29 January 2009

Prayers please

UPDATE: My FIL is home. No damage was found to his heart but a they did find a narrowing by his aortic "Y" just beyond one the stents he has that needs to be addressed. First they will try to treat it with medication. And, there is a spot of calcification they will also treat with medication. A few blockages were found in his legs, at the sites where they had previously entered to run the stents up into his heart.

After four days of horrendous ringing in my ears and getting no sleep, I went to the doctor. I hoped that my cold had caused some inflammation in my ears that caused my tinnitus to amp up so dramatically, since I knew my Eustachian tubes had been infected. Also, I was so jittery and anxious from not having slept for so long that, as much as I hate taking drugs, I was going to ask the doctor to give me some sleeping pills. And, I wanted some anti-anxiety medication in case things got to that point.

Doctor gave me Flonase, a nasal steroid to hopefully clear any inflammation, Lunesta to sleep, and Paxil for anxiety. As soon as I took the Flonase, I could tell the ringing had lessened somewhat. It was that fast. As soon as the Flonase hit, I was able to sleep. I did wake up a little later to take the Lunesta, which totally freaked me out just because I don't like things to take over my body or senses (I would make a very poor drug addict). Honestly, I couldn't tell what the Lunesta did for me, but I did sleep fairly well, just not any differently than usual. Didn't take the Paxil and have no plans to now. My ears have mercifully toned down to slightly more than they had been and at a level where I can function. It's funny that I'm so thankful my ears are only ringing half as loud :)

Thank you St. Jude, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Therese

Thank you, everyone, for all of your prayers. Thank you very, very much!!


Please pray for my father-in-law who just suffered a minor heart attack. He has had several heart attacks, surgeries, stents, a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, etc., in the past few years. He was just in for a check-up a little over a week ago and they found a slight blockage in one artery. Doctor told him it wasn't a concern at this point, didn't put any restrictions on his activity, just increased his dose of nitroglycerin. Then this happened. Fortunately, early tests have shown no permanent damage to his heart. He was moved to a larger hospital last night for more tests. Please also remember my mother-in-law in your prayers since she is pretty traumatized by these events.

And, could you please pray for a relief to my tinnitus. Just when I got over my cold and got two good nights of sleep, then my ears started ringing much louder than they normally do, making it impossible to sleep since it sounded like I was inside a jet engine.

Thank you, I appreciate your prayers very much. As the Carmelites say, may God reward you.

12 comments:

Mairin :o) said...

You are all in my prayers.

Anonymous said...

Prayers for you and your family, Swissy.

Cathy_of_Alex said...

I remembered FIL in my afternoon Rosary.

Adrienne said...

Prayers for your FIL and for your precious ears. Many people don't realize how serious tinnitus can be and how debilitating...

Unknown said...

Prayers winging your way, Swissie!

Mairin :o) said...

I'm glad for the good news and that you got some relief. You could take amino acids for the anxiety and sleep issues instead. No side effects, no withdrawl or addiction possibilities. Check out a book called The Mood Cure at the library. I've used this book and the amino acids - it helped get rid of migraines for me..

Anonymous said...

Glad for the update and it must be a relief to get some sleep finally...did you see the butterflies?? (Lunesta) :)

Cathy_of_Alex said...

Still praying here....

swissmiss said...

Thanks Mairin. I'll check into it. I do know a gentleman and several other folks who are big homeopaths and am (and have been) trying to find relief this way since main-stream medicine has no cure and really no treatment.

Lisa: Oddly, as I laid there and tried to sleep, I did start to see blue patches...must've been where the butterfly icon comes from :)

Cathy: Thanks soooo much. See you this week...Ray said you were treating us all to pizza ;-}

Mairin :o) said...

I was hugely skeptical and am not a homeopath but needed help with wildly out of control emotions.

Laura The Crazy Mama said...

Oh man! Tinnitus is such a huge pain in the...ear. Sorry about your FIL. Prayers on the way from me too. I always have a low tune playing in my ears and when it gets too loud, I go even crazier than usual. I know what you're going through and it ain't fun! Maybe sometime if we meet, you could start humming YOUR tune and I'll hum mine then we can see if we are in harmony?
Heh, sorry, bad Tinnitus joke.

Anonymous said...

Prayers said.