Heart Road Mapping

On Thursday one of the pre-ops was a CT scan.  I have never had one done.  There is nothing remarkable in a sense while taking the test.  The machine instructs you when to breathe and when to hold your breath.  Some of the more critical readings come during the hold your breath sequence.  Most of the sequences were short but there was one where just when I thought I couldn't hold my breath one more second I was finally instructed to breath.  Nothing is eventful doing a CT scan on my part you follow a machine's instructions and lift your left arm when instructed by the tech, but there is something significant going on, my heart was being mapped in 3D. 

The whole purpose for the CT scan? 

PURPOSE: To evaluate multi–detector row computed tomographic (CT) depiction of pulmonary veins to provide a road map for radiofrequency catheter ablation.

Right there on Fannin many, many times a day road maps are being produced for invasive and non invasive surgery.  Every map tells a story and avails itself for usage when we want to go from one place to another.  Maps hold memories of travel adventures, we might even mark them to remember the trip.  A map can hold dreams of places we want to see, places we have always desired to go and experience.  Sometimes and I know I am going to sound like a nerd here, maps are fun to look at.  Folded paper maps and many times Google Earth or some other directional helper on smart phones can be a little more than entertaining.  I would look at our lot from Google Maps before and as we built our home.  For the longest time it was just that, a lot with nothing on it.  Several months after we moved into our home, Google Maps showed our house under construction and now we can see our completed home with Roy's car parked out on the street.  It is against HOA rules for residents to park on the street...we just have to rock authority that way. 

An image of my heart was made into a road map for surgery on Friday.  In the paper work we took home from the hospital, the road map report was mixed among lab reports and medicine accounts.  This whole mapping thing is performed in an attempt for non-invasive surgery.  The findings are broken down into different sections and although I had to look up some of the terminology, I pretty much knew it was a good report.  The chambers of my heart were measured, the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins.  But that's not all... if you call in the next ten minutes you'll receive for only $19.95 limited non vascular readings of thyroid, chest wall, lungs, and upper abdomen. 

I wondered why I had to have a CT scan.  Now it is understandable, the doctors needed a road map inside my heart to find the rabble rousers who have been causing heart problems for me for years.  The associate doctor used the term rabble rousers when explaining the procedure to me on Friday morning.  The laser terminates the rabble rousers who do not want to go along with the normal beat of the heart.  They don't want to follow instructions.  This probably explains why I have always marched to a beat of a different drummer. 

"Search me O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." Psalm 139:23
Right there is God's CT scan... because earlier in the Psalm it says that He knit me in my mother's womb, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  God knows the road map of my heart, He knows the findings, He knows the weaknesses but He also knows the results.  He knows my wrong paths and He has corrected and terminated the rabble rouser in me that didn't always and sometimes still, doesn't want to follow His Ways. 

The result of my surgery was successful but changes for what I am responsible for are implied. No one spoke directly to me about the menu I would receive in the hospital but it was plain from the start that my choices were to be made from the low carb menu plan.  I know in my follow up appointment we will talk about smart decisions both in exercise and food choices.  I know from my heart mapping I have two areas I need to watch.  Nothing serious now but results could be different if there is a next time for this particular part of the heart journey. 

"Guard you heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life...look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.  Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path.  Don't get sidetracked." Proverbs 4:23,25-27a

So here is my part in God's heart mapping, I have to guard my heart and keep my eyes on the straight and good path.  And don't get sidetracked!  Oh my in this ADD addled world, that is huge for me. 

I feel like this is the first stage in my One Word for a Year and my word is proceed.  How I proceed from here determines the course of my journey.  Proceed isn't just about my physical heart but my spiritual heart as well.