Pray for Jody (& Charisa) Willis
Jody Willis, one of the best men you could ever meet, as well as one of the pastors at the now-defunct Basilica, went to the ER on Saturday with the symptoms of a heart attack (the same symptoms I had when I had mine).
Since he’s not very consistent with emails, Twitter, facebook, etc… I got permission to post updates here.
The following is an email he sent yesterday:
Hey all,
I’m sending this to all of you in the hopes that if someone asks you how I’m doing you can give them a good answer. I’ve been pretty quiet about the events of the past few days simply because there isn’t a definitive answer as to what has happened. I’ll start with Saturday and then move forward.
Saturday, Charisa and I went to visit her grandparents in Bay City. We had a good visit. I helped clear up some of their computer issues and setup a webcam for them. In return they fed us a good seafood lunch and facilitated some great conversation. We left Bay City at about 4. We stopped by the grocery store before coming home. While at the grocery store I began feeling funny. That’s all I can describe it as…funny. We left the grocery store and I began to feel weak. We hadn’t eaten since lunch so we decided to hit up Taco Bell for dinner (looking back, this probably wasn’t the best idea). I didn’t have much of an appetite so I left much of my meal uneaten. When we got to the car I started to feel tightness in my jaw and a little bit of pressure in my chest. I had a lot of caffeine that day so I chalked it up to that. The pressure in my chest intensified when we got home and the tightness in my jaw became persistent. I laid down for a bit thinking that would help. When I laid down everything stayed the same except for something new…my left arm went numb, becoming cold and clammy. Decided to look up heart attack on webmd.com to see what the symptoms were. I had all the symptoms except one…cold sweats and dizziness. I got up from the computer chair and all of the color rushed from my face and I began to sweat. Told Charisa it was time to go to the ER.
Charisa dropped me off at the emergency entrance of the hospital and I began shivering uncontrollably (it was 68 outside, hardly worth shivering over). Walked up to the clerk in the ER lobby and told him the symptoms I was having. They sat me down and took my blood pressure and got my vitals. BP was 168/104…not good. On the way to my er room my knees began to weaken and I started feeling really rough. They hooked up leads to my chest so they could monitor my heart, bp, oxygen saturation, and pulse. An IV of saline was administered and I was given 4 doses of nitroglycerin (normal for anyone with chest pain symptoms). The doc held me from 8:30 pm till 4 am Sunday morning. During that time an ekg was done and 2 blood tests for cardiac enzymes in the blood. I left with a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and test results that were normal. Obviously I still had my questions.
Felt o.k. on Sunday. We just took it easy trying to decide what to do next. Went to my doctor on Monday and another ekg was performed and the results came back normal. The doc wasn’t satisfied and made an appointment for a stress test with a cardiologist for Tuesday. Went to the appointment and they had to stop the test short because my bp was dangerously high and my pulse was soaring. I was only supposed to have a stress test, but they scheduled another appointment for a doc consult the same day. Cardiologist told me that my blood pressure is way to high for my age and he prescribed bp medication on the spot. On Friday I have a nuclear stress test, ecg (heart ultrasound), and blood work. The nuclear stress test is where they look at your heart while you are on a treadmill radiologically. This will rule out blockages and coronary artery disease. I have a long history of heart disease on my dad’s side of the family.
I know people have this kind of stuff (or worse) happen to them all of the time, but even the doctor told me that it was rare that a 30 year old in my physical condition comes in with heart trouble. I’ve had minimal health problems throughout my life so this comes as somewhat of a surprise. Regardless, I’m now convinced that there’s something going on and intend on making some important lifestyle changes that will help in warding off heart disease. This is definitely trying news as we await the birth of our first child. It has been especially hard on Charisa. We are confident that God’s Grace is sufficient, but we are still having a tough time. Thanks for your continued prayers and support.
Blessings,
Jody
