Tim DeGeest

I am creating this page at the request of my dear wife Carrie.  While I know this is a great way to communicate, right now I am just trying to save my wife's hand from typing everyone about what is going on.  I have to admit though, I have had a couple family members and a couple friends use CaringBridge, and it has been a great way to stay informed about their journeys.  I guess I never thought I would be one to have a story to share.


As most of you know, in September of 2016 I was diagnosed with heart failure.  I fainted while walking into a football game, busted up my face pretty bad and went to get some stitches.  Fortunately, the doctor who was going to stitch me up recently went through a similar situation with her husband and sent me downtown to the hospital.  I was admitted for an abnormal EKG and for my heart going into v-tach.  (Lower portion of the heart beats faster than the top.)  Basically, my heart was not contracting as much as it should.  About a week later I was heading home with an implanted defibrillator, a handful of medications and many upcoming doctor appointments.


The following year I was taken off blood thinners.  This is common practice, but for me it caused me to have a stroke.  After returning from the hospital and doing some therapy, I was back at it.  But my heart continued to deteriorate.  My ejection fraction was bouncing around 30% or half of what a healthy heart contracts.  This past May while I was lifting weights, my defibrillator went off.  Six times!  It felt like a major league baseball player hit me across the chest with a bat.  I literally sat there absorbing the shocks thinking I was going to meet God and see my friends and relatives who are already in their eternal home.  But after another hospital stay, change in medications and a new defibrillator I was back home.  Since then, my body has been compensating considerably less.  Now I find myself in the hospital in an ICU room waiting for a new heart.


It is amazing how much the Lord has watched over me through all of this though.  Not much more than a decade ago, the only way I would have been diagnosed was through an autopsy.  From the first doctor I saw and the experience she had with her husband, to all the great doctors and medical staff I have seen, the Lord has been very present.  I am so blessed to live in a town with a great hospital that does heart transplants and has phenomenal cardiac care.