Dear Heart,
Well, our time together is coming to an end. I don’t know when, but you will soon be leaving me. I’m having a really hard time saying goodbye. You’ve been the center of my life for 41 years. Every decision I made had you factored […]
Tag: Surgery
Random Transplant Update #1: The Long Story
So, I’m realizing that I’m not the most consistent blogger. One would think that sitting at a computer typing would be a nice sedentary activity for someone in heart failure. But with heart failure comes less oxygen and some days my poor under oxygenated brain […]
And So Begins the Big Scary Heart Stuff…
This folder is a scary folder. I know that it looks pretty plain and inconspicuous. It didn’t try to bite me or cut my hand off or anything. But I’m going to need you to trust for me a minute when I tell you that […]
ASSumptions
I grew up in the Midwest and currently live in the South; two areas that are known for their politeness. In the Midwest we barely bump into someone and out comes “Ope! Excuse me” without pause. In the South, it’s a constant parade of “Yes, […]
My bravery is a farce…
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 […]
How the mighty have fallen…
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 […]
But you don’t look sick…
“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 […]
Ode to the Pee Vacuum
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. […]
How I Ended Up In The Hospital: The Dumb Ass Reason
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 […]
How I Ended Up In The Hospital: The Poop Reason
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 […]