Well, I thought I would take a little quiz just for fun- they said I 'm an air fairy.... artist-type....ok, I'll buy that.


Many of you know that my husband has Familial Hyperlipidemia Type II, but not many of you know what that means. It is the unfortunate pairing of 2 heart disease genes, one from his mother and one from his father. His cholesterol is in the 700's when he has no meds or treatment. This caused him to have a triple bypass at age 28. Yes, I said 28.
 He is a walking miracle. Most people that have what he has don't find out they have it. Often the first symptom is DEATH. For some unknown reason, these people have cholesterol and tryglicerides that just start to skyrocket in their teen years and clog their arteries. Lifestyle changes do not prevent it. The cholesterol is so high that there is very little that can be done in the way of treatment to get it down to a non-threatening level.


This is the story of one of the best gifts God has ever given me...


I always knew there was something going on with Raymond's heart. I don't know how, except that God sometimes tells me things like that. I tried to get him to be careful and not work too hard. He had an irregular heartbeat once when our older kids were still in diapers that led to an ER visit and a night of observation, but nothing ever came of it.
Then in the winter of 2000, he had a toothache that needed attention. His dentist was drilling and could not give him enough pain killer. She wanted to give him something stronger, but noticed his blood pressure was really high. She refused to give him more until he had seen a doctor about that blood pressure. So he went to see our GP, who saw how high his cholesterol was and referred him to a cardiologist, who didn't even want to take a look at him, because he was so young. It's a good thing that this cardiologist had a change of heart. Early in February 2001, Raymond had a stress test. Women should be able to stay on the treadmill for 10 minutes.... He lasted 3 minutes and they had him lie down and take 3 nitro pills. The doc took me aside and gave me a major dose of blood thinners to give him. I distinctly remember him saying " Don't let him do ANYTHING tonight!" He scheduled an angiogram for the next morning.
   He never had any pain, or heart attacks before this. no Symptoms. They wheeled him out of the cath lab and the doctor pulled me aside. He needed emergency surgery. He hadn't even come out of the anesthesia for the angiogram yet. The doctor said that my husband could have just been walking down the street and fallen down dead at any moment.... or went to sleep and never woke up. He had 90- 95% blockages in ALL of his cardiac arteries. So, only about 4 months after we buried our youngest daughter, and I was 4 months pregnant with Rowan.... I had to face the fact that I might be a widow at a young age.
But God spoke to me in this.... that even though my husband had walked away from God at that point, the Lord wasn't giving up on him.. and I shouldn't either.

He came out ok, except that he needed blood, since he had taken all those blood thinners the night before. He woke up on a ventillator, with several out of town relatives standing around him, not even knowing what had happened to him. The prognosis wasn't good either, at the time. The doctors told
me that all our children and their cousins on his side of the family neded to be tested. They also said that they would probably have to open him back up about every 5 to 10 years and do more surgery.

It was scary.. but it's been 7 years now. He gets a monthly treatment that has kept him from having to undergo any of that. He goes to Chicago ( over 100 miles away) and gets lipid apharesis. Basically, a dalysis treatment that rinses out the bad cholesterol, and leaves the good, which over time, actually takes the built up plaque out of his arteries.

I found the treatment online when I was going to school to be a medical assistant and I was doing a report on the treatment options. That was awesome! We have had some setbacks along the way, including having surgeries on veins to get better access.

 Spread the word! if you know someone with REALLY high cholestorol that can't control it with the normal treatments, please tell them about the LIPOSORBER- that's the treatment that has helped us.

It was about $7 at Wallgreens.  It contains DHA,  ALA and EPA fatty acids.The dosage on the bottle says that you should give your child 1-2 of these gummy fish a day. This is FAR below the dosage suggested by this article.
So I am now giving Rowan 5 of them a day( that is still lower than the dose they suggest). In the first week, I thought I had wasted my money. I did some reading and found out that it sometimes takes 1-3 months to see improvement. Since switching to 5 a day, I think I am seeing a little bit, enough to keep going with it anyway.
I might start giving it to my other kids as well. Trinity is already on the maximum dosage of Concerta, but says she feels like it isn't enough to help her control herself. I read recently that Concerta has some risk of heart attack. NOT something we need in our family when my husband has Familial Hyperlipidemia   and had a triple bypass at age 28. Incidentally, Omega 3 is also good for heart disease!