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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000181.htm
i'll be in LA for about a month and a half for these tests. my docs have also asked that i be part of a study on heart transplantees....so i'll be "auditioning" for that while i'm in their hands. should be interesting and hopefully helpful to future patients.
another reason i'm heading to LA is for the 3rd annual Bicuspid Aortic Foundation conference:
http://www.bicuspidfoundation.com/#Anchor77
the flights were so expensive this time around with the airlines beginning their summer airfare wars as well as the lost of a couple of airlines. really do your research on the internet for cheap flights.
i'm really not looking forward to all the tests but what can you do. necessary evil, yeah? i just wish the friggin' hospital gowns were updated.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/nikesf08/lchow
one of the most influential people in my life is my friend Lesley "Sam" Chow. but she (and her hubby) went beyond the call when they opened their home to me while i waited for a new heart and recovered from the operation...the span of time was about a year. there are so many little and big things that she has done for me...to numerous to list as i've known her since kindergarten.
her generous, creative and caring spirit (we won't go into her mischievous side as that would take DAYS to explain) has again struck. she is in training to run a marathon to help raise awareness and funds to find a cure for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. when you view her link above, you'll get a feel of her personality as well as her dedication...especially to children. i know i could not have recovered, mentally and physically, as quickly or wholly if i did not have her at my side (and my mumsy too! and my cugina tashi!). please donate if you can.
one of my cousins, Mary Lopez Schell, is in remission from non-hodgkins Stage 4 Mantle cell Lymphoma for the past 5 years. i donated in honor of her and Sam.
in the early part of this decade, Sam trained and ran a marathon to raise awareness and money for AIDS. the marathon took place in Hawaii but her training was in LA. i was "lucky" enough to have visited her during one of her training sessions. we had to get up SUPER early in the morning and drive to Brentwood where the training took place. i was on vacation so getting up early was NOT fun. but i was willing to sacrifice my vacation sleep-in to support my friend...also there might've been a chance to view some celebrities since they were hangin' in Brentwood at the time. ;-D luckily we got some Starbucks before the training, which helped tremendously to brighten our morning. we arrived at the area where the participants broke into their running/walking groups. Sam was a runner...so proud of her (wiping tear from my eye)...unless a pack of komodo dragons are chasing me...i don't run for crap. anyway, i didn't want to look like a total loser so i volunteered myself to help out. the organizers put me towards the end of the route and then were stupid enough to give me a flag! hehehehehe! i was suppose "guide" the runner/walkers WITH MY FLAG by making a circle clockwise with my arm and flag...not counter-clockwise or you could "guide" them backwards.
since i was at the end of the route, it took awhile for the trainees to show up. i was located on a corner and i got worried at one point, when it was just me and the flag, that some car was gonna pull up wanting a little morning "pick-me-up."
when the fast runners started showing up, i had WAY too much fun with the flag. i was waving like i was Miss America/USA. when Sam came into view i had some trouble with coordinating the flag waving and trying to take a photo at the same time. i can honestly say that none of the runners/walkers went off course from my section point.... :-)...but then they've been training on that route long before i came to flag them to death.
http://www.shutdownday.org/
i received the above site address last thursday (5/1/08). it was an interesting concept to me...to shut down my computer for 24 hours.
while looking around the site, i found the commercials to be sort of funny and noticed that there wasn't a representative from hawaii participating. so i thought "why not challenge myself." maybe i was becoming too addictive...no wrong word...too dependent on my computer system? it shouldn't be that difficult.
WRONG!
usually the first thing i do when i get up in the AM is go into my office and take my vitals and log on to my computer. well, as my blood pressure (BP) machine is going, my free hand automatically went to the mouse. it took me a few minutes to figure out why the hell my screen wouldn't come on. i've got a thermometer in my mouth, my left arm in a BP cuff and my right hand is jiggling my mouse like it was Redi-whip. once i remembered that i completely turned off my computer the night before (just in case of an instance like this), i knew my BP was gonna read badly with the stress i was feeling...just because my screen wasn't coming on! not a good beginning.
so i moved on to re-organizing my office. i cleaned up the storage cabinet, filed paid bills, wiped down surfaces, etc. that took about an hour as my office is usually organized anyway....i know i know...it's anal but you should see my bedroom. so, that was the next place i decided to go since i couldn't do my usual morning routine: check my emails from my various addresses, read the news from various sources (reuters, ap, time, bbc, einnews, etc), make some lists, search recipes, search specific topics, check my calendar, update my meds list, update my medical journal, yada yada yada.
anyway, off to my room i go. i hang up all the clothes that needed hanging while folding all the clothes that needed folding. that's when i noticed my bags of Space Bags. i had ordered a packet of Space Bags so that i can vacuum suck my clothes that i am not currently using (i.e. my DC suits). they have these new hanging versions i wanted to try out. so, i drag my mom into this next bit of fun and we sucked up the suits like there was no tomorrow! my mom was really getting into it so we searched for more stuff in our closets. then we hit my drawers and before i knew it...a couple of hours had flown by.
the rest of the day consisted of me roaming around the house looking for stuff to clean up which was fruitless since my grandmother is worst than me about keeping things in order. i go venture to my mom's room to see what's up with her since we finished the clothes sucking...and she was freekin' out on why i was being so chatty and sociable. i had to remind her about the "shutdown" challenge and she just laughed as said "i gotta go check my mail." what a smart-a**!!!
i had invited my mom and my cousin, tasha, to participate in the "shutdown" but they both lost before it was even 10am. friggin' A. no email will-power, i say.
yeeeeaaaah, riiiiiiight. i was chompin' at the bit ALL FRIGGIN' DAY to get on my computer.
what was really disconcerting about not having my computer that whole day was not being able to access my calendar and or seeing the time. i didn't know how dependent i was on those 2 things.
i've finally paid off my car! woohoo!!! now i can use the monies from that payment to start paying for my medical bills. i've let them pile up while i save up. i'm not afraid to NOT pay them since i figure they want to keep me alive so i can pay them for the rest of my life unless i move to Iceland or Canada. ;-) i figure they won't send their knee-breakers/spine-crackers for me any time soon. since it won't look good in the news that "jennifer lopez was beaten up by mysterious strangers in hawaii while recovering from heart transplant." actually, i'm hoping they go bother the other "jlo" first and considering she just had twins she might not be all there mentally.
i went to Costco yesterday for an appointment with the eye doctor. who would've figured that the optometrist's father had a heart transplant a few years ago. it was incredible timing to get him and not his other partners. i didn't have to explain my meds to him and he knew exactly what i was going through and what is gonna happen with my vision in the future. he was a very thorough doctor. because of the steroids i'm on...i now have glaucoma developing in one eye. hopefully i can get off the roids so it doesn't develop any further. until then...maybe i'll practice walking around with a blind-fold especially now that the water in the pool is warmer as we head into summer. makes falling in less of a shock.
before i went to my appointment i stopped off and got an ice tea lemonade from Starbucks (yummy and refreshing). so i go to the entrance of Costco and show my card. the Costco guy stops me and says that i can't bring in outside drinks. now, i have a full Venti (large cup) of tea and he's telling me i have to finish it before i can go in. yeah, right. i tell him, as i'm coughing from my chest cold and from my walk across the football field of a parking lot 'cause all of the handi-cap parking was filled, that i will not be shopping and that i have an appointment with the eye dudes. as i'm telling this young asian Costco dude this, i notice that he's wearing blue contacts over his brown/black eyeballs. come on! how 90's is THAT?!!! he looked like a friggin' reptile. i told him further that the doc said it was ok for me to bring in liquids since it was gonna be a long appointment and that i needed it...not because i wanted to look cool like lizard dude. i'm like thinking has Costco had bomb threats sent to them or something? is bin ladin now targeting Costcos and Sam Clubs (which would be smart since they are only checking card ID's and outside liquids...no checking for strap-on bombs or grenades)? no outside liquids. give me a break.
needless to say, i tried to save a little of my drink so i could slurp it on the way out to rub it in to lizard-boy. hehehe! but it really was a long appointment not too mention i got news of the glaucoma...major slurpage at that point since it's another operation to look forward to in the future.
what was funny...towards the end of our "conversation" between lizard asian dude and myself, he throws out, after i tell him the doc says it was ok to bring in the drink, that HE's gonna have a "talk" with the doctor. HELLO!! delusions of grandeur, ya think? dude counts people on his clicker (btw doesn't Costco sell laser beam stuff...why can't they use their own technology for counting instead of clickers?) and checks to see if we have Costco cards. but come on...he's gonna go scold a doctor about outside drinks that the patients bring in when there is a ton of rubbish in the aisles from all of the samples they give out. give me a break. i just don't get the ego this kid had...maybe it's a lizard thing.
