Hearts

So many of you know, and it surprises me sometimes when someone I think knows doesn't, but I have a history of heart problems.  Nothing serious at this point in time, but back then it was.  Anyway, I had my routine appointment at the hospital today where we check to make sure my heart's doing all that it should be.
What do I do during this ex-tremely long appointment, someone's asked? I'll tell you.

First we get there.  Because my Cardiologist has many patients, we do a lot of waiting.  I'll take a book, or music player or something to help pass the time. 

4:15 A Tech takes my blood pressure, weight and height measurements.  The first thing that we do when we get into a room is have an EKG, or Electrocardiogram.  In English, it's a machine with some 15 leads that are attached to my body with stickers that measure the electronic wave lengths of my body.  A short print off of the results, and I'm left alone in the room with my mom.  ...you can't see all of the stickers, but trust me, they're there. ;)

4:25 The Cardiologist, whom I love, comes in, and checks my heart with a stethoscope.  We talk, ask questions, and then she leaves, and we wait for my turn for an Echo.  Here I found out that the reason my feet swell and turn purple when I stand is because of my blue blood cells that can't get back up my leg from a previous IV in my thigh.  Not serious.

4:45-5:30 Ahhh...the Echocardiogram, Echo for short.  Basically, it's just an ultrasound of my heart.  Really, it's painless, but I'm so ticklish that...well...you know. :) It's usually fine, though.  Hey, I get to watch Disney Channel. Rolls eyes. Disney's sure changed...

5:45 We usually go into another room, and the Cardiologist discusses my results with me.  Thankfully, lately I've been having good reports, with my heart as back to normal as can be.  We just do this now to make sure nothings happening that isn't supposed to be.  I can now come every couple years cause I'm doing so well, Yay... :)

5:55 After she says goodbye and leaves, another Tech comes in, and I get hooked up to a 24-hour heart monitor called a Holter.  7 leads hooked to 7 large sticker thingies... ahh, what fun.  Being allergic to Latex, they have to rub my skin with a special wipe thingie that puts a barrier on so I don't break out.  The Tech forgot to put the barrier on for the first few, so we had to take those off and rub, then reapply new ones.  At first I thought I'd be fine without the barrier, but the immediate relief and coolness when he applied it vanquished any doubts of allergic-ness to Latex......lovely...... The monitor itself isn't too bad, but gets itchy after a while. 

6:30 Holter's on, and we're ready to go.  I'll go back tomorrow to get the monitor taken off, but every time after this 2+ hour ordeal, I'm worn out.  I suppose I should exercise or something with the monitor on, but all I feel like doing when I come home is lay on the couch and sleep.  I'm feeling more energized today than usual, though, so maybe I'll go on a walk later on.  Thankfully the leads/monitor don't show too much, and if you aren't looking closely, you might not even notice them.  I can do pretty much everything I normally do, except get the monitor wet or have my phone close by it, or use a heating pad.  I don't think I'll have much problem with the last item in this weather... ;)

That's what I do at my Cardiology appointments.  Why do I have them in the first place? Recap:

Beginning of Eighth grade, I'm barely 13.  Second week of school, and I start feeling sick, and recall nausea, dizziness, tiredness and major dehydration.  That Wednesday at school it took me ten minutes to walk from the Attendance Office at Dixon to Mr. Kyte's room upstairs and down the hall, cause I had to stop every few feet and catch my breath.  That night began the throwing up. I hate throwing up.  The taste, feeling, and after-effects, everything.  True, you may feel better afterwards, but the ordeal is nasty.

Thursday I stay home from school, thankfully.  I'm throwing up all day, and passing out in the bathroom.  We go to the doctor where he can't get a blood pressure.  Now, being so dehydrated that you can't get a blood pressure is a bad thing, so the doctor practically carried me out to the car and we drove to the hospital.

Once there we go to the Pediatrics floor and try to get an IV in, and the second IV they get going gets accidentally pulled out, only my blood is dark purple/blackish and just kind of...pools instead of spurting.  Hmm.  Somehow I'm in my room, I don't remember getting there, though.  Chest pains arise, and I'm hooked to a heart monitor (not protocol).  An EKG is sent to the Cardiologist (mine, now) that happened to be there at 10:00 at night, and she says that it looks like a heart attack, and to get me to Primary Children's quick!!  So, my room in now has 15 doctors and nurses in it, and then Life Flight comes in.  You see, I thought I had something wrong with my appendix, so I couldn't understand the reason for all this...

I'm taken down to the helicopter.  I'm suppsed to be alseep from the medicine they gave me, but I'm not.  Being awake saved my life on the helicopter ride.  We land at Primary Children's, I throw up for the last time, and am in the ER, where I undergo several episodes of Cardiac Arrest.  (My heart stops) The next few days are a blur to me...partly cause of the medicines they gave me, and partly cause I didn't have my glasses a lot.

Ahh, the miracle of knowing sign language.  I couldn't talk around the ventilator well, so when my sister came we could sign.

This is a humbling picture.

But by the end of my first night at PCMC, I have a ventilator, Pacemaker, PICC lines, and IV's everywhere else, as you can see.  An X-Ray shows that my heart is enlarged to twice the normal size and is in my stomach cavity, caused by a rare virus called Myocarditis.  Of the few people that get Myocarditis, a third die, a third stay in the hospital for months and have problems the rest of their lives, and a third stay in the hospital and get better.  If you know me well enough, you know I don't do things the "normal" way most of the time.  I decided to take that 1% that's left in 100 and make something else with it.  After a taxing time, I was out of the hospital within 13 days originally entering.  ...That's not normal. ;)

True, I still took my time getting better, and it's taken five years to get where I am today.  There was a point in the hospital where I had a 17% chance of living, and if I failed any more I was being prepared to be transported over to the U of U hospital next door to be hooked up to a machine that would take over my heart's function...though I had little chance of surviving the few hundred yards between the two buildings.  This was on the second day of me being there, if that, I believe.  The test that would determine surgery arrived....

.....I had stopped failing.  We later found out that that was the exact moment that our friends and family had ended their fasts.....

.....I will not deny the Power of the Priesthood.  It saved my life.  There was no way I should have survived that experience, espeically as well as I have...  And I know that not everyone's story is like that, it's just how mine was.  I definately wouldn't wish anyone else such a painful ordeal such as the one I had in order to recognize the gift of life.

Anyhow, that was then, I survived the couple of months in a wheelchair in Junior High, the four years of High School, and am facing the rest of my life, trying to make it a good one.  It's more fun that way. :)  So now, doing well, enjoying the sunsets (Brilliant one tonight, I might add) and the rest of life. See you later,

Love, Me.