The End from the Beginning

I've become convinced of something in the last few months. It's something that has changed my life and maybe even extended it for who knows how long.

About five years ago I was sitting in my office at work minding my own business when my heart began to race for no apparent reason. I was sitting in a chair, for Pete's sake. I wasn't exercising, I wasn't climbing stairs. I was just sitting there.

It raced for what seemed like 45 minutes, but I'm sure it was closer to 2 or 3, at a pace of about 150-170 beats per minute. It scared the living stuffing out of me.

When it was over I immediately called Kelly and told her about it. She suggested calling my doctor, which I did. He got me in there and listened and did an EKG. Everything seemed fine.

It wasn't.

I started getting these things called PVC's, which stands for Premature Ventricular Contractions. They're benign, but it feels like your heart misses a beat, then beats really hard to get all of that extra blood out into your veins. And that's exactly what it is. It’s very disconcerting.

After a bunch of tests and studies that lasted upwards of a year, my cardiologist told me he wanted me to go into the heart hospital to get some things looked at. There were some abnormalities in my latest stress test and he wanted to be sure they weren’t what he suspected. He said it was probably nothing, but he wanted me looked at anyway. Exploratory and routine, I think, are the terms he used.

Nothing routine about it, it turns out.

My RCA (Right Coronary Artery) was 95% blocked and getting worse. I could have died. In fact, the doctor who did the operation told Kelly that she's lucky she’s not a widow. Ok, I don’t know that he used those words, but basically that's what he said.

That day, back in 2009, they put a stent in me and sent me home. Good as new, right?

For a while, yes. I felt like a million bucks. I could run all day. I could exercise as much as I wanted. I felt like Superman. I was bulletproof!!

Flash forward to a year later, and I'm having other heart issues, this time called Atrial Fibrillation. Now, AF is NOT benign and anything but routine. It's actually what caused me to go to the cardiologist in the first place. Your heart races for no apparent reason and does so on its own timetable. I could be sleeping and my heart would start to race, waking me up at all hours.

Not a fun thing.

So, I went in for that, too, and got an ablation, which is basically a cauterizing of the veins coming from your lungs. This makes it so that electrical charge can't jump over and make your heart start beating like mad.

Since the ablation was done in January, I've only felt it a handful of times. I feel great and I'm exercising almost every day with no repercussions. I’m up to almost 3 miles a day on the treadmill and Jacob and I have run in three 5k races together, with more to come. So far so good.

The thing is, I don’t believe this whole thing started just by chance. I've become convinced that the Lord, with one of His many tender mercies, sent the original AF to me in my office that day because He knew my arteries were getting clogged. He knew that I would stay the course with my eating and exercise habits and would eventually have a massive MI and keel over in my soup.

Believe me, I don't want to die. I love my life. I mean I LOVE my life. I have the best wife and best kids any man could ever hope to have. I DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE.

I think know, that the Lord knew this. He gave me that initial heart problem so I would be prompted to go into the cardiologist so this whole mess would be found. I'm convinced of it, and I will never be able to think otherwise.

Just another example of how the Lord can see the end from the beginning.

I wish I could.