Team PerryBoilerRoom, I need you to drop everything, read this post, and pray.  This dude needs help!  I’m looking at a ridiculous week.  A trip to Columbia tomorrow for a faculty outreach consultation.  On to Kansas City for a Staff Recruiting event.  Back home Sunday to rest up for a major medical procedure to fix my A-Fib on Tuesday!  I’m hoping I make it to Thanksgiving in one piece!  Here’s the play by play.

E-Champ Coaching

I am coaching an InterVarsity staff member at Mizzou who leads a Faculty fellowship of about 20.  It’s one of my jobs as a Regional E-Champ specialist (think cape, mask and tights – you know, the Evangelator).  They are vision casting and planning around a major outreach event next spring on their campus.  I’ll be doing some teaching and training with their leaders in hopes of developing their evangelistic fruitfulness.  Ok, no tights after all.

PSW

Saturday and Sunday I’ll be joining the undergrad ministry in my area for PSW.   There are at least 29 acronyms for PSW on the internet.  No, PSW in IVCF doesn’t mean:  Psychiatric Social Worker.  Not, Peachtree Symphonic Winds.  Not even Pumpspeicherkraftwerk (no kidding).  PSW stands for Prospective Staff Weekend.  I’ve been invited to team up with the undergrads in this staff recruiting effort.  I’ll be leading a manuscript bible study and helping with a session on InterVarsity’s vision.  Pray for Matt and Damon – two of several people us GFM staff have invited to the event.  Pray for everyone attending (the rest are a mix of recent IV alum, graduate students and maybe a few soon to graduate seniors).  Could InterVarsity staff be God’s call on their vocational future? Click here to view the  PSW 2019 Staff Schedule.

Up, up and away… on my beautiful cryo-ballon.

I am having a procedure done on my heart to repair a 13 year long problem I have had with Atrial Fibrillation.  Ever heard of that?  It’s an arrhythmia in the top half of the heart.  When I’m stuck in A-fib, the top half of my heart is beating out of sync with the bottom half of my heart.  It’s not life-threatening.  It is a risk-factor for stroke, though.  I’ve been experiencing more frequent and longer episodes.  Medication is not sufficiently controlling it.  The ablation is a surgical procedure done via a catheter inserted though the veins in my legs.

If you want a short non-cringy video click here.

If you want Dr. Wilbur Su to explain it in more detail including risk factors…  here’s your video (7+ mins long).  Heart guys like purple shirts I guess!  According to Dr. Su here’s how you should pray:

1. Accurate mapping of my left and right Atria.  Dr. Jeffery Mahoney (the guy doing my procedure here at Methodist in Omaha) told me he takes about 90 minutes using the catheter to map the inside of my heart so he knows where all the extra electricity is hanging out and causing problems.  The procedure is another 2-3 hours after that.
2. For Dr. Mahoney to be on his Tuesday morning A-Game!  What’s that guy do if he’s gotta use the restroom half way through?
3. The proper dosage of cryo-energy when freezer-burning my pulmonary veins.  3 minutes might do.  5 minutes might be too much.
4. No damage to my esophagus.  They stick a long meat thermometer (not exactly) down my throat to measure the temperature of my esophagus.  Ever eaten ice-cream too fast and gotten that splitting headache feeling way down at the back of your throat?  Bingo!
5. No damage to my phrenic nerve.  You know what this thing is.  That’s the nerve that’s going crazy when you have the hiccups.  No kidding!  If they can fix my A-fib, I guess I could live with hiccups for the rest of my life!
6. No fistula – I’ll let you research that one!  It doesn’t sound good.

Give me your best this week!  Prayers.  Text me!  Tell me how much you love me.  And pray for my family.  I’ll try to keep you posted.  It’s supposed to be an out-patient procedure.  My hope is to be with my kids in Urbana, Illinois for Thanksgiving!  We’ll see.

Full weak – exactly how I meant to spell it.  Next Tuesday, Nov 26th at 9:00 am,  I get the chance to embrace how fragile I am as I look up at that face behind the mask telling me, “Count backwards from 100.”  Thanks for your prayers!