Friday, September 24, 2010

The 2 year list

Today, 2 years ago, September 24, 2010, I had my heart transplant after waiting only a few hours on the waiting list. Today, is my day for reflecting on my ongoing journey. A to give thanks to my donor and my donor's family. This weekend I'm going rock climbing, which I have been doing since about 3 months ago my transplant. I'm still struggling to get my fitness back.

Anyway, at this time I like to do a kind of checklist or inventory of the issue I'm dealing with thus far and how it going.


1. BK Virus - My virus count are down and I've been Asymptomatic since Jan 2009, so I can't really complain about that.

2. ITP - As of the beginning of August my platelets were 80km as high as they had been in a year, though ~120k is considered safe and 300k is considered normal. Let hope for continued unexplained improvement

3. Gallstones - likely I have passed all of the large one (excruciating pain) though I still get twinges of pain here and there. It's coming out. Luckily it's laproscopic surgery and they will be able to take it out before the end of the year (for my insurance).

5. Barrett's Disease - For those of you who don't know, I now have Barrett's disease which is ..I don't know what to call it, abnormal changed cells in the esophagus. They are considered pre-cancerous and are typically caused by chronic acid reflux syndrome. I don't have acid reflux so it goes down as yet another unexplained issue. Sometimes I think someone is out to get me, but they aren't having much luck, I'm too strong. Anyway, the cells are confined to a very small area and are non-dysplastic, meaning they aren't really mutated, so at this point they are just going to monitor them.

5. Depression- well, I don't know what to say about this. It's still being managed with medications, my dose hasn't changed. I'm feeling ok...better, but I would say it's still tentative. There isn't really a plan to get off the medication right now. I'm just moving forward, and keepin tryin to get better, more optimistic, more motivated.

Well, that's pretty much it. No rejection so far, my BP is well controlled and I haven had a major medication or dosage change in at least a year. Everything with my heart is great, though sometime I kinda feel like the rest of me is falling apart.