Hey, everyone.
Dr. James Marcum here, do you believe
how fast this year is going by?
Wow. Well, today I'm not going to talk about COVID
in the pandemic, not going to talk to you about heart disease,
but I'm going to talk to you about a subject
that's very interesting to me and that's touched our family's lives.
And I hope that you will gain some insight into your life from listening to this.
And I have a question that I want to start out with.
What do the basketball players
Markelle Fultz and Brandon Ingram?
The baseball players Matt Harvey.
Chris Carpenter.
Stephen Strasburg.
The hockey player. Adam McQuaid.
And even the musician Isaac Hanson.
What do all of these persons have in common?
Well, if you know the answer to that, boy, you're way ahead of the game,
but if you don't, stay tuned.
But before we talk about that,
I want to go back to the big picture
and the big picture is in the scriptures, in the scriptures,
we can have God, the god of the universe.
Talk to us.
And as we
meditate and spend time in the world, he can lead us
and he can show us what he wants us to accomplish for him in this world,
gives us hope, gives us courage, gives us love,
brings us all together, saves us, heals us.
Well, the text I want to share with you today is Psalms.
25, verse four.
And this is a great text to memorize.
Show me your ways, o lord.
Teach me your paths
this Texas and show me your ways.
Not my ways. Your ways.
Teach me your paths, not my past.
So God's telling us that he has a way for us, a path for us.
We're supposed to ask and he as we do this,
he's going to show us this way what our path is in life.
So I want you to hold that with you as we talk about this
medical syndrome that all of these athletes share in common.
What is that?
Well, it's a syndrome called
the thoracic outlet syndrome,
while in our bodies we have head, thorax, abdomen,
so thoracic outlet means an outlet, something leaving this thorax.
So in this area here there is a thoracic outlet
that's an outlet, a place where different structures lead
well, the bones and the muscles and the ligaments in the arm.
They're all fixed, but we need artery.
We need blood.
And we need nerve signals to make this arm function well sometimes.
And these athletes and musician all shared this in common.
This thoracic outlet was being basically squished,
so the structures that lead this, the vein,
the artery and the nerve were being compromised
when they were being compromised because this thoracic outlet was obstructed.
The person had symptoms.
Well, the most common type of this is when the nerve is obstructed
or compromised and the symptoms might be tingling in the arm.
That's affected weakness, numbness,
funny feelings called paresthesia.
That might be a clue that something's going on.
Of course, if the vein is obstructed, the blood can't get back to the heart
if the blood doesn't move back to the heart.
It causes the arm to get puffy, discolored pain tingling.
Everything messes up, but it can even have clots.
It can move into the lungs and cause serious problems.
That would be a medical emergency.
Well, sometimes also the artery has a problem with it.
And when the artery has a problem, usually there's a decrease in the pulse.
There might be pain.
Oxygen can't get to the the fingers and the muscles.
You might have symptoms where it's cramping, when you do things
that would be a symptom called clot occasion.
Well, all of these athletes and musicians
use these use their arms quite a bit.
So when this happened, it actually threatened their livelihood
so they would go to their doctors with this symptom
and he would make the diagnosis.
The diagnosis in the venous and arterial is not that hard to make,
but sometimes the nervous system where it's compromised can be very hard.
Sometimes it can be.
If the nerves relate, it can be a positional,
whereas all of a sudden the position, the nerve is pinched.
Then you don't get good nerve symptoms.
Slow down there and then you have symptoms develop.
That one's hard to to diagnose.
But now they have some more eyes that can look at this area.
Of course, ultrasounds and the clinical picture
can give us a feel for each of these athletes.
Musicians had this syndrome and they had it treated.
It's not that common.
So why do I even bring it up today?
Well, because it is affected our family in great ways.
My son Jake had thoracic outlet syndrome, the type that affected the vein,
and that's called Paget Schroeder syndrome.
This happened his junior year in high school,
and it really not only changed his life,
but it changed our family's life.
You know, you ask yourself, Lord, why did this happen?
What was your ultimate purpose?
And it was a traumatic situation, and many of you have had pain
in different trials and different test in your life.
But remember, God uses test and trials
for his greater purpose, and that's what we learned.
We still don't know exactly for Jake and for us what that greater purpose was,
but we trust him that this was part of his way.
This was part of his path for Jake in
his life is like, for instance, playing a baseball game.
You know, you practice catching the ball, picking up grounders, throwing the ball.
You sure you make mistakes, you have injuries, you have trials, you have test.
But all of this is done so that when you get in the game, you're the best.
You're best trained to make that big play, to do that thing
for the team when it's needed.
Well, maybe these trials and tests in life that come our way, it's not so much
the trial, but it makes us stronger and come closer to God
and trust him more and understand him and hear his voice better.
So when it is game time for us in our lives
that that way and that path can be revealed.
Well, if you want to know a little bit more about Jake's
story in our family story, we've created a website
to help other people with this syndrome called Help for Thoracic Outlet Talk.
And you can go to that and get more information
if you'd like to watch the video.
I think it's very important and those with this condition, it gives more resources
because we want to help those that have it help them long term.
Show him how to rehab, how to live with it, how to cope with it.
We're going to continue to add
and work with others that are specializing in this area.
But not only do we want to help the medical condition,
but we want people to realize
that there is a path that God has you on.
And these paths might contain trials, physical trials,
mental trials, spiritual trials.
But as he has you on this path, he's going to show you his ways
and what he's trying to accomplish his will
because in the end, we're going to have healing.
So check out that
that website with the video.
I think you'll really enjoy it.
Share it with your friends, neighbors. Comment on it.
If you like it, give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.
And I want to focus back on this text again.
I'm hoping we all can memorize that stacks and embedded in our heart
and ask God to speak to you today about this text.
Show me your ways.
Oh Lord.
Teach me.
Your pass.
Your ways might not be my ways or the ways of the world, but that's
what is best for me because you know me, you love me, you created me
and teach me your pass that requires learning.
So how can I learn?
Well, it's by spending time with you, learning through these tests,
these trials, these conditions that might happen to us.
So I'm hoping each one of you learn something from this today, and I
will be back soon with another biblical prescription for life.