Isnt' our God great!
JoJo,
My aneurysm was at 4.1 cm. At 4.5-4.7 we're talking open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve and repair the aorta due to where the aneurysm is located. Basically, the aorta is the big artery that comes off the heart and feeds the rest of your body with oxygen rich blood and an aneurysm could be thought of as a weak spot in the wall of the artery that due to pressure, balloons out.
I have BAV which means bicuspid aortic valve. To get an idea what that is, you have a valve in the heart that feeds the artery and the job of the valve is to let blood flow out of the heart as the heart pumps, but not back in and it uses three cusps, or flaps to do this. Due to a tissue disorder, two of my flaps are fused together, so instead of having three cusps, I have two. This same tissue disorder is what caused the artery to become weak where it attaches to the valve, hence the aneurysm.
Now then, part of the tissue disorder causes the flaps to thicken and calcium builds up and the doctors call that stenosis. Remember about the valve acting as a one way valve? Well, because of the thickening and the calcium buildup, the valve "regurgitates" or in simpler words, the valve isn't doing it's job efficiently. Because this is a tissue disorder, exercise or diet has no effect on the calcium buildup and they don't have any medicine to reduce the symptoms, at least from what I've read.
My first report less than a year ago showed that I had mild stenosis and moderate regurgitation and as you can see from the above report, there is no sign of stenosis! Praise God! It's gone! Also, the size of the aneurysm has actually shrunk almost a half centimeter!
Cornelius,
Thank you for your prayers and yes, my faith has been strengthened! I believe that God did not fully heal me because of my lack of faith, but he has surely shown that He still hears the prayers of his saints and my unbelief has become belief!
You know, when I first saw the report, I knew that it was God who did the healing, but then the devil tried to snatch the glory away and I began to think that it was my running that caused the healing. However, and I love this, the healing had nothing to do with my running. Simply put, my cardiologist told me not to get my heart rate above 150-160, and no sprinting because the extra pressure would cause the aneurysm to grow, or even burst which would leave me dead in a matter of minutes with no hope of surviving. Well, I ran the Detroit half marathon (13.1 miles) and my average heart rate was 174 which was well above what the doctor ordered. Not only that, but I usually run around 170+ and when I end my running, I end with about a block sprint where my heart rate goes well above 190, and reading of 194-196 are common.
Now then, with my running at such a high heart rate, science says that my aneurysm should have grown, yet it has shrunk. And if that's not cause to say that God still heals, then there is no denying the stenosis since it's genetic.
Praise God, and keep me in your prayers that my faith continue to be strengthened!
Jeff
at the end you will look back and see the road that He has taken you on. We are suppose to "dig wells" while we walk this walk, so we then again can provide water for those who come after us on a similar path.