Friday the 13th......

SIX MONTH MARK.....Woohoo!!! Who says that friday the 13th has to be a bad day? Not us.....This is the third one this year so far and the second for Russ with a new heart. We no longer think of the it as "so whats going to happen now". We think "Oh great we have another friday the 13th, what good thing will happen today". As with all of us who have gone through receiving "the call", I can remember and I think will always remember like it was yesterday what happened. Most of you know that we were at lunch with friends, we just got to the restaurant and ordered and I was two bits into my salad. My cell phone rang, of course by that point I had the phone number for the hospital down real good, I looked at it and said oh loma linda. There was our life changing call. Onto the hospital to wait wait wait....Now its oh wow it has been six months. What seems like just yesterday one day, seems like forever the next. Thanks to everyone that have been following us. Our first year is not up as yet and there will be more to share. Hope you all will stay with us on our "Road with a new heart". And as a fellow transplantee says " and the beat goes on", Thanks Todd, I stole your saying :)

Wow....We are almost 6 months

Can you believe it? July, it is already July 2012. Time is flying by so fast. We are looking at almost six months post transplant. Wow!!! So much has gone on and so much more to come I am sure. When I sit down and start to think that just 6 months ago (come July 13th) I was sitting in a waiting room wondering what what going on in the operating room. Did they have him prepped yet? Did the LVAD come out? Is his old heart out? Is the new one in? And so on.... (of course I was getting updates about every two hours but you still wonder to yourself these questions). Those that have been following us know that we had a few minor speed bumps the first week post transplant then like nothing he was off and running (well walking). Then 4 months later (April) Russ did his first 5k and made it all the way around ( Not me though). Shortly after that, he started to ride his bike, starting small and now he is up to 6-7 miles each ride about every other day. In October we will be doing a second Heart Walk (5k), this is just amazing me. On June 1st we celebrated our anniversary and thought we were going to celebrate him going back to work. Well, the anniversary happened but not work. Since Russ drives a commercial truck there are California dept of transport medical rules that say they suggest the patient remains out of work for 1 year post surgery. So we wait until January 2013, oh the company laid him off also. OK THE RULES SUCK....but we are dealing with it. Stress and all. I know there is a reason for everything. Just not sure yet what that reason is but there is a reason for everything. Well, now that you all are up to date on us. I would like to say that we have had a few more LVAD groupies receive new hearts this year....all I can say is WOW :) keep em coming. Until next time.....