[Magdalen] prayer request

[cady soukup]

Prayers, love, support, hugs,

May you be able to receive the gusts of care and self-care you are given.

>From Helena, MT - Cady

On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, Ginga Wilder <gingawilder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Friends, I am in need of your prayers.  Some of you know I have a long
> history (since age 20) of labile and resistant to treatment hypertension.
> I also have WPW (benign) and mitral valve prolapse.  Plus, some calcified
> plaque build up in at least one coronary artery.  I have been quite
> symptomatic with blood pressure elevations all summer and irregular
> rhythm.  My internist has adjusted my medications which did not help more
> than a few days and one took me too low.  I saw my cardiologist last week -
> I am now wearing a heart monitor and will have nuclear studies and echo
> cardiogram next week.  Yesterday, I awoke at about 4 AM feeling awful.  My
> BP registered at 194/120.  I was able to get it down to 141/77 with
> nitroglycerin.  My heart rate was very irregular.  I spoke with the
> cardiologist yesterday afternoon.  He told me what to take and I felt much
> better very quickly.
>
> So, here's my confession.  I've dealt with episodes like this since I was
> 20.  My head goes to denial that anything is very wrong....I do not want to
> overreact.  I do not trust my monitor to be accurate in these times, so I
> try to ignore the symptoms as much as possible.  Before I would call my
> cardiologist yesterday, when my BP elevated again, I went to my pharmacy
> instead to check if my monitor was working correctly.  Well, yes.  My
> wonderful pharmacist took my pressure 5 times with two different machines,
> one a manual.  207/105 was the average.
>
> So, please pray that I can allow myself to take care of me by not denying
> or ignoring or minimizing my symptoms.  I will check in this morning with
> the cardiologist and I have asked John to insist that I go to ER if
> necessary.  End of confession, except I do find it much easier to take care
> of others than me.  God, help me.
>
> Thank you for your prayers and gentle discipline.  As Sister Elias used to
> say, "I love you all."
> Ginga
>