Today is the 19th Anniversary of my Heart Transplant

Join me in the Celebration!

Today’s date is more than a mere page on the calendar to me. It is a milestone.

Today is the nineteenth anniversary of my first heart transplant. January 6, 2006. The first day of my journey into transplant life.

Nineteen years, 228 months, 988 weeks, 6,940 days of extra life. Time gifted to me by two generous donor families.

Nineteen years ago, I spent Christmas 2005 in the hospital waiting for a heart to become available. While I sat in my hospital bed, I tried my best to reconcile two incompatible thoughts, holding the yin and yang of two disparate futures in my hands. For me to live, someone else must die. Although I sought solace in the knowledge that my donor’s passing would not be my fault, I felt a degree of guilt as I waited for the doctors to walk through the door of my hospital room and tell me I would live because of another’s death. Only one of us could survive, but if they or their family had not chosen organ donation, neither one of us would.

By now you know a heart did become available in time to save my life. A young man named Roy passed away, and his family generously chose to donate his organs to save the lives of others, including mine. I owe eternal gratitude to his family for making that selfless decision in their time of grief. I wrote about my donor family last month.

My heart problems began long before the transplant. Born with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, I struggled with related health problems for the first 35 years of my life. Below is an earlier post I wrote about my lifelong health struggle.

In early January of 2004, I went to the Emergency Department of my local hospital unable to breathe more than small gasps. Between Christmas and the New Year, I went back and forth between Urgent Care and my family doctor, receiving diagnoses of the flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia. At the hospital, I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, CHF. It was a death sentence at the relatively young age of thirty-six. My only hope for survival was a heart transplant.

The road to transplant became the rockiest road I’ve ever traveled. I spent two years in and out of the hospital, months spent living “on the inside.” Three cardiac arrests, a pulmonary embolism, and a stroke. Learning how to walk and talk again. But on January 6, 2006, I received my donor heart and recovered rapidly, walking my first 5k six months later. I returned to working full time only nine months post-transplant.

For twenty-one of the past fifty-seven years, I’ve lived with either heart failure or a heart transplant, swallowing a fistful of pills every day. That’s thirty-seven percent of my life.

I found this shirt on Etsy, and it summarizes my attitude toward survival. I wore to my last appointment at the transplant clinic to give the doctors a smile.

Without the generosity of two different organ donors, and the miraculous advancements of medical science, I would not be alive today. Indeed, if I had been born into this world in my grandmother’s day, I probably would have died in childbirth as a young woman. Medical advancements save lives. I encourage everyone to get your heart health checked and get a checkup for your children as well. There are medications today for HCM that were not available when I was young.

Additionally, I implore each and every one of you to register to become an organ donor. It only takes a minute by going online to register at the link below. You could be the hero who saves the life of someone just as wonderful as me and you!

Register as an organ donor.

A Special Offer for You!

In celebration of my nineteenth heart transplant anniversary, I’m offering a special rate of $19 annually if you would like to upgrade to a paid subscription. That’s a 62% discount from the regular price. This will remain available for one week, until January 13^th.

What does a paid subscription get you? Not a whole lot. I’m not selling any classes, and I don’t paywall my posts, so I’m planning to offer a different approach. I’ve launched a community chat, and I plan to do once a month “ask me anything” AMA sessions via Zoom. I might create special posts of poetry readings, and I’m considering releasing bits of my upcoming memoir behind a paywall. Of course, I will be open to suggestions in the community chat.

You’re welcome here regardless of whether you are paid or not, and I’m just as happy to have you join in the conversation.

Every day is a gift, and if you have your health, that’s a gift too. Be kind, always, and never miss a chance to tell someone you love them.

I love you all and thank you for being here!

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