Wow. Who knew that in the midst of a planned 30 days of blogs about prayer, that I would be on the receiving end of more prayers from more people than I could even imagine?

Through an unexpected turn of events last week, I had a heart cath at my local hospital thinking everything would be fine, but I had some earlier abnormal ECGs and stress tests so my doctor wanted to do a cath. I’ve never had chest pain and only started thinking maybe I was short of breath with two staircases in a row after there was a lot of attention on my heart with all these tests (which started simply with my gynecologist hearing a heart murmur which I’ve always had but she said she would feel better if I saw a cardiologist)!

Anyways… I woke up during the cath to see a worried expression on my cardiologist’s face, heard him say “I’ve only seen this once before,” then a lady popped her head in the door and I heard the end of her question: “…shipping her?”

They said I had severe blockages on both sides of my heart, and if I had a heart attack I would not survive.

Soon I was in an ambulance and taken to a huge hospital two hours away in another state. They put me on heparin IV and nitroglycerin IV with defibrillator pads on me. I’m a nurse, so I knew this was prep in case I had a heart attack on the way. They told me I would need either a “high risk PCI” (stent) or open heart surgery, possibly the same day.

I arrived to the Cardiac ICU at change of shift, where 5 staff compassionately and quickly surrounded me, hooking me up to all the monitors and scrubbed my whole body with pre-surgical skin prep wipes.

It was terrifying.

I still had no symptoms.

I’ve walked 5-6 times per week for a year and a half now, lost weight, kept my blood pressure under control.

I’m only 45.

People began to pray. Family, church family, friends, extended family members’ churches.

The next day, two cardiologists checked on me. One reviewed the images of my first cath and felt confident that they could fix it with a high risk stent instead of open heart. I was able to move to a regular telemetry floor on day 3, where I was encouraged to walk as much as possible around the unit while waiting for the next procedure.

Meanwhile, so many people called and texted saying they were praying.

The procedure was scheduled for day 6. I had been praying that if anyone could fix it with stents instead of open heart, that this person would be who I would be scheduled with. And this seemed to be the reason for the wait.

At night when sleep was difficult, I finally thought to play Christian music all night. Each time I said something to the Lord like, “God I just can’t feel Your presence here,” within 2-3 seconds song lyrics were on about God’s presence with me even now. When I said, “God, I’m afraid,” a song I’d never heard was immediately on about Psalm 23, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for God is with me.

Over and over again, exactly what I needed to hear at exactly the right moment came up in songs or even in a book I grabbed at the last minute by Max Lucado about the life of Joseph and how hardships and unexpected detours are things God can use still for His glory. (The book is called “You’ll Get Through This.”)

I believe this was because God’s people were praying.

Finally the day for the second cath arrived; I was ready but nervous. People continued to pray and text … and this surgeon was able to fix the 100% blockage with two stents. And the blockage they initially thought was also on the other side of my heart was no longer there! Praise God!!! No open heart surgery needed!

I feel like it was a miracle. I look at my wrist, at the tiny spot they accessed my radial artery and fixed my heart through such a small place, and I’m truly in awe.

To be on the receiving end of so much prayer is truly amazing. Thank you to all who have prayed for me through this time. Your prayers mean more than you may ever know.

To God be the glory!