"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." – Helen Keller
Today the smoke was cleared. There’s rain today so the water must’ve brought the smog with it. That’s great because I can swim again.
Today I swam in intervals like my swim coach taught me (see November 8, 2018). I swam 2 laps with 40 second intervals. I swam a total of 700 yards.
Stories From Foothill High School – This Is My Story #1
Justin’s Story – This Is My Story #2
Yes! I’ve finally finished my videos for the UCSF videos (see November 15, 2018). Unfortunately, they’re 2 videos each about 12 minutes. The Pink Dot Club just posted that the UCSF videos can only be under 5 minutes. I’m hoping that UCSF will make an exception because:
Today was a Pink Dot Club meeting. We watched the videos submitted for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital (see November 25, 2018 for my video). We watched ‘This is my Story #1” first. It took the entire period.
The club president still hasn’t watched “This Is My Story #2”. That video was my transplant story. It’s the most important video because it supposed to give the patient’s hope.
After the Pink Dot Club meeting, I shared “This Is My Story #1 & #2” with Mr. Lewin, my math teacher. He’s really interested with my story.
Mr. Lewin watched my videos last night. Two times, in fact. He loved it and showed it to his wife.
His wife wants to have my video. She wants to share it with other people. She’s also a teacher, so she might share it with her students too.
This is a great opportunity to get my story out there!
Yesterday I edited “This Is My Story #2” to focus more toward other people than people in the hospital. At the end I added how to be an organ donor.
I shared this video with Mr. Lewin, Mr. Lewin’s wife, and the San Ramon students. A San Ramon student email tried to access my video, so I shared it with them.
I had a lesson with my swim coach today. Swimming is way easier after transplant.
I got my labs drawn today. They’re checking my Prograf (anti rejection medication) levels. On Friday I’ll go to the Stanford hospital for a doctors appointment.
I’ve been sneezing and blowing my nose all day.
I’m scared that I’m sick. I don’t want to be sick.
I don’t want my heart to be rejected by my body. Or my heart to have an infection.
Okay, so if I’m sick, is it really that bad? There’s a very little chance of that happening.
There’s still a chance though.
Idk maybe I’m just too worried.
I do everything to protect myself from being sick. In school when someone even coughs I instantly switch seats to the back of the classroom. I never participate in activities outside because I don’t want to get cold or muddy.
Oh wait… yes I do! Yes I do!
Everyday I swim at night.
Everyday I swim at night!
The one thing that’s supposed to be shielding my heart from infections, is giving my heart infections?
It’s also December. Ever since late November it’s been more and more cold.
Well, I have a doctors appointment tomorrow at Stanford.
Should I tell them about this? Is it even important?
They have dying children to take care of. Should I tell them I think I might be sick?
I had a doctor’s appointment at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital today.
We left Pleasanton at 8 AM. We arrived at Stanford just in time for my 9:45 AM appointment. We checked vitals first, then I had my echo done. An echo is short for an echocardiogram, which is a test that takes pictures of your heart. It’s like an ultrasound for the heart.
After the echo, we went to the clinic. The clinic is the part of the appointment when you talk to your doctors. Everything is great. My sneezing is okay. I don’t think I’m sick.
My Prograf levels are also great. The level is 6.3, and my goal is between 6 and 8. I’m taking 1 mg of Prograf in the morning and 0.5 mg of Prograf in the evening.
In translation, my immunosuppressants are doing their job well. My immunosuppressants also have a range, and that range tells us how much immunosuppressants are presents in my body right now. My blood is checked regularly because we want that range to fluctuate.
I also noticed that I haven’t had leg pain for a while now. Leg pain refers to when I have pain in my calves. Before my heart transplant, my leg pain was so bad that I had to stay at home for a month.
My psychiatrist also came in. If you remember, in the Ronald McDonald House I had a psychiatrist that I had to meet with every Friday for 5 weeks (see May 22, 2018). Well, that psychiatrist graduated, so I have a new one. Anyways, I told her that everything has gotten better since the first day of school.
The doctors said I could go to transplant camp over the summer. If you remember the transplant reunion (see August 11, 2018), a girl mentioned transplant camp.
Anyways, after my appointment, I ate at the hospital cafeteria. The hospital also opened their gift shop and I bought a jacket there. Afterwards, I went home.
Today I had an orthodontist appointment. I didn’t need to take antibiotics for the orthodontist like before since I’m already 6 months post transplant.
I also had a swimming lesson. Reflecting back to before transplant, I’m so glad to be able to actually exercise. Doing sports is awesome, even if I’m really bad at it.