a personal update…

Over the course of the summer I developed some medical issues that have kept me somewhat sidetracked from blogging.  I thought I’d take some time to update everyone on my condition and to let you all know the outcome of my treatments. 

Very early in the summer I started having anxiety attacks.  The very first one happened in the middle of the night while I watched a scary movie by myself.  Dumb!  I know.  I had no idea what was going on and when my husband woke up he said, “you’re having a panic attack.  You need to calm down!”  lol  Fluke thing, right?  That’s what I thought.  But about one month later I began having anxiety ‘moments’ which increased in intensity and length over the course of a few weeks.  At the climax of it all, I was panic stricken with a pulse of 176 and scared out of my mind.  I had no idea what was going on and I was terrified. 

Through a series of tests at the ER, we discovered a couple of things, thought to be completely unrelated to the anxiety.  1).  I have an enlarged thymus gland and 2).  a hiatal hernia.  The technician was very vague on both of these issues and the hernia was written off as no big deal by both the ER doctor and my PCP.  It wasn’t until I was sitting in the office of a cardiothoracic surgeon that I discovered the seriousness of the hernia.  Turns out, it’s not just a simple hiatal hernia.  Half my intestines were in my chest!  The ‘serious’ issue, the thymus gland, would have to wait until the hernia was taken care of.  “Besides”, he said, “I’m not convinced there’s even a problem with your thymus.” 

Long story short – I had a very rare congenital diaphragmatic hernia called a Morgagni hernia.  Last Thursday I had surgery to repair it and my doctor was extremely happy with the results.  It indeed turned out to be very rare, even for the condition itself.  A very large portion of my intestines were laying all around and on my heart.  (explains all the anxiety, huh?)  Things were put back in place and the hole in my diaphragm was patched. 

Anyhoo, I am recovering from surgery pretty well.  I’m hoping that life, including blogging, will get back to normal soon.  I will be having more tests over the winter to determine the true issues with the enlarged thymus gland.  I really have no idea what to expect with all this.  One thing I do know, the Lord is teaching me to trust Him no matter what the diagnosis or circumstance.