Crystal's Heart Problems

Crystal's Heart Problems

Saturday Nov. 23, 2024 

  Saturday morning we were supposed to get our grandchildren and do fun things with them.

We took my jeep and dropped it off in town to get the tires rotated and rebalanced.     Tessa, our 11 year old granddaughter had begged off from going with us. Her brother, our 15 year old grandson Michael was away at a youth retreat with church.  Our son-in-law Adam was on his way home from Kansas and a hunting trip.    Driving to pick up Gabriel and Mia, Kenny asked me "Should we call Tessa to see if we can talk her into going?"  I told him yes.  I figured she would do for him what she wouldn't do for me.    I called and got Crystal, our daughter on the phone.    She was acting a little odd.  I asked her if she was okay? She told me her heart was beating like crazy. Very hard, very rapid and then she began to cry.  We told her to hang on we were on the way.

      We called Jared and told him what was going on.  We'd come get the kids as soon as we could.

We stopped by our house on the way and grabbed my stethoscope.   A few minutes later we were with Crystal at her home.   Tessa was in the living room. Crystal was in the bedroom.  I listened to her heart.  It was in the worst arrhythmia I'd ever heard.   It was beating so fast and so irregular I could hardly count it.    I told Kenny to take her to the ER immediately. We paused long enough to hold hands and pray.  We asked the Lord for His intervention.  I gathered up Tessa and comforted her.  I took her to our home.  I called Jared and Lydia and asked them to just bring the kids to me please?  We were keeping them for their anniversary date. 

        Kenny took Crystal to the ER at Blount Memorial Hospital.   They checked her and found she was in atrial fibrillation. It means the top two chambers of the heart are quivering and beating erratically.    Her pulse was between 150 and 180 beats per minute.    You cannot allow a heart to remain in this pattern and rate for long. It will damage the cardiac muscle and can lead to an arrest.   

          They ran an adenosine challenge test which is a test to look for accessory electrical pathways in the heart.  We have three electrical nodes in our hearts to keep it beating and in the right pattern and rate.   Sometimes a strand of cardiac muscle fiber develops into an extra electrical node in a fetus.   Our son Jared had this and had surgery to ablate it.   He is cured.

My aunt had this as well.     Crystal was tested and passed the adenosine test.   It can sometimes help a person's heart get back in the right pattern just from that.   It didn't work for her. 

It did prove she did not have SVT or an extra electrical node.    It took quite awhile and three drugs to find one that calmed her heart down to a normal rate.    It did not convert back to normal sinus rhythm until late Saturday evening.   

    She was admitted and Kenny came home to trade me jobs.   Tessa and I went to pack Crystal a bag and Tessa a bag.    She helped me take it to her mom.  She needed to see her mom to feel better.      Crystal was not in the ER but was in a room on the fifth floor.     We walked up to see her.   She looked better. She was more relaxed and calm.     I'd been keeping Adam updated.  I had texted our pastor Chad Morrison to let him know what was going on.  We requested prayer.

        God is merciful and great every single day.    The cardiologist they referred her to was not accepting new patients.   Yet Monday he agreed to see her.   He called her to come in and get hooked up to a Holter monitor.     Adam got home very late Saturday night.  Actually it was 1 am Sunday morning before he arrived.   It was good that he was traveling with his father Mike.

It was beautiful to see my son, Jared come into my home and get down on his knees beside his niece.  He hugged Tessa and comforted her and reassured her.  He prayed with her.    He has become the man I always hoped he would be.   What a far cry we are from the troubles of the past.    

    Family is everything, but the extends to our church family of God as well.   Michael was told by our youth pastor Donnie Alexander.  He was supported and his friends prayed over him and for Crystal.  Kaiser Murrell declared HE was praying for them above all else.   Michael described the scene at the youth retreat.    We are truly blessed.   We have a good family who sticks together. 

Kenny and I are a good team. We tag teamed child care, meals, grocery shopping, errands and got it all done.     Our pastor Chad came by Saturday evening to check on Crystal in hospital. He went and got her dinner so Kenny could head home.  

       I don't know what will come of all this, but I am 100% sure that God is working it all out for her health, our peace and His glory.   

        Something told Kenny to call.   Something told Tessa NOT to leave home, but stick around with her mom.   I was told by someone that isn't how God works.  I disagree.   He speaks to us 

all the time if we will listen.    His angels care for us and watch over us to help us and guard us.

I am proud that my 11 year old granddaughter already recognizes His voice and heeds it.  

       Believe what you will.  I know what I know.  

      

 I will update this as we know more..   

        

Sunday Dec. 5, 2024 Crystal had a pretty bad episode with her heart at the Women's church Christmas party.   Caught the whole thing on the monitor.    Monitor tech called her.  It resolved with medicine. 

Cardiologist office called on Monday evening around 5 pm 12/6/24. They will see her at 3:30 p.m. today Tues. 12/7/24.    

Hopefully we'll have more definite answers after today.  I look for her to have an electrophysiology study and possibly an ablation to cure this. 

12/7/2024 Tues.  

Dr. Scott has determined Crystal does have SVT and has put her on daily medication.  Something that should be more effective than what she'd been taking.   She goes back in a couple weeks to have a repeat EKG.  She will have a visit with a special cardiologist who does electrophysiology studies of the heart.    They are the electricians of the heart world.  She will likely need a catheter ablation of the area in her heart muscle that the abnormal electrical signal is coming from.