Well, a month ago yesterday, April 15, 2022, at approximately 5:22 am, I was reborn, having died somewhere is the preceding 10 hours when they seevered my arteries and removed my old, enlarged, diseased, ischemic heart and put in a shiny new (well, new to me) heart, along with clean…

I mentioned in my last post that I was having a bit of a rough time, emotonally and cognitively. I’m still there and it’s getting pretty old. It all started while I was paying bills. I had just finished writing out my sixth or seventh check and I was about…

I’ve been getting stronger every day. I can walk farther. I now take the stairs without needing to stop and rest halfway. But everything has its limits. I spent the day roaming around the hospital, getting blood drawn, getting an echocardiogram, meeting with team members. Before the day was half…

It’s been a long, long time. This experience reminds me of a whole bunch of old cliches. All of them revolve around the same theme, though: slow then fast. My “big one” was over 20 years ago. I was told back then that I would either need a transplant one…

I got rolled into an OR on April 13, and I woke up late inthe day on the 14th wih a new heart. Some transplants like to refer to that day as their new birthday. I get it, but I’ll have no truck with such talk for myself. …

Well, I got the call! At about 10:30 this morning, I got a call from my transplant coordinator, They had a heart available. My donor is not a teenage Olympic athlete with perfect skin and teeth. Like me, this hear comes with a scuff on the chrome, which is only…

A couple days ago, my hemoglobin was down. Generally, hemoglobin (red blood cells) drops as the iron level in blood decreases. But my iron level was fine. None of the other expected causes were pregnant, so the heart failure team was worried I was bleeding internally. Sure enough, the site…

I had the most horrifying dream last night. I haven’t woken up in tears since I was a little kid. And yet, here I was. In my dream, I was in my hospital room, There wee; all manner of tubes and hoses and connectors on shelves, walls, hanging on hooks…