Skip to main content

May flew by....

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! At the beginning of the month my family and I went to celebrate the 25th anniversary for the artificial heart program. It was amazing to be there and to see all the people who have been impacted by the artificial heart program. There was a gentlemen who has had his LVAD for 10 years. The technology has and is still continuing to become better. The history of how it came about was remarkable to hear. I am so very grateful to be living in this era, just because I was only 3 years old when the program started.



Mid month Steve and I ran the Famous Idaho Potato half marathon. I was feeling great until the 10th mile. Steve was telling me if we keep at this pace we could PR. Just a few more steps my left knee on the outside cramped up so I had to walk. I stopped to stretch out and tried running again, but it kept cramping up on me. That didn't mean I was going to throw in the rag. I had to stop 5 times to stretch out and keep going. I tried a slow jog but couldn't, but I finished faster than my first half. During the last 3 miles I was devastated and disappointed. Then my thoughts went to thinking about how I wasn't able to even do this 3 years ago. This experience has made me realize to never take your body for grated and to listen to it, just because it is all you got. I was also thinking why my knee was bothering me and I figured it out. On Thursday before the run I was playing soccer, the keeper and another player and I got a little physical and I got hit. After taking it easy for a day  I am back to myself again.



This past weekend Steve and I went to San Francisco for the first time to see the city and to visit my Uncle Lyle. We went on 2 bike tours, one we went over the Golden Gate Bridge and rode into Sausalito. After the tour was over we were able to keep the bikes all day, so we grab a bit to eat in Sausalito and headed back over the Golden Gate Bridge. The plan was to go to Land's End hike but if you haven't been to San Francisco there are a whole lot of hills and they are pretty much vertical. So in other words we didn't make it the the trailhead. We went to Ghirardelli's chocolate factory and after we went to the Fisherman's Warf and walked around. We were pretty wiped out by the end of the day. Second tour we had electric bikes and this time we went around the city. We got to see all the art and murals of different districts/neighborhoods. It is amazing to see how many different cultures are there. After the tour we went to find the trolley pick up and rode the trolley to the ferry building. We walked around and walked down to the Warf, hung out there of a little and then walked some more to a gathering of food trucks. The next day we went to Stinson's beach, the academy of science and ate some crab. Our last day we took it easy and went to the Carnival parade in which they show all the many cultures that live in San Francisco and there are millions I swear. Then we went to Lyle's friends place to hang out by the pool. We had a lot of fun there, but it is much different than Boise.


Palace of Fine Arts


Golden Gate Bridge 








Bernal Hill 


The Castro District


Pan handle of Golden Gate Bridge 


The 7 sisters houses aka Full House house


Muir beach lookout 


Claude the albino alligator 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chalk It Up as a Miracle.........

Some of you may know, but Ashley went through another Heart Transplant yesterday. After her first first new heart started to fail, we re-listed on the her on the transplant list immediately. We knew getting another heart would be a long shot, but we wanted the option to be there if a heart came available. Sure enough 18 hours on the list a second heart came available that was a perfect match for Ashley. Ironically, it took 4.5 months and then 2 hearts in the same week. We, including the doctors, are all chalking it up as a miracle. It was decided not to wait to see if the first heart would handle the load she would need but rather to move forward with the new donor heart. Going through a transplant a second time makes you really feel for the family who lost their daughter, sister, spouse and friend. We are grateful again for the family and the individual who choose to give life. We were in quite a predicament and feel only divine intervention could hav...

Stinking INR

Another day in this lovely hospital because my stinking INR will not get were in needs to be. INR means International Normalized Ratio, its a number that describes your bloods clotting factor. Doctors want my INR to be around 2.0 but I am stuck at 1.5, a normal person should be below 1.0. So the higher the INR the thinner the blood. Because I have an LVAD they are very picky about my INR because they don't want a clot to form in my LVAD. But, if my INR gets too high I bleed, so it's a fine line we are walking until I get my new heart. On a higher note, my mom and I did some crafts.... getting ready for Christmas and my baby boy Wrigley came and visited me, some of you are thinking Wrigley is a terrible child's name but he is actually my French Bulldog :)

New Day, New Chapter, New....????

After the other days SHOCKing experience, I had to go into the clinic today to have my device interrogated.   Basically find out why I got shocked…. Was it warranted?? My device is set to SHOCK me if my heart gets beating too fast, like 180bpm or higher. Which I guess I excreted myself too much yesterday. This is a little bit upsetting, I was hardly up the trail and I got shocked. How am I supposed to do anything physical and not get shocked? Think about trying to exercise but also having to worry about a horse kicking you in the chest at any time.   Leaving the clinic I was pretty bummed… Is my heart just getting worse? Anyway, I went to work at straws and about an hour into work the clinic was calling me. I didn’t want to answer because I had a feeling my INR would be too low again and I would have to be admitted to the hospital. Anyway, I answered and Dr. Kia was on the line. He said “I heard you left upset from the clinic today?” I figured he was about to give me a pe...