Over the course of my life there have been two main things my family and I have used to get thru the stress of my medical issues: humor and gratitude. Recognition and appreciation of all the good things in life, both big and small, makes […]
By most people’s standards, I had a pretty crappy summer. Just to recap all the chaos, I spent ten days in the hospital, I got diagnosed with a new medical condition, I have been on medical leave from my job for almost three months and […]
For as long as I can remember my mom has told me that she believes the universe has always provided me what I need when I needed it. Everything from a medication being approved just in time to the random kindness of a stranger, I […]
If you are facing a big scary medical test, which you are already very nervous about and involves a very large needle, don’t be the idiot who does a Google image search for “how big is a liver biopsy needle” because you will just freak […]
I keep using the phrase “how the mighty have fallen” to joke about the drastic change my life has taken in the past month. “How the mighty have fallen…last month I was drinking Diet Cokes with abandon, today I am peeing into a vacuum.” “How […]
“You sure don’t look sick.” “You would never know that something was wrong with you just by looking at you.” “Well, at least you look healthy.” If I had a nickel for every time I have heard one of the above sentences, I would probably […]
Twenty three pounds of fluid. Twenty three pounds. Almost 15% of my body weight in less than a week. What’s my secret? A constant flow of IV Lasix and the wondrous, new fangled Pee Vacuum. Ok, it’s actually called a Pure Wick External Female Catheter. […]
The most personal reason I ended up in the hospital is dumb ass reason. Everyone that knows me knows that I am pretty stubborn. My stubbornness is legendary. Many say my stubbornness and determination is the reason I survived my Fontan as a kid. I […]
Now I need to explain the poop reason. Or the fear of poop reason. In reality, developing protein losing enteropathy (PLE) may have been unavoidable, but it could have been diagnosed a lot earlier if I had just been willing to collect my poop. But […]
There are several reasons why I ended up in the hospital: the medical reason, the poop reason and the dumbass reason. The medical reason may actually be the easiest to explain and maybe even to understand. Thirty-two years ago, I had open heart surgery to […]