Skip to main content

#2 Biopsy

I forgot to tell you all how my first biopsy went. I think I was just so excited to be out of the hospital! A biopsy is when they go down a vein in the neck and go into the heart and grab a piece of the heart like a bread crumb, then they look at the sample underneath a microscope to see if anything has changed from previous samples. So this morning I had to wake at the crack of dawn to get my blood drawn to check my troft levels for one of my anti-rejection drugs to see if I need to go up or down on the dosing. Then I went in to get my right heart catheter and biopsy done. Pretty easy actually, all they did was numb the right side of my neck and I just felt a little bit of pressure here and there. Not IV placed or anything, THANK GOODNESS!! :) The next thing on the list was an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the ticker) It is the craziest thing to see my new heart on the screen it  surreal for me. The last thing was seeing the good  doc and that went well. They told me to work on my breathing at home with my spirometer and asked Steve to cup his hands and tap me on the back, I do my breathing exercises to get my lungs all the way expanding. I guess I have a lot of space in there.

My first biopsy result was R1. This is normal the doctors said, they explained to me this chart. Noraml, R1, R2, R3, and R4. The higher the R the more rejection, you have. The doctors also told me that the first year everyone has rejection in some degree and they said not to worry about it and to let them worry. I said okay that easy! My biopsy today was the same as my first biopsy so that is a good thing.

I hope everyone is outside enjoying all the sunshine! Poor me can't because of all the drugs I am on. Only a few minutes for me, but totally worth it. Gotta love that feeling!


Love my Wrigley's buttom so very MUCH!!!



Comments

  1. Sabrina HigleyMarch 31, 2015 at 8:36 PM

    Cutest butt ever! So so happy you are doing well! Love ya girl!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

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...
7 comments
Read more

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 :)
5 comments
Read more

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...
5 comments
Read more