Worst day yet - to much better! - by Mark

Last night I was too exhausted to even consider writing.  It was the worst day yet.  I was exhausted, even though I did hardly any sight-seeing, and I felt nauseated all day long.  The breakfast of oatmeal and orange slices made me sick to my stomach, and I couldn’t eat any lunch at all.  I took a small bite of pita bread and it came right back up.  I tried to take my pills in the morning and just after putting several in my month they came propelling out with help all the way from my stomach.  I had a similar problem the night before so that limited my pill intake which resulted in a poor night’s sleep because of the pain.  I got a blessing from Dr. Farley and Brother Garland mid-day which indicated that we were in the land of miracles and they were possible, but that I should also seek medical attention. 

When we got back to the Kibbutz we called the hospital to see if they had a cardiologist to help us.  They said that we would have to come into emergency and they would decide what to do with us.  That didn’t seem like a good idea.  We wondered if I would need to have the sack around my heart drained so I could get back to normal.  If something didn’t change, the trip seemed pretty useless. I greatly feared getting back on the plane to go home feeling as ill as I then felt.

Well… Dr. Farley came over to our room and we discussed the symptoms and the pill arsenal that both he and we had, which was rather extensive.  We also had some that our cardiologist had recommended.  Here they are over the counter medications so we didn’t need a prescription.  He indicated we had to get rid of the nausea first as that was preventing all other medications from working – since I couldn’t get them down.  Second we needed to get the inflammation down, particularly in the stomach and maybe liver. His hypothesis was that the Ibuprofen was irritating my stomach more that it was helping. So he set up a pill priorty which I started that night.

The next morning I awoke feeling better than I had in several days!  I was able to eat and go on our daily excursions.  My heart rate is still fast and often irregular, but it seems to be getting better – at least slower.  Oh, how wonderful it is to feel good again!