God is not through with me yet

A brief overview

It’s been so long since I’ve sent out a Christmas Letter, and the time blew past it again this year, so I decided a Lenten Epistle would have to do. The is the history portion, and for those of you who know the history, skip to the next blog post which will be the recent update.

Six years ago Andrea was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. A few years later I was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. In June of last year Andrea peacefully died at home on Hospice,surrounded by family. A few weeks later I was admitted the ER with an undiagnosed illness and sent home. I continued to go down hill, and began to lose weight…50 pounds in less than a month.

Giving up on traditional medicine, with the help of my sister Gayle, and her doctor, I found the Kotstansis Institute. (https://www.kotsanisinstitute.com/) and in July of last year Gayle and I went to Grapevine for an interview with Dr. K. After hearing my history, he agreed to take me as a patient for post-cancer treatment. He prescribed a blood panel which I had drawn and sent to him.

Shortly thereafter, Chris drove me to Grapevine so I could start the treatment, planning to stay the required two weeks. On the third day, I had a follow up appointment with Dr. K, and found he had made an appointment with an endocrinologist for that afternoon without saying why . During the exam, he listened to my heart and immediately called Dr. Roeth, my San Antonio cardiologist, and told him he was sending my home with a-fib and rapid heart beat to be examined the next day. My appointment was for 11:00, so Chris packed me up and we headed back to San Antonio.

When I awoke the next morning I was in terrible shape, and Chris was really concerned. I wanted to wait for the appointment, but he finally convinced me to go to the ER. His insistence probably saved my life. I was immediately admitted with a diagnosis of Thyroid Storm (hence the appointment with the endocrinologist) and atrial fibrilation (AFib) with rapid heartbeat. Two weeks later I went home to begin the long recovery.

The first time I saw Dr. Roeth after getting out of the hospital, he read my chart, looked at me and said, “I think if you had waited two more days we’d be looking down at you and saying, “Doesn’t he look life-like?” Being his usual very direct I self, he told me he had never seen anyone survive in as severe a condition as I was in.

My new endocrinologist, Dr. Baquero, is excellent and very straight forward and told me it would be a long recovery. More about her later.

After surviving all this, God obviously is not through with me yet.