The Georges in Peru

No, that isn't some theological quote!  That is a quote from a marathoner, who bragged he could eat anything he wanted because he ran so much it would keep any atherosclerotic lesions from building up on his coronaries.  It always seemed a bit misguided, since Jim Fixx, a runner credited with making distance running mainstream after writing his book, The Complete Book of Running died of a heart attack at age 52 (Yikes!  That's a year younger than I!).  But nonetheless, we runners tend to think we are bullet-proof as we go back for another bowl of ice cream after a platter of fries.  

My family is lucky to have low cholesterol.  Since my parents were the only surviving children from their respective families, our family history doesn't have enough numbers to give good statistics, though none of us six kids have had any coronary problems.   So I didn't worry about heart issues.  If anything, I bragged that I was extremely low risk.  So when I started getting sudden attacks of chest tightness while running just over a year ago, I was surprised and concerned.  Pulmonary and cardiac workups didn't reveal anything.  My cardiologist here inflated my ego by telling me he doesn't get many people my age that can do his complete treadmill protocol.  My symptoms became concerning enough (hard runs interrupted by light-headedness and having to stop) that Dr. Porter (thanks again!) recommended that I try to see if I could get a CT coronary angiogram here in Peru.  As it happens, two years ago, a local radiology clinic started offering that study.  So last week, I had it performed.  

You maybe can see here that my coronaries look good, with good flow.  

The arrow points to the problem.  Coronary arteries are supposed to run on the surface of the heart, but one of my coronaries burrows under the heart muscle for about 9 mm.  When my heart squeezes, it blocks the artery.  When it relaxes, the blood flows again.  Actually, when anyone's heart squeezes, it temporarily stops the blood flow into it, but when the heart relaxes the flow resumes.  If the coronary goes under the muscle and the heart is beating really fast, then it can't relax quickly enough to resume blood flow and then it starts telling its owner to 'slow down!'

So now what?  I'm not at any immediate risk as long as I don't race, so I won't do anything drastic at this time.  When we go to North American in July, we will probably have Dr. Porter do a few more tests.  Meanwhile, I'm going to cut back on the ice cream and butter.

It has been an exciting week.  Yesterday, we talked to a Baptist pastor who is enthusiastic about the possibility of sending a competent young couple out from his congregation to pastor a new church with us along the coast.  Today, a dear sister in Christ, who is knowledgeable about the towns and their congregations, donated her time to accompany us on our first scouting trip to the coast to see where the gaps are in church planting.  On the way, we saw much need and several believers begged us to come work in their towns, but one area struck us especially.  Nestled in a valley a few kilometers off the coast, we found four medium-sized towns where no doctrinally-sound congregations meet (as far as we know).  There is much work to be done yet, but it is fun to see and dream about the possibilities starting to arise.  What a good way to spend our 3rd anniversary of marriage!

We made it!  We are back in Arequipa, quarantining again, until December 12th.  Things were looking a bit uncertain the day before our flight because we hadn't gotten our COVID test results back yet.  Peru requires that those entering the country get a COVID test done within 3 days of their flight, but COVID tests take around 3 days for results.  With Thanksgiving in the midst, we worried they might take even longer.  Thankfully, at 9:46 pm we got our negative results so we were good to fly out the next morning!

Our friend Luz, who was housesitting, bought us groceries and left a clean house for us to move back into.  It has been a bit surreal.  We have a kind of a 'what just happened?' feeling as our brains wrap around the events of the last 4 months.  

Yesterday, I had 3 virtual patients.  They didn't waste much time finding out we were home!

Photo 1:  COVID-19 testing station in Chicago

Photo 2:  A truck accident that reminded us to drive carefully

Our bodies change as we get older, in a bad way, and when I reached my mid-30’s I noticed I was having more trouble keeping my weight under control and my back was beginning to ache, a lot.  I’ve always tried to keep active in some way, thinking ‘When I’m an old woman, I want to still be able get out and walk’.  So instead of sitting back and accepting my fate, and inspired by the 2016 Olympics, our annual mission ‘Race to the Rocks’, and a few past room-mates, I decided to change my diet (more veggies, less bread ) and start running. 

I’ve never been a runner and I felt like I looked incredibly dumb when I did, not like most lithe and athletic people I see running down the side of the road but more like a lumbering ox.  I figured I was old enough not to care.  It was also excruciatingly hard.  Often, I’d count my breaths as encouragement to keep going… 1,2,5,3… I would get mixed up because it was hard to focus.

Contrary to what I had previously thought, I’ve discovered that most people don’t run for the health benefits or even to have great looking bodies.  Most people who run, run because they actually enjoy it! (except for doctors and nurses- lots of them do it for the health benefits).  And runners are excited about anyone who wants to join the club, fast or slow.  It’s not a competition at all.  That was a myth buster for me!  

After 4 years of running a few times a week I didn’t have to count for encouragement anymore, and could even sometimes follow a conversation while running!  But I was discouraged because I still couldn’t keep up with anyone unless they slowed down for me ( l looked back at my times today and realized I had actually been getting slower instead of faster despite my consistent training).  Mia and Allen were great!  They were always willing to join me, even on days I couldn’t listen or talk to them.  One in three runs usually ended in an ‘asthma/panic attack’… or as we know now, heart stress.

It was such a relief to find out that there really was something wrong with me and now, months after surgery to rejoice that the problem has been fixed!  Allen says that someday he’ll have to ride a bicycle alongside me as I run just to keep up. We’ll see…

Sometimes visiting with supporters can be very interesting.  One of the pastors at my home church, who makes special effort to make sure missionaries are supported on the field and did our marriage counseling, discovered he and Allen had a mutual hobby in metal detecting.  Together they decided they needed to go sometime.  Yesterday, a chilly autumn day (Allen’s from far enough south he called it winter), it finally happened.  My dad, who also has a passing interest in metal detecting suggested his old school yard might be a good place to find old coins.  Today it’s just a patch of grass with a few trees planted around it but he had some fun memories to share with us of where everything had been and what they had all done there.  Pastor Anthony was super excited to find an old silver quarter and a silver dime and Allen came home with a penny worth 1 in 22 million.  In 1954, for some reason, only 22 million Canadian pennies were minted as opposed to the usual 70 million minted yearly in that time period.  My dad has been collecting pennies ever since I can remember and he needed that one to complete his set.  It was an exciting day.