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Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP190125B
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00:01 Welcome back to the Ultimate Prescription. If you're just
00:02 joining us today we're talking with Danny Shelton about bypass 00:06 surgery and Dr. Marcum, cardiologist here and director 00:10 of HeartWise Ministries sharing some insights as well on the 00:12 story. Let's pick up kind of where we left off Dr. Marcum. 00:15 We've gone through 00:16 symptoms. Genetic disease that expresses itself. 00:21 You know in some ways you lived longer before you had a symptom 00:24 than some of the other people lived out. 00:26 Oh most of them, yeah. 00:28 And just thank goodness they had Jesus because we know the next 00:32 thing they know they're not going to have heart disease 00:35 anymore. So you've going through the testing, the diagnosis, a 00:39 difficult decision in a patient that doesn't have symptoms. 00:41 You're up to the bypass. Your family's been with you. 00:45 You found a peace that passes all understanding and then what 00:49 happens after that? 00:51 Well what happens after that (that you remember) yeah. 00:54 I started to say that's probably the least good part of it for 00:58 people but it's a reality. I woke up and I think I woke up 01:02 sooner than I was on the ventilator. I think the surgery 01:06 is like five hours because they did a quadruple and the 01:08 ventilator was about six hours. But I had reason to believe that 01:12 about two hours or longer into it I was awake enough because 01:16 Yvonne came in with Jason the son and they were talking and 01:20 they said well he's going to be here for a few more hours. But 01:23 I can hear this and so you know. Then Jason says, he calls me 01:28 Pop, Pop I got to go and they said to their surprise my thumb 01:31 went up, I gave him a thumbs up. To me I woke up but I 01:35 but I couldn't open my eyes. I didn't feel like I could move. 01:40 Yet it wasn't a claustrophobic feeling but that tube coming in 01:43 and all that air coming in is like when are they going to take 01:47 this thing out? So that time it felt like it was a long time 01:51 but I was in no pain. There was nothing that terrible about it. 01:54 It was just like can you get this ventilator out. I'm ready 01:57 to get back to life. But when I opened my eyes I didn't really 02:01 think oh well I made it or I didn't make it. It's like, okay, 02:05 now what do we do next? You know. But I thank the Lord. 02:10 That's not an unusual experience you experience all sorts of 02:14 different feelings but luckily they don't last for a long 02:17 period of time. They're over and you have lots of people around 02:21 you to help get the tubes out pretty quickly. 02:23 And it's worth it. So anybody thinking well I don't know, I'm 02:28 worried about after and say you may not be here if you don't so 02:31 you have to decide, you and your doctor and your family 02:34 what you want to do. 02:36 So they took the tubes out rather quickly. 02:38 Well about five hours or something like that. 02:40 That's rather quickly. That's good. 02:42 Okay, that's great. A friend of my here in Thompsonville was in 02:45 for I think the longest ever in Carbondale, they said six days 02:48 and nights he had a tube in and came out. But he's doing fine 02:53 now so Mr. McClenahan in the local area. But they took the 02:58 tubes out and then I was awake, I was responsive and then 03:04 everything was a go from there. Now the doctor told me before, 03:06 I said how long will I stay. My brother was in 11 days and had 03:09 to go back for a number of days. He said I'll have you out in 03:12 four days. And I said now how do you know that. And he said 03:16 well your arteries are really good size, I can tell you 03:19 exercise a lot and you know we're going to do these bypasses 03:23 but unless there's something that we don't know about we're 03:26 going to have you out of here in about four days. And they 03:29 did. I was so glad to get the tubes out. The one thing that 03:32 bothered me more than anything was my shoulder. The shoulder 03:35 pain, which I didn't expect. So they told me later well they... 03:39 They don't ask you if you're comfortable. 03:41 So my son-in-law Gregg, he's a special duty nurse, cardiac 03:45 nurse so he came up and they let him stay in the room for a 03:47 couple days and he really helped me with it. A tremendous 03:51 blessing. My daughter, of course being here and Yvonne being 03:53 there day and night. They let them come in and really be 03:56 there for me so it was all in all for this type of thing was 04:00 as good as or better that maybe what I would expect. I'm so 04:04 thankful to the doctors in Carbondale University in 04:07 Southern Illinois. 04:08 Did you have much pain from the actual incision where they 04:10 got to the heart? 04:12 I didn't. I was so surprised about that because years ago 04:16 they said they break your ribs. I guess they don't break the 04:18 ribs anymore? Is that it? 04:20 They open the sternum up so they can work on the heart. 04:23 But they wire it back. I still feel that wire I think at times 04:27 and when I pull. It's been a year or 15 months or whatever 04:30 when I pull a door open I feel some pulling here. But as far 04:35 as really pain, that wasn't the most of it. Once they get those 04:38 other drain tubes and stuff out you're doing better. 04:42 Yeah and we've talked before, no one likes to have a lot of tubes 04:46 in them. But one is sometimes the heart has electrical 04:49 instability and that's why we usually have pacer wires in 04:53 there and after they touch the lungs and the parts of the heart 04:57 there's inflammation and you know that fluid goes somewhere 05:00 so we don't want it in you. That's why we have the drainage 05:04 tube until in the chest until that gets better. So lots of 05:07 that. But the pain that I've talked to patients where that 05:10 they notice the most is when they do the bypass surgery, the 05:16 surgeon has to get you in a good position to operate and 05:18 sometimes you have to do some contortions and they don't ask 05:20 you hey does it hurt when I put that shoulder way back there? 05:23 People do have a lot of different things when they come 05:25 out like that. 05:28 Well I was just, I mean just for hours they were rubbing my 05:31 shoulder and putting stuff on it and I'm thinking you know I've 05:34 got all this cut open there and they, you got all these tubes 05:37 and that's not really bothering me. It's this here. It's like 05:40 you have a muscle spasm that's constant. But once that went 05:44 away of course there's you know uncomfortable and they give you 05:48 medication. You know I've never tried to be the bravest when it 05:51 comes to hurting. It's like okay if you can help me, give me 05:54 something you know and they did. 05:56 But it sounds like the medicines that made you forget weren't so 05:59 potent for you. 06:01 Yeah, yeah, yeah. No I remembered quite a bit of it but 06:07 praise the Lord. I would encourage people. Hey we're here 06:11 a short time and while we're here as you said we're all 06:14 getting older and that's a fact of life. We're none of us going 06:17 to live forever. Only when Jesus comes back whether we're in 06:20 the grave sleeping or there. So it's all good news. It's good 06:25 news. It's not how long you live on this earth. But while 06:28 we're here let's be happy, let's be productive, let's tell the 06:32 world about Jesus. 06:33 So how did you feel on the day that you left the intensive care 06:36 and finally got to the floor. Because knowing you, you 06:40 probably said well four days, I might want to leave a little 06:44 sooner. 06:45 Well actually the first day when they got me up, I was walking. 06:48 They wanted to see if I could walk. So I walked and I said... 06:52 They said well we're going to just go to this corner, and I 06:55 said has anybody else gone farther than that? I'm very 06:59 competitive you know... So they said well you know 07:02 that's probably enough for today I said can I just go a little 07:05 bit farther so I feel like I've accomplished something? So I 07:08 came back. So the next day they said now there's this big area 07:11 to go around. So I did it but I said but I want to do it twice. 07:14 Has anybody done it twice? Well not that we know of. We 07:19 don't know but in general no. I said that's all I need to know. 07:21 So I did my rounds twice. So every day when I'd get up I'd 07:26 want to go you know... And I push myself whether it's playing 07:30 sports or building a house, like I'm doing for Jason right now or 07:35 whatever or wanting to get the gospel to the world you know. 07:37 So I try to use some balance but I'm always... My dad always said 07:41 whatever you do, do with all your might. That's biblical. 07:46 I'm encouraged to hear that the active lifestyle that you've 07:48 lived all your life helped you recover faster. You know because 07:51 we can't do much with our genetics but I'm trying to stay 07:54 active and healthy, it can help out in the situation. 07:55 Now frequently patients have some problems with sleeping at 08:00 night and maybe even going to the bathroom, a bowel movement. 08:03 Did you have of those problems? That's sort of a natural thing. 08:08 Yeah, I did. And the night thing You dread the night because you 08:11 can't sleep and then your mind gets to thinking more than 08:13 during the day. After four days they sent me home but they sent 08:18 people to my house every day. You know, they encourage, they 08:20 dress the wounds. They do everything. They'd get me up, 08:23 exercise me in the house and see how far I can walk and all these 08:26 things. But at night I have a recliner made by the Amish and 08:31 it's really comfortable, kind of rocks back a little bit and that's 08:33 basically where I slept. I did get a hospital bed because 08:36 raising up by myself and even with Yvonne there to help me is 08:42 not the easiest thing, so we had a hospital bed so I would raise 08:45 myself into a position where I didn't always have to wake her 08:49 at night for the first several nights at home. 08:50 Now there might be some that are undergoing bypass and after 08:54 they've recovered you know those days in the hospital are there 08:56 any tips that you sort of would like to pass on the things that 08:59 might help someone else that's in that waiting period. You know 09:02 they feel a little bit better before they go home. Any tips 09:05 that you might have of things that they can do or ways that 09:08 they can think? 09:09 Well just be positive. The Lord brought you through it. He has 09:12 a purpose for your life and so each of one of us, what's God's 09:17 plan for my life. He brought me through this. He must have 09:19 something special he wants me to do because I'm no more 09:22 important than anybody else. But he's willing to use anyone 09:26 who's willing to be used. Mine is study, continue to read, 09:31 continue to pray, stay close to Jesus and the other things, the 09:34 things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of 09:37 His glory and grace. 09:38 Yeah and we're going to talk about that in our next program 09:41 about how your spiritual outlook and how you use this illness to 09:46 actually come closer to God. God can use our illnesses to bring 09:49 us closer to Him and to see things. Now some people He 09:52 chooses to heal right away, you know. Some people He heals 09:55 through modern medicine and time Paul He never healed until he's 09:59 going to get to heaven so this has been very interesting, but 10:02 the pain gradually got better you gradually started going to 10:05 the bathroom again but it took some time. 10:06 Oh it did. Yeah it takes time, I don't know, several days for 10:09 before you can go to the bathroom. I mean, you know... 10:12 You just got to be patient but it does. Things start working 10:15 again. That's right. Without too much 10:16 detail it does start working again, but you're thankful for 10:20 that, but again the night thing, you know, that was the worst 10:23 part but you think more. You have more time to think, you 10:27 know. In the day you're busy, at night so I had a hard time 10:30 sleeping, but you know the Lord's blessed and over a period 10:34 of time within 30 days, I mean I was driving my car and then 10:37 going to Walmart and doing whatever. No heavy lifting but 10:42 it wasn't long after that you know I gave it some time. They 10:45 told me don't do it too soon. But I've been exercising and I 10:50 feel great. You know, praise the Lord. 10:51 We're starting to get down to the end of the program, but Dr. 10:54 Marcum I'd like for you to share a biblical prescription with our 10:56 audience. Yeah. Our biblical prescription. 10:58 A biblical prescription is things that God gives us that 11:02 never changes, that changes our physiology and there's evidence 11:05 behind that, that when we incorporate this into our lives 11:07 we can slow down some of the aging of our genetics. So we'd 11:11 like to share Hebrews 4:9 and that text says... 11:21 So science has shown that when we rest we slow down genetic 11:26 aging. If you broke your arm you wouldn't keep throwing fast 11:29 balls. If you've had surgery that splits the sternum open 11:34 you wouldn't build houses, right? You'd give it a time to 11:36 rest. But now we know the opposite of stress chemistry on 11:40 the body is rest chemistry. There's physical rest that we 11:44 can do, there's mental rest, now there's social rest, you 11:48 know all these cell phones and social media. But we're talking 11:52 spiritual rest in this text. There remains, therefore, a rest 11:56 for the people of God. When we worship, when we're with God 12:00 that gives us a peace like you experienced. So you were 12:04 experiencing this rest before surgery. It helped you 12:07 get through some of the times after surgery. God was with you 12:11 every step of the way and for patients that I take care of 12:14 Nick and Danny that don't have this spiritual aspect their 12:18 recovery is never quite as good because when God's with us 12:23 give us that rest, that peace inside, that turns down 12:26 adrenaline and cortisol and all those, we heal better. We start 12:30 to sleep better sooner, things start to work better because 12:33 some of the stress chemistry that's turned on from just being 12:36 afraid is turned off. So God has given us, and it's a gift, 12:40 there's nothing that we do. God gives us this when we turn our 12:44 hearts over to Him. Pretty powerful. 12:45 Yeah. Thank you Dr. Marcum. I always appreciate the biblical 12:48 prescriptions. And Danny thank you for sharing your story. I 12:51 think you know people can be encouraged and maybe this makes 12:54 it not quite so scary for folks that have to go through 12:56 something similar. Yeah. Well thank you for joining us today. 12:59 If you have questions on what we've discussed, visit our 13:01 website HeartWiseMinistries.org or you can go on there and put 13:04 your prayer request and pray for others as well. Thanks for 13:08 joining us and Dr. Marcum will close the program in prayer 13:10 in just a moment. 13:13 ♪ ♪ 13:18 Despite all the world throws at us, God has given us this rest 13:21 we can depend on. We've heard about how this can help improve 13:24 our health both today and for eternity. Let's pray for one 13:28 another. Father God, we've heard a wonderful story. There might 13:33 be some out there that need to hear this that will give them 13:35 hope. But we also want all of us to feel this rest that we 13:39 have with you today. Thank you for being our God, our Savior 13:42 and our healer. Amen. If you might have questions about heart 13:47 disease, bypass or get ahold of us go to our website at 13:52 HeartWiseMinistries.org. We specially have a prayer page 13:56 there that we would like to pray for you and be with you and 13:59 comfort you because we're all here in the body of Christ to 14:02 help and encourage each other. So I'm Dr. James Marcum wishing 14:07 you the best of health. 14:10 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2020-03-23