This is the story of a man, his rib and the road that lead to it being taken out forever...OK...enough of that. Joel asked me the other day why I hadn't blogged about his recent surgery. I thought for a second & honestly didn't have an answer. I suppose it's because the road to getting to this post-surgery place we are in has been such a long, hard, exhausting one that it's just become part of our lives the last few years. So, here you go babe. A post in honor of all your pain, suffering & now triumphant healing.
Joel has been having weird symptoms and much pain for the last several years. At least 2 1/2, possibly 3. Numbness, tingling, sharp shooting pain, foggy brain, weird heart palpitations, exhaustion...the list goes on. You name it he probably experienced it. So much pain in fact some days he would come home from work & crash on the couch immediately, unable to do anything. It was rough. It was hard & we never found any answers. He had test after possible test run - all showing normal results. Stress was always the culprit that was blamed. It was so very frustrating for Joel, and for me as I had to watch from the sidelines and some days really miss the Joel I used to know before all the darn pain came to stay.
So last November (as you may recall from an earlier post) Joel ended up in the hospital with a huge clot in his arm. In the days to follow they would also discover that he had had 2 pulmonary embolisms - things that kill people all the time. The doctors theorized that based on what he was describing he'd been experiencing the last several years they were likely not the first for him. He spent 5 days in the hospital before being released home on blood thinners to get rid of the clot.
So in my mind they'd found the source of the pain & it was being dealt with. Good news. Several months later the clot was gone, but the pain remained - just as bad as before. It was a blow to the gut for both of us. We were fed up & frankly tired of life in this place with no answers as to what the heck was going on.
So one day after a church service, out of desperation, we asked for prayer from our pastor who generously did so & afterward I also prayed for my husband. My prayer was a cry for an end to all this craziness. I specifically asked that the root source of all the pain would finally, once once and for all, be brought to light & that in His mercy it would happen very, very soon. Flash forward just 5 days later & Joel had a procedure done that would answer that very prayer. It was a venogram in which dye is injected into the vein and then shows the blood flow through it. It showed definitively that Joel had thoracic outlet syndrome & his first rib and collar bone were crushing the vein leading out of his arm and into his heart. It was also affecting flow to his brain. Here's the image that proves it. The black line is the flow of the injected dye & it should continue down into his heart, but is instead cut off. You can even see where his body actually grew smaller veins off the constricted one to relieve some of the pressure so the vein would not burst. Crazy stuff!
The fix was to surgically remove the rib that was causing the problem. Once the surgeon was in there he found that Joel's rib was actually larger than most & it took some work to get it out. The doctor said the vein was really wedged in there pretty badly & he could see why Joel had been feeling so awful for so long & that he should feel much improved now.
Emily wanted to take a photo of him when he got home after surgery.
This is us attempting to be funny on little sleep. ;-)
Joel came home in a lot of pain. Something the nurse told him right before being pushed into the OR. Very forcefully, I might add. The week later he developed some pneumonia complete with fever, chills, difficulty breathing & 2 more trips to the ER. But, he finally started to get better & is doing amazing now. He still has several more weeks of physical therapy to go, but already can tell a dramatic difference in the way he feels.
As his wife it is such a relief to start to see the Joel I've missed starting to come back again. There's a lightness to him and joy returning that has been muted the last few years. It's been a long, crazy road. We are so thankful to be on this side of it & praying that once all healed up he'll feel 25 again!
So, there you go Joel, a tribute to your saga. Hope it did your journey justice. Love you tons & look forward to many pain-free and much lighter years ahead!
