Struggles

Today I walked 1/2 mile with my husband and pups which was an amazing accomplishment in my book and I was feeling so good until I read the website for Broken Hearts of Big Bend. What many of you may not know is there are so many of us with a heart condition fighting everyday to survive and we lost one of our little warriors today. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. I ask tonight that everyone take a moment and pray for each of waiting for an organ, for those who are grieving, for those who are continuing to heal, and for those who are in the hospital to get well soon. I love all you all in my heart family...keep fighting!!!

Week Six Relaxation

I am now fully healed and am doing wonderful. I have more energy and am enjoying life so much more. I can now raise my hand above my head again and it doesn't feel as weird when my device moves a little. For week six I took the time to relax, catch up with friends and ended it with a massage, facial and pedicure to celebrate my complete recovery. Thank you to everyone who prayed and stood by my side through this. I appreciate it so much. I am so truly blessed!
p.s. I do not see a change in my daily function since I started the Viagra but maybe that will change in a few weeks. I still get slightly out of breath from time to time but nothing like before when I had my old device. The side effects I am having are a severe headache now and then and I am having some problems in the "bedroom." Hopefully I can talk to my doctor soon and see if this is normal and if I can do anything to help.
As long as I continue to do well I will not write again until my appointment in September. Until then...xoxo

Week Five Success

Today marks five weeks and I have been doing great. I had two doctor appointments with Doctor Hodges here locally in Fayetteville. The first was on Wednesday at the hospital where they checked my device. There were no atrial or ventricular episodes noted and it was also made clear to me that with the way the device was programmed it would only last two years. So the technician tested my leads several times to get good readings at a lower voltage to preserve battery life. Unfortunately all the testing makes me feel bad  but thankfully it didn't last long. Dr. Hodges also came in and looked at my incision sight and said it looked wonderful. Today I went to the cardiology clinic and started the Viagra. I had to be watched for several hours and my blood pressure had to be taken every fifteen minutes. I was able to watch some TV and got to play my DSI where I finished my Mario game while I waited around. Around the hour mark of me taking the Viagra I did get a slight headache and felt kind of dizzy but it did subside after another forty minutes. An hour later we were released, the doctor was happy that my blood pressure didn't drop much and my side effects were short lived. All good news! 

On another note I was able to go out with friends last weekend to a bar and club, which I have not been able to do in a couple years, so that was another milestone in my eyes. I am so happy this device and medication is helping me and I am able to do more and be more active. If I can only sleep through the night without my shoulder hurting where my device is that would make it perfect! :)

Thoughts:

I started reading this book my doctor wrote called A Doctor Looks at War by Michael Hodges and it brought tears to my eyes. Remembering a little over a year ago my hubby was deployed and the thoughts of what he was going through...being shot at, not being able to bathe, eating bull crap food and little sleep makes me so proud to be an army wife. I can not imagine what he and all of our service men go through during deployment. Plus Dewon had the added stress of knowing I was in and out of the hospital and doctors office with my heart failure. I don't know how he is so strong.

Week Four Drama

     Week four was full of problems. First my hubby had to work night shift and some mornings which sucked because I hate going to be alone. The only up side is I had time to hang out with my friend Ting and got to finally see Jessica and the babies.
      On Tuesday I went to pick up my prescription (that I have to have for my heart) and they did not have it filled and had to get an authorization before they could fill it. So I had to call every pharmacy in and out of town until I found a walgreens that had it. Then call Cleveland and have them give a new authorization and last drive way out of town to get my medicine..ughh! To make my day worse I found out through the media that Olive Garden had a hepatitis A scare and that anyone who had ate there in late July through early august should be tested and vaccinated. This made me really scared since I had ate there twice and I had to call Cleveland and wait for them to tell me what to do. They ended up calling me the next day and telling me I had the vaccine when I first started the transplant process and should be safe. This made me very happy!!! 
      The rest of the week I just hung out and cleaned my house. Had some girl time and some romantic time with the my hubby. All in all a pretty good week besides the few mishaps. 
      

Today marks four weeks post surgery and the scar is looking pretty good. I am noticing this device is bigger than the other so it is weird at time when I move my arm I can feel it. Weird!!!! 

Another Week Down

Friday August 5th- three weeks post surgery and I am healing wonderfully. I already had some of my steri strips fall off and it is looking yucky and I also noticed that they did not cut along the original scar from my other surgeries. 
So I am now worried that my new scar will look like an X :( 


Saturday- we just hung out and were lazy nothing exciting...


Sunday- I cleaned the whole kitchen top to bottom, swept and mopped...then cooked dinner and after was super tired. I started feeling really bad and was having a little chest pain and terrible hot flashes so Dewon put me on bed rest for the night. I know I did too much but it had to be done and I definitely paid for it. I also can raise my right hand up to do my hair again and can sleep on my side without being in pain. All baby steps in the right direction :)


Prayers:
* please continue to pray for little Emma as she recovers from her procedure and is ruling out other complications with her health.
              Thank you everyone for your support!!!!

Aug 4 2011

Today I laid around all day. It is too hot to do anything and I was still tired from yesterday so I stayed in and didn't do anything big. I did however get my pictures and they were great. I also went to dinner with my dad and hubby. We went to the Mash House for the first time and it was amazing!! I love spending the few hours with my dad and husband, they are my rocks and make me laugh. We ended the night watching Jersey Shore and now I am ready for bed..Good Night!


Thoughts:
*Happy birthday to my brother Aj..20 years old today.
*Also praying for my little friend Emma who is having surgery soon. Prayers needed for a safe surgery and speedy recovery.

OMG It's Hot

Today I had a doctors appointment with my local doctor and he said I looked much better and everything looked great overall. My steri strips (butterfly stitches) are barely hanging on now and should fall off in the next week. I also have my follow up appointment with him in the device clinic on the 16th of August. They will make the final changes to my ICD and tweak it to fit me and my body the best it can. I will also start my Viagra at this time. So that was great.. All was good until we went to our photo shoot this evening and it was super hot. I don't think I drank enough water during the shoot because now I feel sick and am throwing up and am really tired. So it looks like bath and bed for me. Will upload our new pictures when I get them...I am so excited!! Goodnight <3

Birthday Girl

I am so truly blessed and had an amazing birthday. I'm 23 today and have been spoiled rotten by my family, friends and husband. I walked the mall today and a few stores and no shortness of breath...yay! but the heat did get me because I crashed after my amazing birthday dinner my hubby made. Thank goodness I woke up after an hour and got to watch my shows and relax with the hubby for a little longer. But I have to get some sleep now, we have a photo shoot tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep :0) Good night!

Second Chances

Today I read my friends blog and she had a post that really has me thinking. A woman that she met in the Clinic had a heart and kidney transplant 18 years ago and had got depressed and stopped taking her anti rejection medication. So she is now in need of  new organs. Do you believe she should get a second chance?


I have struggled my whole life just to maintain the little life functions I have left. I have had to take medication my whole life and even when I am sick of everything going on I stop and think...well, it's either I take tons of pills everyday or I have problems and am in the hospital or dead. I like the take tons of pills option. I know how hard it is being sick all the time and seeing others healthy and doing things you wish you could do. I even have pitty party days when I am just upset with everything going on...but I am only allowed 3 a year according to my grandma :) But never would I take a chance at a new life for granted. Not to mention the hurt the donor family is going through while I live with their loved ones organ inside of me. To me it is a very selfish thing and I do not understand how someone could be so careless. Not to mention the fact that there is thousands waiting for an organ and less than half of them even get one. So my answer is no, she does not deserve one but I also know if it is god's will...it will be done. So I have a heavy heart :(


Donation Facts:

• *More than 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.
• *Every 10 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.
• *An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.
• *In 2009, there were 8,021 deceased organ donors and 6,610 living organ donors resulting in 28,465 organ transplants.
• *Last year, more than 42,000 grafts were made available for transplant by eye banks within the United States.
• *According to research, 98% of all adults have heard about organ donation and 86% have heard of tissue donation.
• 90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor.

SO THE BIG QUESTION IS: 

ARE YOU AN ORGAN DONOR?

check out donatelife.net