Hi, this is Rhesa and it’s been a long time since we have been able to slow down in ministry and just write but Robert asked me to share a little about what is going on in his health right now so this is the rest of the story. If you know me I am a pediatric nurse for 20 years now focusing in Critical care transport and most recently finished my Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner masters so my perspective will be more about the medical side of things. So be warned in reading this. In the medical field we have a deep respect for each other because we work on the other side and know the hoops we have to jump through, and protocols we have to follow but it also makes us the best advocate for family and the eyes and ears for our doctors. For example when I told the endocrinologist my husband was the wrong color her eyes snapped up and she wants to hear what I have to say. We may be accused of “leading the witness” but where Robert was saying I was feeling anxious we want broken down into the symptoms like, my heart was racing, I was sweating, I had the feeling I needed to run (he never runs for anything not even tacos) and my blood pressure was this and my oxygen was this. 

Well I remember it all started in the summer July to be exact. He had a day where he felt terrible, he was pale and sweating so I took his blood sugar and it was elevated. We went through what he had eaten and the only thing different was the veggie straws that are really high in carbs so we stopped eating those. There were no other episodes so we went on with regular life. He hates going to the doctor so I scheduled our yearly check ups together with a new NP in August since our last NP had moved on. We got labs drawn as usual and his came back with borderline high A1C and hypothyroidism. He was put on both thyroid and diabetic meds end of October. He went off to Portland by plane in September and that is when I got a text from him in the air that something was terribly wrong. Isn’t technology wonderful yet I felt helpless in that moment except to start praying.  In medicine we make a list of differential diagnosis (all the things it could be) and usually the most critical is at the top and we start ruling it out. When an adult is flying and has a medical emergency we worry most of oxygen, clots, heart and sugar.

Well I told my kids to pack a backpack for three days and we got in the car and started driving to California where Robert got off the plane as an Emergency. The pro packers that my kids are from all these years as MKs we were out the door in 20 minutes. I was texting the nurse on board and she felt like it was low blood sugar that had caused everything. The new medications were his only change that would cause something so acute so our doctor asked us to stop the medications and come in for more lab work when we got back home to El Paso. The 12-hour trip back home was not very fun. He had episodes all the way back home where he had a pounding heart and checking his sugars would go from 84 to 145 in 15 minutes without eating anything. This is also the first time I started seeing him turn very pale with these episodes and have headaches after each episode that were almost unbearable. 

We got back home went back for check ups and his labs were perfect. There was no longer any indication of diabetes or thyroid problems but there was indication for inflammation in his body and gut issues started coming 10x as bad as they had been. This was very puzzling. During this time pain also started in full force in his back and head. We got a referral to a rheumatologist but 4 months away.  Got into the gastroenteritis and they told him he had diverticulitis take fiber. 

Then the day Robert wrote about where we were at church and he had a problem with his boots. Our kids were all seated in church and at least he thought to tell me he was going outside. He was sweating, having a hard time breathing and pale again. It appears to me like he is having a heart attack. I was going to call an ambulance but if you know a Rodriguez they are quite stubborn and He would have just refused them and there service when they got there. Our compromise was that we would do his thing and get him shoes at Wal-Mart if he still had symptoms we were driving the 2 minutes to the hospital. So, I finally got him to the hospital. Looking at him the hospital staff also thought he was having a heart attack and had his blood drawn and on EKG in 5 minutes of arrival. Cardiac labs were normal and no EKG was normal also. All his labs looked perfect and the doctor even said better than his personal labs and he was no more than 120-pound guy. I did notice Roberts heart rate was slightly elevated as well as his blood pressure and his 02 was low 90’s. I’m sure because of the boot story that you can read in Roberts account the doctor just went to the easiest diagnosis and said now you have anxiety here is an anti anxiety medication. So the thing that bothered me the most about that was the idea that Robert had acute onset of anxiety without a cause, never having had a problem with shoes before. It didn’t add up in my mind. Acute episodes of anything are usually caused by a clot, heart problems, infection, a tumor, trauma or so many other things. So at this point I knew we were going to have to find a cause. I stared praying for wisdom for our doctors and that God would lead us to the right doctors who would have answers. 

We kept going back to our primary NP and we would talk through and she would listen and continued to refer us as symptoms came up. Roxanne is her name and she was God sent. One day she even called us out of the blue saying she had been thinking about us and was wondering how everything was going. 

In December the symptoms were getting worse. They were episodic meaning we never knew when symptoms would hit but he could feel it building usually during the day and could be in a safe place. Many times at night he would be jolted out of sleep with a pounding heart, high blood pressure, high sugar, pale skin that changed to purple skin color, sweating then uncontrolled trembling hands to whole body shaking. I knew it wasn’t a seizure because he was able to talk to me through it all.  This happened several times in Mexico while we were leading the Com2Mex team but thankfully we had a well-trained team who carried on without a hitch. 

In January we were on our way to Ensenada Mexico as a preparation for a summer trip and he had the worse episode yet where he had to pull over. We ended up in Phoenix Az. That night at the hotel he looked like he was seeing a lion and had to run. At some point that night I was down on my knees asking God for wisdom and He clearly said go to an Endocrinologist. His heart was pounding, pale, shaking, sweating, and hard to breath and he was unable to sleep. We we’re keeping a journal of his symptoms and vital signs during all of this. The next day we turned back and went home. I wasn’t going to let him drive at this point and it was a lot to do 12 hours by myself with very little sleep. 

We went back to our NP and I boldly asked to go to an endocrinologist. We talked about how insurance may not pay for it because he was no longer considered a diabetic. I told her at this point I was willing to pay anything. We called for an appointment and it was three months out but our NP called her friend the endocrinologist and we got a work in appointment for the very next day. We arrived at 3 pm on a Friday and were seen at 6 pm. I really felt sorry for the doctor having such a late night but I knew we were supposed to be there. They ran his A1C and it was perfect and I started to doubt. I wrote my family and close prayer partners and said “Please pray boldly with me that God gives this doctor wisdom and as soon as she hears the symptoms she will know what it is.” We met Dr. Egbuonu and I loved her instantly. She said you don’t have diabetes tell me about your symptoms.   Robert talked maybe 15 min and I filled in with the journal I was keeping with all his sugars, vital signs and she said “I have a theory but I know what it is and it may take us a while to find it.” I was praising God!! She knew what this was. She then went on to tell us it was either a Pheochromocytoma or a Paraganglioma, a rare endocrine tumor that was secreting too much adrenaline and causing all these symptoms. Just the night before one of the nurses I work with asked if he had ever been tested for a rare tumor Pheochromocytoma. 

On Robert’s birthday 1/21 we did labs and 24 hour urine collection and it was confirmed that his body was secreting too much Dopamine and Norepinephrine and that was on a good day. Most likely on symptomatic days the levels would be higher. His endocrine system was misfiring which usually is due to a tumor on the adrenals on top of the kidneys. All these tests and results feel like they are taking forever but in reality things were moving fast. The next step was a CT and our doctor said a lot of times it is negative and we have to move to a PET scan. 

We went to Houston for a faith promise service that had been scheduled for over a year and he really struggled to get there. His heart would pound so hard and all his other vital signs were off and sometimes the only thing that helped was to pull over and let everything be still for a little bit. His blood pressure cuff at one point said the heart rate was irregular and would not give us a reading. We were out in the middle of nowhere and the next available hospital was San Antonio so we kept going. In San Antonio the symptoms were gone again but I was worried about the irregular heart rhythm that is usually hard to catch unless you have continuous cardiac monitoring. I went and bought for his birthday the Apple 5 Watch that does EKG monitoring. He tried to return it because it was too much money but I won that round. I kept telling him his life was way more valuable than an expensive watch and I needed to know if or when to take him to the hospital. 

In Houston when the pastor and the church laid hands on Robert in the morning service and prayed for his healing he instantly felt relief and did not have one single more episodes for 3 1/2 days. We got home with no problems and we had three really good nights of sleep. God is good! I really felt God saying, I have you, I hear you, I’m taking care of you and I am healing you! We also needed that sleep because one week later Robert’s only brother died on a Monday. 

We got ready to leave town to go to Oklahoma City for the funeral and Roberts’s episodes had gotten frequent again and so he physically did not feel like he could go to the funeral. We talked to the kids extensively and it was decided as a family that Mikayla and I would go to the funeral and represent the family and the two oldest Ruthy and Josiah would stay back in El Paso with Robert. 

We got the CT results, which basically said we needed to move to the PET scan. An Alpha-blocker, a new medication was called in to help decrease the symptoms. 

Mikayla and I flew to OKC and spent time with the family talking, crying and making a video for the service. The night before the funeral, Robert called me saying he was sitting in his recliner watching TV and adrenaline just started surging through his body harder than ever before. His heart was pounding. It went away in 2 minutes but then it hit again. His heart would surge from 80-160 in seconds. I asked for an EKG and it looked like Junctional Tachycardia on the portion of the EKG strip from his watch. I told him to call the ambulance or have Ruthy drive him to the closest hospital. He chose to have Ruthy drive. 

Well he was kept overnight where they worked to lower his blood pressure and heart rate and everyone studied about rare Pheochromocytoma’s. Now he remains on both an Alpha and Beta-blocker. We are all back in town and going to another appointment on Monday. Anticipating the PET scan will be ordered this week. 

Through it all God is faithful and good!! We see Him at work in every step!