(Celeste, again...)
So far, everything I have heard regarding Carissa's post-surgical condition has been good. They were in the process of moving her to her room around dinner time this evening after having several post-surgical infusions (potassium and I'm not sure what else).
When I spoke with Mom around dinner time, she had only seen Carissa for a few minutes in a hallway. She said that her color looked good and overall she seemed about as well as could be expected at this point. While Kareem was able to place the j-tube, Carissa is not quite done being a "Scantephant". She still has an NJ (or NG, we're not sure which) tube. This is a new one that was placed while Carissa was sedated and Mom says it is a bit larger than what she's had for the last few months. We suspect that the purpose of this one is primarily drainage for the next few days, as has been typical following other surgeries she has ha in the past. Dr. Kareem said that he plans to begin feedings through the j-tube in a few days.
The great news is that Carissa is not having to go to the TICU! They are moving her to 11 North (we suspect 12 North is full) which is another floor dedicated to transplant patients. She will be so much happier there and it makes visiting much easier for Mom and Dad.
I suspect that Carissa will not be up for other visitors for a few days. So, if you are in the Pittsburgh area, please make sure you call and check before dropping by for a visit.
As there are details worth updating, we will make sure we post them here! Continue to pray for Carissa and for her protection from post-surgical complications, especially infection. Thank you so much!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Carissa is Out of Surgery
(Celeste, again...)
I just spoke with my Dad who informed me that Carissa is now out of surgery! She has been out for about an hour already. From what we understand so far, they found far less adhesions than they expected, which made the surgery go much more quickly that we expected. So, that's good news. Kareem was also able to successfully place the j-tube.
Dr. Kareem did a biopsy of the stomach and duodenum. We are not certain yet regarding a biopsy of the small bowel, but it sounds like he may have been able to avoid doing the resection of the bowel for that biopsy - but we are not certain of that information. Kareem indicated that he examined a few other things more carefully as well while he was performing the surgery, but we don't yet fully know the details of any of these things.
Mom and Dad have not yet heard yet whether Carissa will be going to the Transplant ICU or if she will be headed to 12 North - the normal floor of the hospital for transplant patients. Carissa was certainly hoping to go straight to 12 North, so we're hoping that will be the case. However, spending a few days in the TICU is still a possibility. We'll let you know once we've been informed where she is going after she gets out of recovery.
Thank you for your continued prayers. The Lord has protected Carissa during the course of the surgery, but it's likely that she will still have a lengthy recovery. Please pray that she will be protected from post-surgical complications including infections.
We will update further as more information becomes available.
I just spoke with my Dad who informed me that Carissa is now out of surgery! She has been out for about an hour already. From what we understand so far, they found far less adhesions than they expected, which made the surgery go much more quickly that we expected. So, that's good news. Kareem was also able to successfully place the j-tube.
Dr. Kareem did a biopsy of the stomach and duodenum. We are not certain yet regarding a biopsy of the small bowel, but it sounds like he may have been able to avoid doing the resection of the bowel for that biopsy - but we are not certain of that information. Kareem indicated that he examined a few other things more carefully as well while he was performing the surgery, but we don't yet fully know the details of any of these things.
Mom and Dad have not yet heard yet whether Carissa will be going to the Transplant ICU or if she will be headed to 12 North - the normal floor of the hospital for transplant patients. Carissa was certainly hoping to go straight to 12 North, so we're hoping that will be the case. However, spending a few days in the TICU is still a possibility. We'll let you know once we've been informed where she is going after she gets out of recovery.
Thank you for your continued prayers. The Lord has protected Carissa during the course of the surgery, but it's likely that she will still have a lengthy recovery. Please pray that she will be protected from post-surgical complications including infections.
We will update further as more information becomes available.
Update on Surgery
(Celeste posting, again...)
I just receive a call from Mom that she was just informed that the surgery didn't actually begin until 9:20 am. It is very common for us to receive mixed information during the course of the surgery, especially regarding when the surgery began and when it ends. With this much delayed start to the surgery, it will likely be sometime this afternoon until we have more information. I will update again as soon as we hear something else.
Please continue praying for Carissa during this surgery. As you know, she's been weak and any surgery is very risky for her. Pray for Dr. Kareem as he performs the surgery. As Carissa mentioned in yesterday's post, Kareem has back troubles that make it difficult for him to perform lengthy surgeries. However, he was insistent that he be the one to perform this surgery. We know that she is in the best possible human hands and pray that God's hands are guiding Kareem's.
Dad is on his way to Pittsburgh and should be arriving very soon to join Mom. Pray for his safe travel and for Mom and Dad while they wait for more updates.
We will provide more information as soon as it is available.
I just receive a call from Mom that she was just informed that the surgery didn't actually begin until 9:20 am. It is very common for us to receive mixed information during the course of the surgery, especially regarding when the surgery began and when it ends. With this much delayed start to the surgery, it will likely be sometime this afternoon until we have more information. I will update again as soon as we hear something else.
Please continue praying for Carissa during this surgery. As you know, she's been weak and any surgery is very risky for her. Pray for Dr. Kareem as he performs the surgery. As Carissa mentioned in yesterday's post, Kareem has back troubles that make it difficult for him to perform lengthy surgeries. However, he was insistent that he be the one to perform this surgery. We know that she is in the best possible human hands and pray that God's hands are guiding Kareem's.
Dad is on his way to Pittsburgh and should be arriving very soon to join Mom. Pray for his safe travel and for Mom and Dad while they wait for more updates.
We will provide more information as soon as it is available.
Carissa is in Surgery
This is Carissa's little sister, Celeste, just posting a very short update at this point.
Carissa is in surgery now. The surgery was originally planned to begin at 6:00 am. As is typical in these situations, the surgery was delayed and was rescheduled to begin at 7:15 am. Mom is in the surgical waiting area where she will only receive the most basic updates. However, this is an improvement over previous surgical experiences we have experienced. Carissa (and other patients) has been assigned a number. The number displays on a screen that lists her current status with the most basic information (in pre-op, in surgery, in recovery). Mom was told that the surgery is expected to last approximately 3 hours, but we know that can vary tremendously based on what Kareem finds. At the very earliest, we expect we may know more around lunch time.
Please continue to be praying for Carissa, Kareem and our family during this time.
We will update more as soon as more information is available.
Carissa is in surgery now. The surgery was originally planned to begin at 6:00 am. As is typical in these situations, the surgery was delayed and was rescheduled to begin at 7:15 am. Mom is in the surgical waiting area where she will only receive the most basic updates. However, this is an improvement over previous surgical experiences we have experienced. Carissa (and other patients) has been assigned a number. The number displays on a screen that lists her current status with the most basic information (in pre-op, in surgery, in recovery). Mom was told that the surgery is expected to last approximately 3 hours, but we know that can vary tremendously based on what Kareem finds. At the very earliest, we expect we may know more around lunch time.
Please continue to be praying for Carissa, Kareem and our family during this time.
We will update more as soon as more information is available.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Before the chop chop chop info
I'm scheduled to have surgery at 6 AM tomorrow. I am supposed to be at the hospital by 5 AM. UGH. Good thing I get to just go back to sleep! Of course, that's after a zillion questions that I can't remember the answers to that early in the morning and have already been asked 18 x...even just today!
My blood counts were really low today so they sent me to 7W for a unit and have put four more on reserve for tomorrow. I knew I was tired and weak, but figured it was all related to the craziness I brought on myself the past few weeks with DTP Awareness Week for G-PACT. They also did an EKG because of my history of torsades (cardiac arrest).
DTP Awareness Week was a great success, especially considering it's the first time we did it! We celebrated our nine year anniversary on August 23! Nine tough years of fighting, discouraging a lot of times, but encouraging a lot of times too...especially recently as we have been making a bit more progress and have had some pretty major accomplishments. We are only getting positive feedback from awareness week. We pulled off five successful webinars, a lot of awareness activities, a balloon release awareness event which was really cool as patients nationwide released balloons into the air with notes attached about DTP and where to go for more info. It's our hope that these will be found by people and they will get in touch with us saying they learned more. If nothing else, it shows that even though we are scattered throughout the nation, we can all stand in solidarity in fighting this through awareness.
We also held a raffle for a messenger bag and a tote bag, two different contests for people to win a "Gastroparesis Gourmet" cookbook published by G-PACT, people wrote their congresspeople, changed profile pics on Facebook, posted status updates and information to spread the word. Our Facebook fan page grew by well over 100 people in just a week! It was an incredible week and went much better than any of us could have ever imaged. People are so desperate and passionate and really want to do whatever they can to fight. A lot of people participated, and the impact was great as a number of people told me that they had friends who had never heard of DTP, and now they have joined our page to learn more about it. Donations and awareness band purchases have increased and people are continuing the efforts we started last week. One person wrote to tell me her congressperson even responded to her letter about the desire to help people with gastroparesis. We have hope!
Anyway, tomorrow I am going in for major surgery. It's pretty risky since I am immuno-suppressed and have SSSOOO many other health complications that factor in to the challenges and surgery recovery. I'm really stressed out and nervous about it, but I know it's time and the right thing to do. I have had an NJ tube for several months. This is a tube that was inserted into my nose in June and goes into my jejunum for tube feedings. I have been trying for over a year to balance my GP and dumping syndrome and have been unsuccessful. I was in really bad shape and barely surviving when finally my doctors at Hershey Med took notice and admitted me to the hospital and started me on NJ feedings. I feel better on the NJ feedings because they pass the pyloric sphincter in my stomach so I no longer experiencing severe dumping symptoms as long as I don't eat. Passing up the stomach completely also controls most GP symptoms. I do have some small bowel issues with some of my CIP coming back, but they are manageable at this point.
I hope to be able to consult with the metabolic doctors from Childrens Hospital who also deal with mitochondrial diseases while I am here to see if we can get to the root cause. There are a few things I can do to slow down the progression if we can figure it out. Kareem knows there is something very odd going on. The outward signs are being more and more apparent all the time. I'm struggling with mobility, short-term paralysis (sometimes full body paralysis for a few minutes, other times partial paralysis of hands and feet), more difficulty swallowing, which indicates some paralysis of my esophagus and difficulty urinating which I had before the transplant as well. My hands are different colors, they tingle and and I can't tell the difference between hot and cold sometimes, my feet turn blue, and other weird things. Because my mobility has gotten worse, I fall pretty frequently now and may end up back on my walker before long. Fortunately, no injuries yet...but it's getting risky as my osteoporosis has also worsened. He's supportive of my pursuit of mitochondrial disease because he is searching for why several of his CIP patients re-develop it after transplant. It would connect my factor V leiden (blood clotting problem), long QT (heart condition), weird response to low blood pressure (jerking like seizures), potassium dropping in spite of lots of IV potassium and supplements, and all kinds of things docs have never been able to explain or connect.
Before Kareem places the j-tube tomorrow, he has to make sure it can actually be done. He will be doing exploratory surgery first to check out my entire GI tract and look for anything that might be causing my problems. Suspecting some of them are related to adhesions (scar tissue from so many surgeries) he will do a lot of cleanup work and clear those out. If everything looks ok at that point, he will put in the tube. In addition to all of this, he may decide to do a full thickness muscle biopsy to see if I am in chronic rejection. If this is the case, he will have to remove a portion of my small bowel and it would require resection. Hopefully, he will be able to tell just by looking and not have to take that step. I am hopeful that by clearing up adhesions, it will improve some of my symptoms so perhaps I can eat a bit better without things getting stuck or getting obstructed at times. I don't want to be on this tube forever. I just hope I don't wake up to find out it couldn't even be placed! But, I am dealing with the best surgeon in the entire world...and I'm not biased, because multi-visceral transplants are considered to be the most difficult surgeries being performed today and he is the pioneer and does the majority in the world. He has saved so many lives in situations where any other doctor would have given up or not known what to do. I'm in excellent hands.
Please pray as I go through this, not only for me, but for my mom and for strength as she helps me get around for a while and helps me out. Pray for Kareem as he does it. He has back problems that make doing surgeries difficult for him. But, he doesn't want anyone else to touch me, even Dr. Costa who did the last very major surgery on me a couple of years ago. That's an indication of how big of a deal this could be, but I'm so glad he's doing it. Pray for strength for me. I'm pretty weak so recovery may be difficult. Plus, I'm frustrated because I feel like I'm going backwards healthwise. This isn't the kind of surgery you want because it doesn't improve much down the road. I'll feel better nutritionally and won't have my tube clogged up all the time, but it doesn't fix anything. I still won't be able to eat, unless the adhesion cleanup helps. But it won't take care of the dumping. Matbe he'll find something else while in there that he can actually fix.
I don't know what to expect. It's impossible to know how long recovery will be. It depends what he finds when he gets in there. I may or may not be in the TICU (transplant ICU) for a few days, depending how extensive it is and how I do. I hate the TICU! It's the most miserable experience, so I hope to go straight to 12 North. That's about all I know right now. I'll be in surgery before most of you wake up (or before you even read this) as long as a transplant doesn't come in for another patient overnight. My parents will keep this blog updated until I am back on and able to post myself.
Reminder to not send me live flowers or plants. I don't expect anything, but I don't want anybody to put out money for something I am not allowed to have as a transplant patient. They are dangerous for me and will get snagged at the nurses station.
Facebook friends- please remember that I don't want to receive notifications, gifts, hugs, or anything from games or applications while I am gone. It's just too stressful to try to catch up or go through and delete everything after being gone for a while. I appreciate messages to my wall and responses to status updates though. That's ok. I hope DTPers will continue to connect to each other through my wall.
People who follow G-PACT, please contact beenerc@g-pact.org with questions and she will direct you to the appropriate team member to assist you with your questions and concerns.
Thanks for your support, and I will post again as soon as I am able.
My blood counts were really low today so they sent me to 7W for a unit and have put four more on reserve for tomorrow. I knew I was tired and weak, but figured it was all related to the craziness I brought on myself the past few weeks with DTP Awareness Week for G-PACT. They also did an EKG because of my history of torsades (cardiac arrest).
DTP Awareness Week was a great success, especially considering it's the first time we did it! We celebrated our nine year anniversary on August 23! Nine tough years of fighting, discouraging a lot of times, but encouraging a lot of times too...especially recently as we have been making a bit more progress and have had some pretty major accomplishments. We are only getting positive feedback from awareness week. We pulled off five successful webinars, a lot of awareness activities, a balloon release awareness event which was really cool as patients nationwide released balloons into the air with notes attached about DTP and where to go for more info. It's our hope that these will be found by people and they will get in touch with us saying they learned more. If nothing else, it shows that even though we are scattered throughout the nation, we can all stand in solidarity in fighting this through awareness.
We also held a raffle for a messenger bag and a tote bag, two different contests for people to win a "Gastroparesis Gourmet" cookbook published by G-PACT, people wrote their congresspeople, changed profile pics on Facebook, posted status updates and information to spread the word. Our Facebook fan page grew by well over 100 people in just a week! It was an incredible week and went much better than any of us could have ever imaged. People are so desperate and passionate and really want to do whatever they can to fight. A lot of people participated, and the impact was great as a number of people told me that they had friends who had never heard of DTP, and now they have joined our page to learn more about it. Donations and awareness band purchases have increased and people are continuing the efforts we started last week. One person wrote to tell me her congressperson even responded to her letter about the desire to help people with gastroparesis. We have hope!
Anyway, tomorrow I am going in for major surgery. It's pretty risky since I am immuno-suppressed and have SSSOOO many other health complications that factor in to the challenges and surgery recovery. I'm really stressed out and nervous about it, but I know it's time and the right thing to do. I have had an NJ tube for several months. This is a tube that was inserted into my nose in June and goes into my jejunum for tube feedings. I have been trying for over a year to balance my GP and dumping syndrome and have been unsuccessful. I was in really bad shape and barely surviving when finally my doctors at Hershey Med took notice and admitted me to the hospital and started me on NJ feedings. I feel better on the NJ feedings because they pass the pyloric sphincter in my stomach so I no longer experiencing severe dumping symptoms as long as I don't eat. Passing up the stomach completely also controls most GP symptoms. I do have some small bowel issues with some of my CIP coming back, but they are manageable at this point.
I hope to be able to consult with the metabolic doctors from Childrens Hospital who also deal with mitochondrial diseases while I am here to see if we can get to the root cause. There are a few things I can do to slow down the progression if we can figure it out. Kareem knows there is something very odd going on. The outward signs are being more and more apparent all the time. I'm struggling with mobility, short-term paralysis (sometimes full body paralysis for a few minutes, other times partial paralysis of hands and feet), more difficulty swallowing, which indicates some paralysis of my esophagus and difficulty urinating which I had before the transplant as well. My hands are different colors, they tingle and and I can't tell the difference between hot and cold sometimes, my feet turn blue, and other weird things. Because my mobility has gotten worse, I fall pretty frequently now and may end up back on my walker before long. Fortunately, no injuries yet...but it's getting risky as my osteoporosis has also worsened. He's supportive of my pursuit of mitochondrial disease because he is searching for why several of his CIP patients re-develop it after transplant. It would connect my factor V leiden (blood clotting problem), long QT (heart condition), weird response to low blood pressure (jerking like seizures), potassium dropping in spite of lots of IV potassium and supplements, and all kinds of things docs have never been able to explain or connect.
Before Kareem places the j-tube tomorrow, he has to make sure it can actually be done. He will be doing exploratory surgery first to check out my entire GI tract and look for anything that might be causing my problems. Suspecting some of them are related to adhesions (scar tissue from so many surgeries) he will do a lot of cleanup work and clear those out. If everything looks ok at that point, he will put in the tube. In addition to all of this, he may decide to do a full thickness muscle biopsy to see if I am in chronic rejection. If this is the case, he will have to remove a portion of my small bowel and it would require resection. Hopefully, he will be able to tell just by looking and not have to take that step. I am hopeful that by clearing up adhesions, it will improve some of my symptoms so perhaps I can eat a bit better without things getting stuck or getting obstructed at times. I don't want to be on this tube forever. I just hope I don't wake up to find out it couldn't even be placed! But, I am dealing with the best surgeon in the entire world...and I'm not biased, because multi-visceral transplants are considered to be the most difficult surgeries being performed today and he is the pioneer and does the majority in the world. He has saved so many lives in situations where any other doctor would have given up or not known what to do. I'm in excellent hands.
Please pray as I go through this, not only for me, but for my mom and for strength as she helps me get around for a while and helps me out. Pray for Kareem as he does it. He has back problems that make doing surgeries difficult for him. But, he doesn't want anyone else to touch me, even Dr. Costa who did the last very major surgery on me a couple of years ago. That's an indication of how big of a deal this could be, but I'm so glad he's doing it. Pray for strength for me. I'm pretty weak so recovery may be difficult. Plus, I'm frustrated because I feel like I'm going backwards healthwise. This isn't the kind of surgery you want because it doesn't improve much down the road. I'll feel better nutritionally and won't have my tube clogged up all the time, but it doesn't fix anything. I still won't be able to eat, unless the adhesion cleanup helps. But it won't take care of the dumping. Matbe he'll find something else while in there that he can actually fix.
I don't know what to expect. It's impossible to know how long recovery will be. It depends what he finds when he gets in there. I may or may not be in the TICU (transplant ICU) for a few days, depending how extensive it is and how I do. I hate the TICU! It's the most miserable experience, so I hope to go straight to 12 North. That's about all I know right now. I'll be in surgery before most of you wake up (or before you even read this) as long as a transplant doesn't come in for another patient overnight. My parents will keep this blog updated until I am back on and able to post myself.
Reminder to not send me live flowers or plants. I don't expect anything, but I don't want anybody to put out money for something I am not allowed to have as a transplant patient. They are dangerous for me and will get snagged at the nurses station.
Facebook friends- please remember that I don't want to receive notifications, gifts, hugs, or anything from games or applications while I am gone. It's just too stressful to try to catch up or go through and delete everything after being gone for a while. I appreciate messages to my wall and responses to status updates though. That's ok. I hope DTPers will continue to connect to each other through my wall.
People who follow G-PACT, please contact beenerc@g-pact.org with questions and she will direct you to the appropriate team member to assist you with your questions and concerns.
Thanks for your support, and I will post again as soon as I am able.
Monday, July 19, 2010
The continued ramblings of the Scantephant
As most know, I was in the hospital AGAIN, last week. I was admitted to UPMC on Friday, July 9th after being at HMC on Wed and Thursday for a change of my NJ tube which had become clogged. I was at UPMC for a week basically for symptom control, testing, and nutrition.
I saw Dr. Kareem on Friday, July 16th for the first time since arriving. He gave me a number of options regarding my next steps. In the end, I decided to have him leave in my NJ tube for another week and try to see how it goes eating. If I can't keep up with it well, I still have the tube in for the rest of this week to use for feedings as needed so I don't get into a bind nutritionally. If that happens, we will probably pursue the next phase which is to have a j-tube placed surgically. The good news is, Dr. Kareem has agreed to do it which takes me out of the middle of it between my separate teams of physicians. At the same time, he will also do a full thickness muscle biopsy of my small bowel to try to determine whether or not I am in chronic rejection. Neither one of us thinks this is the case. We think it's more the dumping syndrome and gut dysmotility creating the havoc, but he said as long as he's in there, he might as well do that too along with exploratory surgery of the other organs. He didn't say, but I suspect he'd also do a lot of "clean up" of adhesions from my previous surgeries. He did this a couple years ago when I had my muscles closed. Apparently I was quite a mess at that time. I DO think that adhesions are contributing to some of my current problems so that could be helpful. Of course, any time you have a surgery, it only creates MORE adhesions.
My job this week is to work on eating as well as I can and see if my gut can tolerate it. If it does, great, we'll pull out the tube in clinic on Monday (the 26th). If not, we'll discuss the next option. He says the j-tube is a better option than the Peg/pej in my case because my particular motility issues will only create more problems with leakage and infection around the tube site if placed that way.
Last week in the hospital I started to have a lot of pain in my right hand. That hand has a tendency to be more purple than my left hand, something Dr. Kareem has noticed in some of his pseudo-obstruction patients. At first they thought it was tendonitis. It became so painful that I was requesting Tylenol in between my dilaudid to control it some. The pain started going up my arm and it started to swell near my elbow, so they had me watch for blood clots. In the end, my hand ended up swelling up so much and it became clear that I was holding in fluid because when pressed, my skin maintained it's indentation. They aren't sure why I was having so much pain from it unless it's because the tissues were inflamed from the fluid. Regardless, it has been improving and most of the swelling and pain is gone now. I also developed some fluid buildup in my abdomen which is still trying to dissipate.
For months, I have had difficulty urinating. There's hesitancy and I stop midstream (sorry people, it's life)! I've been to a urologist and had testing done which came back negative, as expected. This is a problem I developed in the final two years before my transplant as well and is not uncommon in CIP. The problem became even more apparent last week. I had been struggling all week with it, and finally lost it emotionally on Thursday after my biopsy. I was tired, coughing a lot because they had trouble getting the scope down my throat because of the NJ tube, and they had whisked in chest x-ray to make sure I wasn't developing aspiration pneumonia and to do an abdominal x-ray because GI thought they had dislodged my tube. I had to pee so much, but I couldn't and hadn't since Wednesday. My nurses decided to do a bladder scan which showed 700 cc's of fluid in there! That's a lot! They decided that, clearly, after all this time there was a problem and they would have to cath me in order to get it out. I was so upset over everything that this only made things worse. Thankfully my friend, Nancy, came by not long after all this started and was able to cheer me up with party hats and blowers.
I still had a lot of problems the rest of Thursday and went at least an 18 hour stretch without peeing. My doctors made it a requirement of discharge that I go before leaving the hospital on Friday, even though in between being cathed on Thursday and the trouble on Friday I had gone twice on my own. I'm still having a lot of trouble with that. When I had told my docs last week and they remembered that I had already seen a urologist, they just all looked at each other and made the comment about how it's the pseudo-obstruction. This new problem scares me somewhat because it may mean that the native condition that caused all my problems in the first place is creating havoc again, although, we've kind of started to come to that conclusion already. Initially, I was concerned about kidney damage because transplant meds often lead to kidney failure 5-10 years post-transplant, but fortunately my kidney numbers still look good!
On the positive front- thanks to a number of people banding together, and a LONG battle for every single vote for four weeks, last Monday G-PACT secured a $20K grant from Chase Community Giving! We have awesome ideas for these funds. We needed this money so much in order to move forward with a number of initiatives and it was just really cool how it all came down in the end! We were nervous in the final days as we had fallen from well within the safety range of receiving them all the way down to the bottom, but thanks to a few dedicated people we pulled through! A number of people hung around for hours online Monday night and IMed every single person who logged on to their friends list on FB and asked them to go vote for us to get the grant. Others had written every single person on their lists individually and asked them to vote. Many re-posted the link on their walls, at least once. In the end, it all paid off and every single vote turned out to be crucial as we barely pulled it out by 42 votes, finishing 189 out of the top 200! We needed to stay in the top 200 to receive the funds. We were all ecstatic once it was over with. While it was kind of fun on Monday night, late, watching as every vote came in like the night of election returns, we were all glad when it was over with and we actually had the final notification that we had in fact made it. A few people ended up in the hospital due to getting sick as a result of working so hard on it. Everyone who worked late that night was exhausted. Many stayed up late too excited to sleep. My room was right next to the nurses station and I was so caught up in what was going on I hadn't even noticed that all night long my door was open and my light was on. Finally, around 1 am one of them yelled into my room and asked what I was still doing up! I was kind of floored that I hadn't complained about my door or noticed it was open all night! I was too engaged in the task! It was worth it. The money will definitely be put to good use. We are going to have a board meeting soon to discuss the best way to use the funds and which awareness project to move forward with first. It's just really cool to see how people are coming together to help fight GP and CIP!
I got to meet Jodee Reid and her daughter, Matisse, and son, Fraanz, on Friday before going home. That was a lot of fun. Matisse has been waiting for almost four years for a small bowel transplant. They came here from New Zealand. I've been in touch with Jodee quite a bit for years, but this is the first time I got to meet Matisse in person. She's a joy and full of life! I had some party hats and blowers left over from my "party" on Thursday that Nancy had brought me that I gave to them and they certainly woke me (and the entire floor!) up! They were up there visiting Pauline too, a young lady from Australia who had a five organ over a year ago and was on my floor again. After they left my room, they went down to the garden with Pauline and her mom for a while. There was a nurse down there playing music, and apparently the kids and Pauline blew their horns as the nurse played and sang!
I saw Dr. Kareem on Friday, July 16th for the first time since arriving. He gave me a number of options regarding my next steps. In the end, I decided to have him leave in my NJ tube for another week and try to see how it goes eating. If I can't keep up with it well, I still have the tube in for the rest of this week to use for feedings as needed so I don't get into a bind nutritionally. If that happens, we will probably pursue the next phase which is to have a j-tube placed surgically. The good news is, Dr. Kareem has agreed to do it which takes me out of the middle of it between my separate teams of physicians. At the same time, he will also do a full thickness muscle biopsy of my small bowel to try to determine whether or not I am in chronic rejection. Neither one of us thinks this is the case. We think it's more the dumping syndrome and gut dysmotility creating the havoc, but he said as long as he's in there, he might as well do that too along with exploratory surgery of the other organs. He didn't say, but I suspect he'd also do a lot of "clean up" of adhesions from my previous surgeries. He did this a couple years ago when I had my muscles closed. Apparently I was quite a mess at that time. I DO think that adhesions are contributing to some of my current problems so that could be helpful. Of course, any time you have a surgery, it only creates MORE adhesions.
My job this week is to work on eating as well as I can and see if my gut can tolerate it. If it does, great, we'll pull out the tube in clinic on Monday (the 26th). If not, we'll discuss the next option. He says the j-tube is a better option than the Peg/pej in my case because my particular motility issues will only create more problems with leakage and infection around the tube site if placed that way.
Last week in the hospital I started to have a lot of pain in my right hand. That hand has a tendency to be more purple than my left hand, something Dr. Kareem has noticed in some of his pseudo-obstruction patients. At first they thought it was tendonitis. It became so painful that I was requesting Tylenol in between my dilaudid to control it some. The pain started going up my arm and it started to swell near my elbow, so they had me watch for blood clots. In the end, my hand ended up swelling up so much and it became clear that I was holding in fluid because when pressed, my skin maintained it's indentation. They aren't sure why I was having so much pain from it unless it's because the tissues were inflamed from the fluid. Regardless, it has been improving and most of the swelling and pain is gone now. I also developed some fluid buildup in my abdomen which is still trying to dissipate.
For months, I have had difficulty urinating. There's hesitancy and I stop midstream (sorry people, it's life)! I've been to a urologist and had testing done which came back negative, as expected. This is a problem I developed in the final two years before my transplant as well and is not uncommon in CIP. The problem became even more apparent last week. I had been struggling all week with it, and finally lost it emotionally on Thursday after my biopsy. I was tired, coughing a lot because they had trouble getting the scope down my throat because of the NJ tube, and they had whisked in chest x-ray to make sure I wasn't developing aspiration pneumonia and to do an abdominal x-ray because GI thought they had dislodged my tube. I had to pee so much, but I couldn't and hadn't since Wednesday. My nurses decided to do a bladder scan which showed 700 cc's of fluid in there! That's a lot! They decided that, clearly, after all this time there was a problem and they would have to cath me in order to get it out. I was so upset over everything that this only made things worse. Thankfully my friend, Nancy, came by not long after all this started and was able to cheer me up with party hats and blowers.
I still had a lot of problems the rest of Thursday and went at least an 18 hour stretch without peeing. My doctors made it a requirement of discharge that I go before leaving the hospital on Friday, even though in between being cathed on Thursday and the trouble on Friday I had gone twice on my own. I'm still having a lot of trouble with that. When I had told my docs last week and they remembered that I had already seen a urologist, they just all looked at each other and made the comment about how it's the pseudo-obstruction. This new problem scares me somewhat because it may mean that the native condition that caused all my problems in the first place is creating havoc again, although, we've kind of started to come to that conclusion already. Initially, I was concerned about kidney damage because transplant meds often lead to kidney failure 5-10 years post-transplant, but fortunately my kidney numbers still look good!
On the positive front- thanks to a number of people banding together, and a LONG battle for every single vote for four weeks, last Monday G-PACT secured a $20K grant from Chase Community Giving! We have awesome ideas for these funds. We needed this money so much in order to move forward with a number of initiatives and it was just really cool how it all came down in the end! We were nervous in the final days as we had fallen from well within the safety range of receiving them all the way down to the bottom, but thanks to a few dedicated people we pulled through! A number of people hung around for hours online Monday night and IMed every single person who logged on to their friends list on FB and asked them to go vote for us to get the grant. Others had written every single person on their lists individually and asked them to vote. Many re-posted the link on their walls, at least once. In the end, it all paid off and every single vote turned out to be crucial as we barely pulled it out by 42 votes, finishing 189 out of the top 200! We needed to stay in the top 200 to receive the funds. We were all ecstatic once it was over with. While it was kind of fun on Monday night, late, watching as every vote came in like the night of election returns, we were all glad when it was over with and we actually had the final notification that we had in fact made it. A few people ended up in the hospital due to getting sick as a result of working so hard on it. Everyone who worked late that night was exhausted. Many stayed up late too excited to sleep. My room was right next to the nurses station and I was so caught up in what was going on I hadn't even noticed that all night long my door was open and my light was on. Finally, around 1 am one of them yelled into my room and asked what I was still doing up! I was kind of floored that I hadn't complained about my door or noticed it was open all night! I was too engaged in the task! It was worth it. The money will definitely be put to good use. We are going to have a board meeting soon to discuss the best way to use the funds and which awareness project to move forward with first. It's just really cool to see how people are coming together to help fight GP and CIP!
I got to meet Jodee Reid and her daughter, Matisse, and son, Fraanz, on Friday before going home. That was a lot of fun. Matisse has been waiting for almost four years for a small bowel transplant. They came here from New Zealand. I've been in touch with Jodee quite a bit for years, but this is the first time I got to meet Matisse in person. She's a joy and full of life! I had some party hats and blowers left over from my "party" on Thursday that Nancy had brought me that I gave to them and they certainly woke me (and the entire floor!) up! They were up there visiting Pauline too, a young lady from Australia who had a five organ over a year ago and was on my floor again. After they left my room, they went down to the garden with Pauline and her mom for a while. There was a nurse down there playing music, and apparently the kids and Pauline blew their horns as the nurse played and sang!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
This is what it's about...a God learning moment
Yeah, I keep getting it more and more God...
This is what life is all about...I know it in my head, I know it in my heart, but I'm human and it has to be re-enforced from time to time...
So, this morning, I'm sitting in Connections Cafe at LCBC waiting for the doors to the auditorium to open. Every Sunday morning, I arrive early to check in for The Wheelhouse and kill the remaining minutes by meditating, taking my 9:00 meds, people watching, or going around and finding other people to talk to who may happen to be there early (and not running around getting things set up)! There's never a dull moment. There's always someone to talk to or something to see.
This morning was kind of unusual. I was sitting at a table and it was particularly slow and I was extra tired. I had just put away my empty container of meds, and just decided I'd stay there and see who would walk through the doors that I knew and wanted to talk to. I had missed last Sunday so it was really important for me to catch up on the social aspect of everyone's lives. After all, a lot can happen in two weeks!
Instead of catching up on what my friends had been up to, I had an experience I never expected to have when I got up this morning. As I was sitting in the cafe, a man had just finished getting a muffin and some coffee and he looked at me. I waved and said "hi," knowing I had never seen him before, yet he seemed to know me. He asked if he could sit with me, to which I responded "of course!" I moved my stuff to make sure he had room.
After the basic introductions, he said "My first Sunday here was the day you got baptized." I wasn't sure how to respond to that right away because I wasn't exactly sure where he was headed. But he went on and it became clear to me that he needed someone he knew was a believer to talk to. He started to tell me that he had been through a pretty tough time in recent years and had only recently started to come back to church. He stated that he had been church hopping "some," but all the churches he had tried were so traditional and he just wasn't comfortable in the environment. He lost his job two years ago, and had spent the past two years working in a job that was killing him -literally- as he had been working with dangerous chemicals. He knew he couldn't stay there for long and was seeking better employment. I nodded my head in acknowledgment that he had my attention, and I just continued to listen as he shared his story.
He started to talk about how he he was sitting with his son one night a few months ago, apparently drinking and watching sports, and said to himself "there's got to be more to it than this." He was frustrated with his employment and his life felt unfulfilled. He was seeking something, but he wasn't quite sure what. He had applied for five jobs and not yet heard from any of them. He was frustrated, and although he had his health, he knew he was not in a good situation with his job and not satisfied with the direction his life was headed.
He stopped briefly to ask me if I wanted anything from the cafe before the doors opened and then he continued with his story. He described how that night when he realized something was missing in his life, he decided to banter with God. He told God that He wasn't ready to move full-force into this faith thing, but He would meet God halfway. I'm not personally sure how I feel about "negotiating" with God, but I just listened...after all, this was HIS story. He told me that when he talked to God that night he said if God would show Him something, that somehow there's more to this, He would at least start going back to church.
Over the next few weeks or so he was turned down for four of the five jobs he had applied to. He wasn't expecting much, but his final application was in at the Army Depot in Mechanicsburg. Finally, Good Friday arrived. He made sure to emphasize the fact that it was Good Friday several times as he shared. He stated that around 10 that morning the phone rang. It was the Army Depot and they were asking him if he was available to come in for an interview. His eyes lit up as he stated, again, that "it just so happened to be Good Friday!" and that he was off work that day! He went on to describe how he had an interview at noon, and was called and offered the job by 3. Then, once again he said "and it just so happened to be Good Friday!" He said he knew then that there was something...he wasn't sure what, but that he knew it was not something that just happened. There was more behind it.
In spite of that, it took him a couple of weeks to "meet his end of the bargain," as he put it. I had told him earlier when we were introducing ourselves that I started attending LCBC Manheim in 2006 and had attended the Harrisburg campus since it was launched in Linglestown Middle school in 2007. He noted that he had never heard of LCBC until he saw the signs when we moved in last January, and that he only lived a couple of miles away. When he realized that what had happened to him when he prayed that night negotiating with God, and believed that the events that happened to him on Good Friday were not simply coincidental, he decided to check out LCBC. He admitted that he was a little disappointed when he walked in the doors that first Sunday and realized it was a baptismal service rather than a typical gathering with a sermon, but that in the end it was the perfect one to be at. The stories were inspirational and he loved to hear how the lives of others have been changed by Christ too. He concluded by stating that he only wished he could get his family there, but that his wife had begun to watch some TV ministries similar to LCBC and he was encouraged by that.
At that time, the atrium was beginning to empty out and people started to enter the auditorium. He said "well, I guess it's about time for things to get started." I said "yeah, it looks like it. Nice to meet you! Cool Story. I LOVE cool stories like that! See you around!" I proceeded to pack up my stuff and headed to the auditorium to find my friend, Jeff, as he gathered up his muffin and coffee trash to throw out. Again, God had another learning moment in store for me. As much as I enjoyed my chat time with him and was fascinated with his story and his willingness to be so open with me, I still had friends I needed to catch up with...I mean, again...it HAD been two, LONG weeks! :)
As I was catching up with Jeff on football, his love of snow, my love of the sun, his new job, his new hours, his plans for the day, and my Jeep, I saw someone walk to my right and sit down. It was the same man whom I had just spent at least 15 minutes chatting with taking a seat by himself two seats down. It hit me then that I should have stepped out of my comfort zone and invited him to sit with me rather than assume he had someone to sit with, or assume that he wouldn't want to sit with a 32 yo with a tube in her nose! And what was more important? Reaching out to someone who is still seeking and coming to church without family, or making sure I was up to speed on everyone else and making up for what I missed last week?
Over the next few minutes I knew what I needed to do to. As we sat there, listening to Pastor Mike ramble on about the importance of filling out the "Keeping in Touch" forms, I pulled out one of my business cards and handwrote my name and personal e-mail address on the back and handed it to him. I said "just in case you need to talk" and gave him two thumbs up. He said "thank you" and put it away. He thanked me again after the service for giving him my contact info as I said "it was nice to meet you...thanks for sharing your story."
I don't know if he'll write me at all, but I'm sure I'll run into him again. I'm glad that he felt comfortable coming to sit with me and sharing his story before the service, and that after I botched my first opportunity to invite him to sit with me, that he came and sat by me anyway.
I struggled for a long time over whether to get baptized again in March since I did it as a child, but after a lot of prayer I decided to do it because I felt like as a child I didn't fully understand the significance of it and my life has changed tremendously since...something I wanted to share with my new church family and public. I prayed that my story would somehow have an impact on the life of someone, but did not expect to actually hear or experience any outcome from it. Ironically, today was also baptism Sunday where more stories of lives changed by Christ were shared.
This is what it's about. This is what baptism is about. It can be hard to swallow your pride and admit that you need to take that step, especially when you have grown up in a Christian environment your whole life and everyone always assumed you were a Christian. It isn't the most comfortable thing to do to have your very personal, often painful, story shared with so many publicly. It's a little scary to look down into a pool of water and realize that your head is about to go down there and putting your trust in Pastor Mike not to drop you (or drown you as a Steelers fan!). But it's not about pride or discomfort. Jesus humbled himself and suffered great discomfort to reach out to others. He very publicly proclaimed His faith in the Father through baptism in a river in front of thousands of people. It doesn't stop there though. Baptism may be following in obedience what God proclaimed to be importance following the acceptance of Jesus as the Savior, but your life must also follow your proclamation.
I knew that some people who heard my story on March 23 would not have known the details behind my decision or why and how I came to Christ and decided to be baptized. I didn't expect it to lead to anything substantial. After all, I was one of 12 who was baptized that day. But apparently something hit this man in particular. Something big enough that he felt comfortable coming up to a complete stranger and talking about his struggles. That's what it's about.
I'm glad I chose to attend the first service this morning. I'm thankful for the clarity of mind God gave me and the fact that it was an unusually slow morning. It wasn't a coincidence that I was sitting there, tired and quiet, when he came up. Usually by then I would have jetted off somewhere and found someone to laugh it up with, playfully punch, or at least talk to about the events of the past or upcoming weeks. I hope that our interaction this morning was a start of something in his life that will lead to much greater things. After all, that's what it's all about. It's crucial to interact with other believers, study the Bible and worship every week together. It's important to serve in any capacity to ensure the ministry continues. But it's important to stop once and a while and think about those around you who may be there seeking something more, something new or different, and to be one who has shown an example that your life has been changed by Christ and is willing to share it.
This is what life is all about...I know it in my head, I know it in my heart, but I'm human and it has to be re-enforced from time to time...
So, this morning, I'm sitting in Connections Cafe at LCBC waiting for the doors to the auditorium to open. Every Sunday morning, I arrive early to check in for The Wheelhouse and kill the remaining minutes by meditating, taking my 9:00 meds, people watching, or going around and finding other people to talk to who may happen to be there early (and not running around getting things set up)! There's never a dull moment. There's always someone to talk to or something to see.
This morning was kind of unusual. I was sitting at a table and it was particularly slow and I was extra tired. I had just put away my empty container of meds, and just decided I'd stay there and see who would walk through the doors that I knew and wanted to talk to. I had missed last Sunday so it was really important for me to catch up on the social aspect of everyone's lives. After all, a lot can happen in two weeks!
Instead of catching up on what my friends had been up to, I had an experience I never expected to have when I got up this morning. As I was sitting in the cafe, a man had just finished getting a muffin and some coffee and he looked at me. I waved and said "hi," knowing I had never seen him before, yet he seemed to know me. He asked if he could sit with me, to which I responded "of course!" I moved my stuff to make sure he had room.
After the basic introductions, he said "My first Sunday here was the day you got baptized." I wasn't sure how to respond to that right away because I wasn't exactly sure where he was headed. But he went on and it became clear to me that he needed someone he knew was a believer to talk to. He started to tell me that he had been through a pretty tough time in recent years and had only recently started to come back to church. He stated that he had been church hopping "some," but all the churches he had tried were so traditional and he just wasn't comfortable in the environment. He lost his job two years ago, and had spent the past two years working in a job that was killing him -literally- as he had been working with dangerous chemicals. He knew he couldn't stay there for long and was seeking better employment. I nodded my head in acknowledgment that he had my attention, and I just continued to listen as he shared his story.
He started to talk about how he he was sitting with his son one night a few months ago, apparently drinking and watching sports, and said to himself "there's got to be more to it than this." He was frustrated with his employment and his life felt unfulfilled. He was seeking something, but he wasn't quite sure what. He had applied for five jobs and not yet heard from any of them. He was frustrated, and although he had his health, he knew he was not in a good situation with his job and not satisfied with the direction his life was headed.
He stopped briefly to ask me if I wanted anything from the cafe before the doors opened and then he continued with his story. He described how that night when he realized something was missing in his life, he decided to banter with God. He told God that He wasn't ready to move full-force into this faith thing, but He would meet God halfway. I'm not personally sure how I feel about "negotiating" with God, but I just listened...after all, this was HIS story. He told me that when he talked to God that night he said if God would show Him something, that somehow there's more to this, He would at least start going back to church.
Over the next few weeks or so he was turned down for four of the five jobs he had applied to. He wasn't expecting much, but his final application was in at the Army Depot in Mechanicsburg. Finally, Good Friday arrived. He made sure to emphasize the fact that it was Good Friday several times as he shared. He stated that around 10 that morning the phone rang. It was the Army Depot and they were asking him if he was available to come in for an interview. His eyes lit up as he stated, again, that "it just so happened to be Good Friday!" and that he was off work that day! He went on to describe how he had an interview at noon, and was called and offered the job by 3. Then, once again he said "and it just so happened to be Good Friday!" He said he knew then that there was something...he wasn't sure what, but that he knew it was not something that just happened. There was more behind it.
In spite of that, it took him a couple of weeks to "meet his end of the bargain," as he put it. I had told him earlier when we were introducing ourselves that I started attending LCBC Manheim in 2006 and had attended the Harrisburg campus since it was launched in Linglestown Middle school in 2007. He noted that he had never heard of LCBC until he saw the signs when we moved in last January, and that he only lived a couple of miles away. When he realized that what had happened to him when he prayed that night negotiating with God, and believed that the events that happened to him on Good Friday were not simply coincidental, he decided to check out LCBC. He admitted that he was a little disappointed when he walked in the doors that first Sunday and realized it was a baptismal service rather than a typical gathering with a sermon, but that in the end it was the perfect one to be at. The stories were inspirational and he loved to hear how the lives of others have been changed by Christ too. He concluded by stating that he only wished he could get his family there, but that his wife had begun to watch some TV ministries similar to LCBC and he was encouraged by that.
At that time, the atrium was beginning to empty out and people started to enter the auditorium. He said "well, I guess it's about time for things to get started." I said "yeah, it looks like it. Nice to meet you! Cool Story. I LOVE cool stories like that! See you around!" I proceeded to pack up my stuff and headed to the auditorium to find my friend, Jeff, as he gathered up his muffin and coffee trash to throw out. Again, God had another learning moment in store for me. As much as I enjoyed my chat time with him and was fascinated with his story and his willingness to be so open with me, I still had friends I needed to catch up with...I mean, again...it HAD been two, LONG weeks! :)
As I was catching up with Jeff on football, his love of snow, my love of the sun, his new job, his new hours, his plans for the day, and my Jeep, I saw someone walk to my right and sit down. It was the same man whom I had just spent at least 15 minutes chatting with taking a seat by himself two seats down. It hit me then that I should have stepped out of my comfort zone and invited him to sit with me rather than assume he had someone to sit with, or assume that he wouldn't want to sit with a 32 yo with a tube in her nose! And what was more important? Reaching out to someone who is still seeking and coming to church without family, or making sure I was up to speed on everyone else and making up for what I missed last week?
Over the next few minutes I knew what I needed to do to. As we sat there, listening to Pastor Mike ramble on about the importance of filling out the "Keeping in Touch" forms, I pulled out one of my business cards and handwrote my name and personal e-mail address on the back and handed it to him. I said "just in case you need to talk" and gave him two thumbs up. He said "thank you" and put it away. He thanked me again after the service for giving him my contact info as I said "it was nice to meet you...thanks for sharing your story."
I don't know if he'll write me at all, but I'm sure I'll run into him again. I'm glad that he felt comfortable coming to sit with me and sharing his story before the service, and that after I botched my first opportunity to invite him to sit with me, that he came and sat by me anyway.
I struggled for a long time over whether to get baptized again in March since I did it as a child, but after a lot of prayer I decided to do it because I felt like as a child I didn't fully understand the significance of it and my life has changed tremendously since...something I wanted to share with my new church family and public. I prayed that my story would somehow have an impact on the life of someone, but did not expect to actually hear or experience any outcome from it. Ironically, today was also baptism Sunday where more stories of lives changed by Christ were shared.
This is what it's about. This is what baptism is about. It can be hard to swallow your pride and admit that you need to take that step, especially when you have grown up in a Christian environment your whole life and everyone always assumed you were a Christian. It isn't the most comfortable thing to do to have your very personal, often painful, story shared with so many publicly. It's a little scary to look down into a pool of water and realize that your head is about to go down there and putting your trust in Pastor Mike not to drop you (or drown you as a Steelers fan!). But it's not about pride or discomfort. Jesus humbled himself and suffered great discomfort to reach out to others. He very publicly proclaimed His faith in the Father through baptism in a river in front of thousands of people. It doesn't stop there though. Baptism may be following in obedience what God proclaimed to be importance following the acceptance of Jesus as the Savior, but your life must also follow your proclamation.
I knew that some people who heard my story on March 23 would not have known the details behind my decision or why and how I came to Christ and decided to be baptized. I didn't expect it to lead to anything substantial. After all, I was one of 12 who was baptized that day. But apparently something hit this man in particular. Something big enough that he felt comfortable coming up to a complete stranger and talking about his struggles. That's what it's about.
I'm glad I chose to attend the first service this morning. I'm thankful for the clarity of mind God gave me and the fact that it was an unusually slow morning. It wasn't a coincidence that I was sitting there, tired and quiet, when he came up. Usually by then I would have jetted off somewhere and found someone to laugh it up with, playfully punch, or at least talk to about the events of the past or upcoming weeks. I hope that our interaction this morning was a start of something in his life that will lead to much greater things. After all, that's what it's all about. It's crucial to interact with other believers, study the Bible and worship every week together. It's important to serve in any capacity to ensure the ministry continues. But it's important to stop once and a while and think about those around you who may be there seeking something more, something new or different, and to be one who has shown an example that your life has been changed by Christ and is willing to share it.
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