VA Hospital Day

Today we drove the 3 hours over to Spokane for Trav's cardiology appointment at the VA Hospital. Thankfully Susan (Trav's mom) is here visiting so she was able to watch Hudson outside while I went with Travis to learn all about what's going on with his heart. Thank you Susan!! We've been waiting for this appointment for over a month so were anxious to hear what the doctors learned from all the tests.

They started off with doing 30 minutes of more tests to make sure they got the same results and then we met with the doctor. She started off right as we sat down by saying that his issue is "major" and "serious" after which Travis patted my hand and I forced myself not to cry. It turns out he has in technical terms "dilated cardiomyopathy" which pretty much means that his heart muscle is stretched thin and weak. She said that it presenting itself so severe in a 35 year old who has lived his life so clean is pretty close to zero.

On top of a strict diet he gets to take 4 different meds a day for the next couple months to see if that helps his heart function properly. We are just grateful that this was caught so we can do what we can to try to fix it. The cause is unknown right now and the doctor said he will likely fall in the 50% that don't have a known cause despite all the lab tests they ran today. Travis took the news well and the doctor commented on how mature and calm he was for a 35 year old. She was expecting a break down. I'm proud of my faithful and brave husband. Now it's doing what we can to change his diet and pray his medications work so we don't have to go to the alternative.

On a different note, being surrounded by all the war veterans today and even a WWII vet, it made me miss Grandpa Leo. The WWII vet was a cute old man that shuffled when he walked, saluted the nurse and cracked jokes while his daughter was trying to tuck his shirt back in around his suspenders. Totally reminded me of Grandpa.

Now for what you all come here for......