayers from family and friends. I'm on the mend now, back getting our home in order again, and really looking forward to the Christmas season.

Labels: testing times

Labels: family, Talitha, testing times, Zara