Most of us know someone who's
been impacted by cardiovascular
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disease and too often it doesn't
end well. But today we have an
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opportunity to learn first hand
from someone who's experienced
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bypass surgery and you all know
him well. Danny Shelton's here
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to share his experience today
on the Ultimate Prescription.
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¤ ¤
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Welcome, thank you for
joining us today on the Ultimate
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Prescription. I'm your host,
Nick Evenson and today we have
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Dr. James Marcum, speaker/
director of Heartwise Ministries
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practicing physician,
cardiologist and of course
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Danny Shelton, Founder of
Three Angels Broadcasting _.
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Thank you for joining us today.
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Oh it's my privilege to be
here. Thanks for having me.
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Well we have a very interesting
story to tell. I guess it's a
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story of a journey of life and
we're going to talk about that.
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Remember we've talked
previously about we all have bad
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genes and we all need a Savior
and sometimes we're genetically
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programmed for those genes to
wear out and different stressors
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in life can cause those genes
to wear out. We're now learning
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that each person has different
things that trigger the genes to
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get older. Some people, of
course, we know it's smoking.
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Some people just have it no
matter what they do and when
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genes wear out we have modern
medicine that can help. We also
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want to slow down
genetic expression by different
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lifestyle things that we can do
and we talked about those. But
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the key to all of this, the key
that heals us, and that's what
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we like to do in the balance
is understanding that it's the
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relationship with Jesus that
heals us. Because even if we
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have parts that wear out, we're
all going to get old and die
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unless God comes, but
when we have Him we know in the
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twinkling of an eye we're going
to be healed. That's not only
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a hope for today, but that's
hope for eternity. That's why
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Biblical prescriptions in our
lives are something that we can
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depend on. So Danny how did you
first know that you might have a
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problem?
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Actually I was sitting home one
evening and I just had a little
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something that's unusual, almost
like somebody scares you and you
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take this breath and I noticed
that and I didn't think too much
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about it and the next night I
noticed it also. And so I said
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maybe I should have... my
father, the history is my father
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was disabled at 36 years
old and couldn't work. Actually
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you know he was able to get by
but really couldn't do much in
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life till he died at 51, which
now at 68 that seems really way
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too young. When I was 23 and he
died and people said Oh he died
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way too young. I thought man
he's a half a century you know.
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Now my daughter's almost, she's
48, sorry Melody. The good part
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of this program showed a few
years from now, she'll still be
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48. Okay. So he died. Then some
of my aunts and uncles, he had
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about 12 or 13 brothers and
sisters. Several of those died
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of heart attacks. And my oldest
brother, there's four boys and a
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girls in my family, so my oldest
brother Tommy, he had open heart
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surgery about 10 or 12 years ago
and nearly three years ago my
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brother Kenny had open heart
surgery and so I said well I
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should have this checked out.
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You had a strong genetic history
of storing fat in arteries.
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Absolutely. So I decided to go
so I called Dr. Davis here, my
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doctor in West Frankfurt, and so
they said let's do a treadmill
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test. We did the test. I did
about six minutes on the test
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then they said Oh you're fine
there's nothing wrong with you,
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you passed. And I said no keep
going. And so they said well we
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don't need to. I
said no I want to...
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Well why did you
want to keep going?
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Because I thought if I
really have something wrong that
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I wasn't even that tired. See
I play basketball. At my age I
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still run full court every week.
I'm like how can you tell. I'm
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not even breathing hard. So I
said let's go. And of course you
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know every three minutes they
raise it so it's harder. So I
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said let's go. Are you
sure? I said yeah. Let's go nine
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minutes. So after nine minutes
they said well you can get off
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now. I said no I want to keep
going. They said why and I said
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well if I have a heart attack I
want to do it while you all are
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here with me. Why would I
want to do it on the basketball
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court? So they said. So
I'm still doing fine but really
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starting to feel it. But at 11
minutes in they said you need to
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get off. And I said no I
want to finish. There's one more
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minute. They said
you need to get off.
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They saw something, right?
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Yeah. They said well we're
not sure what it is but all your
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vital signs say to limit.
We need you to get off. So they
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said we think it's maybe
something electrical. We really
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don't think it's your arteries.
And of course my physician he
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plays basketball with me. He's
not yet 50. So he says well I
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can't tell you I'm glad we're
doing this but you know you're
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not what I would look at because
you run full court. I'm probably
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the only guy my age who's still
running full court basketball.
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So anyway so then we decided
I ought to go down to Carbondale
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University and have an
angioplasty thing. They did it
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up my wrist. So they told
me I'd be asleep. The guy said
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you'll be awake but you won't
remember it. So while they were
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working on me I said now when
am I supposed to forget this.
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You know because I'm still...
He said well after it's over
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you probably will. Hopefully
you won't remember but about two
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or three minutes in I heard him
say oh we need to stop. We've
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got some blockage. And so they
came out and then later they
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come up in the afternoon and so
a doctor came I'd never met, a
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surgeon and he said well you
have several blockages, a widow
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maker. He explained. What do you
call it when it's not crystalize
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calcified down quite a ways. He
said that's the most dangerous.
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You're not blocked like 90
or 100 percent but probably that
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may be 70 percent but the fact
that it's calcified and you have
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some other just probably 65
percent so we're going to go in.
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And I said really?
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I'm going to stop you right here
So we talked about this before
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so we have genetic disease
that's been accumulating over
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years. A person doesn't feel
right. That's a symptom. And you
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knew something wasn't quite
right. We do the testing. We
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have different testing that
we do. You had an abnormality on
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the testing even though you
weren't having lots of symptoms.
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Then you do another test called
an angiogram. We look at the
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arteries and learn more about
them. We found out that they're
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calcified. That's a sign that
the arteries have been aging
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genetically and even though
you're not have a lot of problem
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they find different blockages
and they talk to you about all
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your options. So what
did they talk to you about?
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Well you know what the surgeon
says that I've never met. That's
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what I kept thinking now I don't
know this guy from anybody. So
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he comes in and says you know
in the morning we're going to
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operate on you and we're going
to do a bypass and probably
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tomorrow if we can get the
schedule. And I said, well why?
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And he says you're obviously
going to need it and he showed
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me the results. And I said but
I'm not 90 percent or 100. I'm
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not even out of breath. I've
never even had a chest pain in
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my life, you know. Why would
I do this? And he said, Well if
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we're going to have it we
might as well. So I said well
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respectfully I really don't know
you and not sure I'll even do it
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at this hospital. So I said I
have a really good friend who's
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a cardiologist down in
Chattanooga area and I want to
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talk to him. And I have another
friend who's a cardiologist out
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in California, Dr. Schubert, and
I said I want to get some advice
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and they said, so you want
to leave? You'll be at your own
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risk. I said well I've been
67 years at my own risk but if
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it's not an emergency then give
me some time to think about it.
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So Yvonne, my wife, she said
why don't we go to Mayo Clinic
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or somewhere like that. My thing
is wait a minute; if I'm sick
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then I need to go to the doctor
I don't want to go 650 miles
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north to Mayo Clinic and then
once the surgery's over am I
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going to have to stay in a hotel
for 30 days. I just want to be
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home. So I did some studies. You
researched for me and told me
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that the doctors in Carbondale
is a good university which I'm
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thankful for. Dr. Watson, you
gave me his background and said
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well you know you have some good
options. So you didn't tell me
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what to do but he gave me my
options which is really nice and
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then Dr. Schubert gave me some
options and said now it's your
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life so you guys decide what
you want to do. So we decided to
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stay here and I'm really glad
I had Dr. Watson, great surgeon.
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And the university hospital
couldn't have treated us better.
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I mean they were just...
But I was only in four days.
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Once you found out and started
working through this, how did
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you end up feeling inside when
you made this decision to have
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this? Not physically
but more emotionally.
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Oh yeah, yeah, Emotionally a lot
of things go through your mind.
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Because we all know we're
going to die, but you know for
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instance literally a week or two
after I had my surgery a friend
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of mine I grew up with and went
to school with, high school and
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graduated, business person in
West Frankfort, and almost same
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name, Shelby, Shelton and
we sat together in all of our
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classrooms and all that. He had
the same surgery and he died in
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the hospital. So you understand
that when you go in there... But
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amazingly when the morning
we had the surgery, I made up my
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mind to do it, of course you're
taking a shower. Then you're
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getting ready that morning and
putting all the stuff on you and
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so things are going through your
mind. This may be the last day,
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may be the last time you put
on clothes. I mean those that's
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been through there you think
about this. May be the last time
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I see my family. So my family
and lots of folk here from 3ABN,
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we had a huge crowd coming in
which you're not really...You're
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thankful for it but that's
not... So I'm there. They're
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getting me ready to go and I
couldn't believe the peace that
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I had. And I had a total peace
because I said you know what
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I win, either way I win. I come
out and I'm better off than I
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was. I make it through the
surgery. Or if I don't, the
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first face I'll see is Jesus.
So suddenly there was just this
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peace, that I wasn't even
worried. I was thinking now...
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I always tell them when I've
had surgery before, now when are
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going to give me the shot that
makes me don't care. That's what
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I want the don't care shot. I
don't know what you call it but
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they haven't given me anything
yet and yet I found that peace
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and like okay I'm ready. So when
they came to get me I just said
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Lord I'm in your hands.
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Something physiologically
was going on that was giving you
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calm and peace. And that was
that relationship with Jesus.
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Yeah, yeah. And I didn't know.
We don't know how we're going
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to act till something like that
happens. But I just was... of
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course I confessed my sins and
did things we should do but I
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try to do that most of the time
anyway. God knows your heart,
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you know. Even though we
make mistakes. We'll always make
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mistakes but God knows.
So I felt a peace about it.
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It's always a challenge when
I patient that doesn't feel that
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bad. You know, 11 minutes on a
treadmill. That's great, by the
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way. A person that doesn't feel
bad finds out that they have
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disease. You know it's different
if someone's had a heart attack
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and having something that you
have to do something. But when
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someone really doesn't feel that
bad and you don't know how the
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disease is progressing. So
it might have stayed this for a
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while or it might have
progressed. And remember they're
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talking about bypass where
we bring arteries south of the
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blockages so the blood
has another blood supply. It's
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almost like insurance if
something does happen. It
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doesn't necessarily take away
the problem but it's insurance
00:12:01.52\00:12:03.82
so if you have that problem,
Oh you have an insurance policy
00:12:03.85\00:12:06.25
of extra blood going to your
heart. So the problem is still
00:12:06.29\00:12:11.03
there, it's genetically still
there. It didn't turn off your
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genes. So sometimes it
progresses, sometimes it
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doesn't. But it's very hard when
someone can do so well to say
00:12:17.10\00:12:20.04
I have to take the risk. Did
they tell you about some of the
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risks of the surgery?
00:12:22.24\00:12:25.07
Uh yes. Yeah, yeah. And of
course, I had vocal cord surgery
00:12:25.11\00:12:30.58
three years ago and that to me
was a simple procedure and they
00:12:30.61\00:12:33.21
said now you need to know one
of the risks is death. And I'm
00:12:33.25\00:12:35.95
like you're just going to
operate. And they said well any
00:12:35.98\00:12:38.32
time you go under anesthesia,
you know, there's that risk. But
00:12:38.35\00:12:41.99
now in this case, of course,
they walked me through all the
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potentials but they also did a
good job walking me through the
00:12:45.26\00:12:48.90
risks if you don't have it.
And they did a good job at that.
00:12:48.93\00:12:52.30
So we're going to take a break
here, Nick, and we're going to
00:12:52.33\00:12:57.01
talk about what it felt
like after the surgery in a few
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moments and then some of the
things that you've gone through
00:12:59.34\00:13:01.48
that you can share with every
body to know the ups and downs
00:13:01.51\00:13:04.21
you have after the surgery.
00:13:04.25\00:13:05.81
That's right and viewers at home
if you have questions about some
00:13:05.85\00:13:08.88
of what you're hearing about
from this procedure and some of
00:13:08.92\00:13:11.52
the different things that you
should be considering. Visit our
00:13:11.55\00:13:13.36
website HeartWiseMinisteries.org
and you can submit your
00:13:13.39\00:13:16.12
questions there and Dr. Marcum
or someone on our team will
00:13:16.16\00:13:18.39
respond to you in a timely
manner to share some general
00:13:18.43\00:13:21.36
advice and point you in the
right direction. There's more
00:13:21.40\00:13:23.40
to come on the Ultimate
Prescription so stay with us.
00:13:23.43\00:13:25.70