How it has been going since transplant.

 

I am two years, five months out of my heart transplant. My life is far different than it was before. At first I found things to do, driving to have lunch with friends, going to pick up my sweet grandson from child care once a week for a "date". Going to the gym to see my trainer, working hard. Realizing that getting back in shape would be more of a stretch than it was getting there in the first place! 

This was pure bliss. Then there was COVID. I could go outside, but couldn't drive anywhere that ended up inside, like the Safeway, Sherwood Hall Library, or to my daughter's house. The only place I went was to the transplant center, and that was a big outing! During that time, I fainted several times, once outside my house. Standing on the driveway, I thought I was at a delightful garden party, until I hit the pavement. A woman was walking past our house. I could see her alarm, then hesitation about coming over to help. She had on a mask, and I didn't. Even when a neighbor falls, we must protect ourselves first. So she hailed my husband to come help. 

Another time I fell into my breakfast dishes, worrying my husband. I could hear the train roar and felt the shaking that accompanied each episode. I made a spectacular face plant in the toast!

Inova screened me up one side and down the other. A CT scan of my head gave no information. A sinus CT also showed nothing. Then the ENT put me through a whole barrage of diagnostic procedures. They proved nothing. A neurologist did a forty-eight hour EEG. Nada. 

My veteran transplant coordinator suggested that, possibly, the pain killer I was on for an arthritic hip was the culprit. I needed pain management, but as a transplant patient, I could not take an NSAID. They interfere with an immune suppressant. I went off the opiate derivative.  I haven't fainted since, and I can't wait to get a hip replacement

Now I have a leaking tricuspid valve. Actually it has been leaking for at least a year. A year ago, it was severe. Now it is ""torrential". Reminds me of a tsunami. So I will either get an experimental transcatheter valve replacement, or I will receive surgery, maybe breaking my sternum again. Nothing is settled, yet. I'm not happy about any alternative, but if I choose nothing, and take medication, I will die of heart failure. That isn't an option for me.

The dear one who died and had the wisdom to be an organ donor needs to be honored. I have her gift, and I want to keep it in working order. That's how we feel about our donors. They were heroes, and we must carry them into the future. It is only fitting. I also like living. As my Dad would have said, "It ain't so bad".

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