Hmmmmm....

Remembrance Day

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

by John McCrae

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw the sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

65_RedRoses

I'm not quite sure what I want to write here, and even more unsure how to phrase it without sounding cheesy. So please bear with me.

The Internet can be a fantastic place. It allows us to visit far away places, introduces us to people from all walks of life and in all kinds of situations. It also opens our eyes to the plights and the triumphs of others. Over the years I've discovered a great number of people with fantastic life stories to tell. Stories of conquests, coping and just stories of, and about, really neat people! Granted, most of these stories I've discovered revolve around people who, by no fault of their own, are in need of an organ transplant. I'll probably never meet any of these people or will I ever know them, but I'm so very grateful for knowing of them through the Internet.

One such person is Eva Markvoort. She's a 26 year old dynamo with CF...and what a spirited person she is. Her story is also the focus of a documentary airing in November on CBC's 'The Passionate Eye'. I urge you to tune and watch it. Also, Visit her blog at http://65redroses.livejournal.com/ and get to know her yourself!

Oh...and please sign up to be an organ donor!

Flu Shots

Well, yet another week slips by and I am going stir crazy sitting in this house! Don't get me wrong, I'm very appreciative of the rest...but good grief! I have a list of stuff I would love to tackle but am limited to what I can do due to the 'no heavy lifting' clause. I did do some cleaning and organising in my garage and the leaves have all been raked up and out to the curb, but I want to do some other chores and I can't! The other thing that saddens me is I've become fat. Yes, I have this dual ring of blubber that surrounds my midriff section and it is in fact fatty, blubbery, flabby tissue. The first ring is my fat belly, the newest ring is, shamefully, my gunt. My pants don't fit me anymore and I can no longer wrap a towel around my waist and have it stay there on its own just by tucking the ends over and inside. Know why? Cause I'm fat! Fat caused by inactivity! I'm hideous...look away.


So yesterday I decided to get my seasonal flu shot. Yaaa, I figured it had been way to long since I had any needles jammed into me and I missed the smell of alcohol swabs! Sooooo, I shuffled off to the walk-in flu clinic down the road....actually I drove cause I'm fat and lazy. Anyways, I try to get the flu shot every year, and even though I did the liver donation this year, I still needed a flu shot. Now, to be honest, I had no problem with them giving me the flu shot, it was the H1N1 shot that spooked me! After all, it's teeming with mercury and bleach! How would my system handle that? My body is so busy rebuilding liver cells would either shot make me sick? What if I had a reaction? What if I got the flu from the shot itself!? Bleeh!! Actually, a quick email the day before to Cailin at TGH set me straight! I would have no problem with either shot. So no worries!

The wait time at the clinic wasn't so bad, maybe 15 minutes for registering, 30 minute wait for the shots and then the 15 minute 'calm-down' period. The worst thing was they gave me one shot in each arm. The shots didn't hurt going in, but a couple of hours later my arms felt like dead weight and man were they sore! Not only that, I feel all flu-ish. Not good for fat little guys like me. Needless to say, I'm a bit sore still.

We got snow today too! No big accumulations mind you, but it snowed! Not a big of fan of the snow and cold. Winter sucks!

Oh yaa, I was going to post the video of my last blood thinner shot on here but guess what? The camera I used to record that very piece of visual history didn't save the clip! Or it did and I can't find it. In any case, if the clip should be found, I'll post it.

Random Thoughts Part III

Holy Jeeze!! The past few days have been ''weird''. I woke up this morning feeling fine, then about an hour later I felt really light-headed, nauseous and dizzy! Still feel a bit dizzy now, especially if I tilt my head or bend down. I hate that feeling and have no idea why I have it!!

I really can't, or shouldn't complain though, life is good! That being said, this blog is my outlet to vent and share every experience of my organ donation with those who drop by! Not that my dizziness is from the surgery, I'm just complaining about being dizzy! The other odd thing that's been driving me insane lately is my belly feels really hot, like sunburn hot! The whole area just under my belly button..it isn't red though, it just feels very hot. I asked the surgeon about this during my one month follow up visit and he said it was the nerves and muscle tissue reconnecting. The one good thing is my incision is no longer weeping...it's really red and angry looking, but not weeping!

It's been six weeks since the surgery and I'm going stir-crazy sitting inside. My discharge instructions state "Walking is the only exercise recommended in the first six weeks. After six weeks gradually resume normal physical activities." Soooo, the other day I tried to rake some leaves! It felt really good to actually do something constructive and I made sure not to push myself to hard. That being said, I did realize that my I was using my back muscles more than my stomach muscles. Thinking about it now, I kind of wish the hospital had some kind of exercise program for donors to follow...to help or quicken the healing process. Besides, I caught a 'mirrored' glimpse of my naked body coming out of the shower the other day and from the side I looked like a Dr. Seuss character! Granted, I was never really super toned or buff to begin with, but this was just gross! I need to get me & the belly back in shape! So much to do...yikes!

Ramblings

First of all, my apologies for not posting earlier. I just didn't have any real exciting stuff to ramble on about!

Today however, is a banner day! Celebrate and rejoice my friends, for today marks the last of my self administered blood thinner injections! Yaaaaa!!! As a matter of fact, I have recorded the process for prosperity and will post this video here on these very pages so everyone may share in the festivities! There may even be cake!

Before I continue, I must first introduce more Toronto General Hospital Staff and acknowledge a few people.

Dr. Mark Cattral - Surgeon:

This was my surgeon. Not to gloat or anything, but this guy is like one of, if not THE best surgeon in his field! Dr. Cattral is also a Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto, he's the director of the Pancreas Transplantation Program, and he holds the CIHR/Astellas Chair in Transplantation Research. Apart from having the most velvety soft hands of anyone I have ever met, he is a multi organ transplant surgeon with expertise in live-donor liver transplantation and pancreas transplantation. I'm also not ashamed to say Dr. Cattral is freakishly handsome.

Julia Cervenko - TGH Pharmacist:

I only met Julia once, and that was the Friday before I was discharged. It wasn't a long meeting, maybe half an hour or so but I was so impressed! She went over all my medications and how to use them. Never have I spent so much time talking with a woman about pooh, the importance of pooh and the mechanics of discharging said pooh! She even made me a cool instruction-chart to follow with all my new and existing medications on it! She was even ready to show me how to do the injections but didn't have to as the sweet Cailin Macleod already did. Once all was said and done, she made sure all the medications I would need would be ready for pick up at the hospital pharmacy....and it was!

Terri - Nurse:

OMFG! I wish I knew Terri's last name..but I don't. Take no offence, but I can only describe Terri as "The Coolest Chick I Have Ever Met"! I would have stayed in the hospital for another week if I knew Terri would be my nurse. Such a little thing, but just cool as hell...like a buddy. Hard to explain really, easy to talk to, helpful, gentle, cute....love her laugh too. Hey, I'm not the only one, several people on the floor loved Terri!! On the day I went home, Terri dropped by to punish me with the dreaded ''cotton swab'' test! Yes, the same test Olive made me do during my pre-admin tests! Terri wasn't as cavalier as Olive though and I had to do my own swabbing. Truth be known, it was probably better this way....I will say no more.

David Conroy - Liver Donor:

David donated part of his liver to his uncle back in December of 2008. Earlier in my quest, I was trying to connect with other donors to get a feeling of what I was getting myself into. Cailin gave me a few names and I tried contacting them, but none ever got back to me...except for David. He and I met at the Starbucks inside Toronto General one day while I was getting tested. Our chat only lasted about an hour but I learned a ton from him. Nice to hear what to expect from someone who's been through it! Thanks David, I appreciate you taking time out of your day to spend it with me!

Bryan Whitehead - Administrative Assistant:

Bryan's a good boy! A little intense at times but what a hoot he is! As the administrative assistant for the living donor liver program, he is Cailins right-hand man. He scheduled most of my appointments and kept in contact with me through the entire testing process. Got a question? He had an answer! I watched him lovingly carry a coffee from the corridors of the 10th floor down to the blood lab one day and his hand didn't move the entire time. There's a picture of him below.....snappy dresser AND surgeon-ly soft hands!

As I've said before, the great staff at Toronto General are the best-est! If I never run into any of these people again, I hope they all realize what a profound impact they've had on me and my families lives. I will see them again though...they are family!

More to come!

One Month Follow-Up

Well, my 1 month follow-up appointment was uneventful. So uneventful I wasn't even able to drop by the Lindt Chocolate factory for any treats 'cause I was running kind of late! My first stop was for blood tests. Once I registered at the lab, I only had a short wait until they called me in. The tech that did greeted me was one I had never seen before. Actually, I didn't recognize any of the techs in the whole department this day! Still, the lady was nice enough and she only took 3 vials..in & out in less than 10 minutes!

With blood work finished, I had about 2 hours to kill before my surgical consult so I headed to the Transplant Office to visit with Cailin. Turns out, she wasn't in the office so I watched 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' on my I-touch thingy in the waiting room till she came back. Now, as much as I enjoy just visiting with the sweet angel Cailin, I also needed her to fill out a package of forms for my work benefits. Once she came back to the office, I gave her the forms and we had a great little visit. One thing to note here is the Transplant Office isn't some dark and dingy place filled with emotionless robotic workers...it's a friendly place! Not only that, but they work miracles here.

Before I left, I tried to get a picture of Cailin for the blog. This is the best I could get though. Cailin is a pro at avoiding the camera!



Bryan on the other hand, is not camera shy.




My meeting with the surgeon was at 2:00 pm, so a quick dash to the 10th floor where I was ushered into an examination room. My surgeon was Dr. Cattral and to be honest, today was the first day I actually met him! I think I might have seen him in the recovery room on floor 7, but at that time I was in a drug induced haze and remember very little. In any case, he greeted me and asked me some questions about how I felt, how I was healing and how I thought everything went. He gave my incision the once over and told me everything was progressing really good. I didn't really have any questions for him apart from some general 'back-to-my-old-self' queries. All in all, this meeting lasted less than 20 minutes and I was on my way home again. My next round of follow-ups will be my 3 month check-up and that isn't until December 3rd.

Once I got home, I felt something wet against my shirt. Once I checked it out, I noticed my incision was leaking a little at the very bottom. Nothing too serious I hope...just need to keep an eye on it. When I got up Friday morning, my shirt was sticking to the incision site at the bottom and it hurt! I cleaned it up and bathed it in Ozonol and went about my day. Friday night I woke up around midnight because my shirt felt wet in one spot and again, the incision is weeping near the bottom. Looking at it today however, it isn't so bad. Maybe I slept on it funny. In any case, I'll keep an eye on it.