A powerful journey from living with an artificial heart to a heart transplant....

Friday, April 29, 2011

One bad day cannot take the value of all the good days!

Biopsy #8 was today. Since I had a grade zero rejection last month, I graduated to go to St. Mary's for this biopsy. Yay! It's nice to go see my friends at St. Mary's.

There were some challenges during the test this time. I have heard the stories from other transplant patients of having difficulty getting into the jugular. It's been smooth sailing so far so I knew there had to be difficulties at some point. This was the day. I guess it was a combination of things, there was scar tissue from having so many biopsies, my pressures were quite low (making my vein small) and they need to get to know my anatomy because everyone is different. They needed to freeze my neck a number of times and give me a sedative to help me relax. My neck was quite swollen from all the poking. There is pain in my shoulder and right chest from hitting nerves. The staff were really good to me through the challenges. They did everything they could to make me as comfortable as possible. I really appreciate their compassion.

Even though my pressures were low, they were good. My heart is doing great in there!

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