Out of Nowhere

It’s been crazy. I didn’t know I had heart failure until January 12th, due to a misdiagnosis. I spent some time at JCMC, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone. If it weren’t for friends and family advocating for me, that might have been my last visit anywhere. I shouldn’t have been released from JCMC, but with my brothers’ assistance I got a referral to Newark Beth Israel a week after I got home and friends took turns staying with me and making meals.

I went for some routine tests at Beth Israel and never left. I was admitted and the options included simple treatment, an LVAD and worst case, a transplant. My niece, who works in pediatric cardiology at Mass General Hospital in Boston was following my MyChart, and showed it to her boss who said, “Get him up here.” I took an ambulance from Newark to Boston.

A couple days after I got to Boston I went into cardiac arrest. Don’t remember a single thing about it, but I was apparently joking with the staff the whole time. I was dead on the table a couple times. I came out of that with a few bruised ribs, seriously beat up kidneys and a temporary heart pump.

Before being put on a list for a heart, my only option now, my kidneys had to recover. It wasn’t a given that they would, but they eventually came around and I was put on a list for a heart, priority 2 of 6. I assume I was priority 2 because I had the temporary pump, good for about 100 days. I was told my two jobs were to eat and exercise. I figured my jobs were to do as told, maintain a good attitude and make it easy for the staff. Everything happened so quickly I didn’t have the time to think about it, I was just reacting.

The new heart arrived a lot quicker than expected. All I know at the moment is that it was local and the person was braindead. I have the option of writing a letter to the family to be reviewed by the hospital and sent to them if they want to read it. I’ll write something when I figure out what to say.

The transplant took a lot out of me, but I was still out of the hospital in two weeks, a week ago today. It’s hard to believe that this all happened in two and a half months.