Tag: exercise

May 22, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ 1 Comment

I had my first psychology appointment today.

At the hospital, I was miserable and pretty sad, so I was looking forward to my psychology appointment.

I’m required to go to psychology because they think as a teenager I’ll screw up. Turns out a lot of teenagers die after transplant because they refused to take their medications. That’s dumbbbb.

I mean, really? I know you need to fit in, but I wouldn’t risk death. Your life depends on this medication.

For my first psychology appointment I was asked to make a timeline of my life, then write down my goals for 10 years from now.

Okay, when I was 2 I was rushed to the hospital because I was vomiting. It took 2 weeks for the doctors to diagnose me with hypereosinophilic syndrome. My heart was damaged so I needed my first open heart surgery. Then April 10, 2018, I was put on the heart transplant list. On April 27, 2018, I had my heart transplant.

My goals In 10 years: running triathlons, graduated from University, and living with my partner (whoever they are). Oh yeah and a nice job that pays me a 6 digit salary. That’s the good life.

We then talked about adjusting back to “normality”. If someone asks me, “Where were you during the school year?” I’ll just answer “I had some business to take care of.” If they keep pressuring me, then I’ll say “I was visiting my family in China.”

I don’t want to be weird. I don’t know how people would react if I said if I was in the hospital.

I think it’ll be hard for me to go back to school and pretend none of this ever happened. I don’t think I can go back to my old mindset where all I worried about was my grades. I guess what my Mom said was right, “It’s better to live in ignorance than in fear.”

May 23, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

Remember when my old English teacher visited me at the hospital (see May 6, 2018)? She was my Honors English teacher. Well, she failed me in her class. I think the reason is because I was gone for half the school year and I couldn’t keep up with her class. Also when I came back I didn’t have the energy to do my best on her projects.

Or maybe I’m just dumb.

A week before my heart transplant, I switched out of her class into Regular English. I thought I could make up my grade in her class, but I didn’t expect to be in the hospital again.

In the hospital I emailed my teacher about making up my grade. The school year is ending June 1st, which is under 2 weeks. I have to do my make up work fast.

I spent my entire day doing my English homework. I had to annotate every soliloquy in Romeo & Juliet, and write an essay. My work isn’t that great, but I think it’ll bring my grade up. I’m hoping to get a C.

Unrelated, at the same time I made some bread. I decided to make bread so I could share it with the Ronald McDonald House. Bread’s also convenient to make. I just make some dough, and let it do its thing for a couple of hours.

I don’t know if you remember, but back in the hospital I had a heart pounding sensation. Heart pounding was a major problem for me because it would give me unnecessary anxiety. I still have that feeling, but I’m trying to push my endurance. Cooking is a great way to that. I’m standing and doing physical activity with my fists. Great cardio.

#cooking, #english, #exercise, #heart-pounding, #ronald-mcdonald-house, #school

May 26, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ 1 Comment

My Dad visited me for the first time at the Ronald McDonald House today. The Ronald McDonald house is a housing facility near the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. I have to stay here 3 months before I can go back home. Unfortunately, I can’t spend the day with him because Ray is visiting me today.

Ray is coming here today. I know this isn’t easy for him because Palo Alto is 40 minutes away from Pleasanton and this week at school is finals week.

Ray is great friend. He’s supported me when I missed tons of school. I texted him the day of my heart transplant (April 27, 2018). He wanted to visit me in the hospital, but I told him no because I was feeling awful (May 4, 2018). Now that I’m out of the hospital I’m better.

There’s a mall across the Ronald McDonald House. Today is my first day exploring that The Stanford Mall. The Stanford Mall is also an outdoor mall so I have to be careful and stay in the shade. After transplant, I’m more vulnerable to skin cancer.

Palo Alto is a rich city. Actually, any city in Silicon Valley is a rich city. I expect everything at the Stanford Mall to be super expensive considering: it’s in Palo Alto & it’s in Stanford. Turns out all of the prices were the same as my own hometown, Pleasanton.

My FitBit told me I walked 10,000 steps today. Woah.

In the hospital I could barely walk 10 feet without taking a break. The reason is my heart goes crazy whenever take a step. While walking and talking with Ray, I must’ve ignored my heart. That’s awesome!

I’m not even a month after my heart transplant, and I walked 10,000 steps!

When Ray left, my Dad and I went to Downtown Palo Alto to eat.

This is also my first time exploring Downtown Palo Alto. Downtown Palo Alto is a lot nicer than Downtown Pleasanton.

At Downtown Palo Alto I ate dinner with dad at ramen restaurant. Sushi used to be my favorite food, but I’m not allowed to eat raw food. Forever.

After eating, my heart pounding decided to show up. For a good 40 minutes after eating my heart was beating out of my chest. I didn’t want to stand up or walk. I hate my heart pounding.

May 28, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

The doctors told me the reason I can’t walk much is because I have weak lung power.

It’s NOT lung power. It’s endurance.

So what if I get short of breath when I start walking? Everyone gets short of breath when they start jogging. That’s what I’m comparing walking to: jogging. Right now, walking feels like jogging. Your heart beats louder, you get short of breath, and you want to stop. The only difference is my heart rate doesn’t increase.

Before transplant I felt the same thing while running that I’m feeling now while walking. Before transplant, when I ran, my heart beats louder, and I got SUPER short of breath. In fact, I got so out of breath and my heart beat so loud I had to stop. It’s the same thing now (well, actually it’s a milder version), only that now it’s walking. See? It’s about endurance. If I had more endurance I’d still be feeling short of breath, but only during exercise.

June 15, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ 2 Comments

I like to cook at the Ronald McDonald House. It’s a good way to get some activity into my day and meet/talk to new people. However, since I experience heart pounding cooking is difficult.

After transplant, I have a sensation of heart pounding. It’s when I can do as little as walking across a room and my heart starts pounding. I can feel it in my chest and I feel thumping in my ears. It’s not as bad as when I was in the hospital, but it still inhibits the amount of activity I do. That’s why I want to push my activity levels every day. If I do more activity, I raise my endurance levels. That’s why I walk on the treadmill everyday and cook often.

I’m planning to cook mushroom cups with Angela. I got the recipe online. Angela is my friend I made at the Ronald McDonald House. She’s at Stanford for treatment of her liver. She can only eat 20 grams of protein per day. 20 grams of protein is nothing. An egg has 6 grams of protein, so she can only eat under 4 eggs each day.

My mom took me to Safeway for ingredients of the mushroom cups. Mushroom cups are cooked mushrooms in a cream cheese mixture stuffed into filo cups. I bought mushrooms, heavy whipping cream, and filo cups. When I came back, I cooked the filling with Angela. We diced the mushrooms and cooked it with the whipping cream. After the mixture was thickened, we saran wrapped it and stored it in my room’s refrigerator overnight.

June 24, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

Today there’s a Stanford run for kids. The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is hosting a 5k/10k run, and the money will go to the hospital.

I didn’t participate. My heart pounding is still very strong. In case you didn’t know, I have a heart pounding sensation after transplant when I do minor physical activity and my heart starts to heavily beat. I could walk as little as 100 ft and have to sit down. Also, I don’t have much endurance. After my transplant, my heart has to readjust to my body, and it hasn’t yet. I try to push my endurance often, but doing a 5k is too much.

My Mom did. She told me that she met the doctor that took care of me in the PCU (aka a doctor I can remember).

June 24, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

I walked with my mom to downtown Palo Alto today. The Ronald McDonald House is a challenging (for me) yet reasonable distance from Downtown Palo Alto. Since I need to build my endurance, I always take a chance to walk to Downtown Palo Alto.

We ate New Orleans food at NOLA in Downtown. I loved NOLA’s atmosphere and their food was great.

July 6, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

I swam for the first time in seven years today!

I’ll start off with the swimming. I quit swimming when I was eight. I didn’t see the point in it since it only made me exhausted, and there were no results. I was swimming for 3 years, and I only managed to build up from 10 laps, 250 yards, to 12 laps, 300 yards. Swimming for me was exhausting. I wouldn’t even be halfway through a lap until my heart started pounding, my breathing would become desperate, my ears started ringing, and my vision would be blurry. That was my life.

It makes me sad that I couldn’t play sports like my classmates. If it wasn’t for my heart I would’ve advanced in swimming, maybe be on a team. Maybe I could’ve gotten a scholarship to college if it wasn’t for my heart. I could’ve played other sports too, like soccer or basketball.

After seven years of not swimming, I felt so much better in the water. The water soothed my joints and massaged my muscles. Immediately after transplant I was so sore that I couldn’t even stand.

I plan to start swimming as a sport. As I mentioned above, with my damaged heart I didn’t have the ability to play sports and therefore I was sad. After transplant I have a chance, and I’ll take it.

July 6, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

I also bought books, had a physical therapy appointment, and went to a bike shop.

Before my physical therapy appointment I bought books at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. Kepler’s Books is the bookstore I’ve mainly been going to when I’m staying at the Ronald McDonald House. I bought “The Empress” by S.J. Kincaid. I wanted to continue from the first book, “The Diabolic”, in her series because I liked how cunning the main & secondary character is and reading about the plot of toppling a powerful dictatorship. I also bought “The Testing” by Joelle Charbonneau because it combined The Hunger Games and the college application.

After buying books, I went to physical therapy. I talked to my physical therapist about how I was walking 20 minutes a day on the treadmill. I started walking 10 minutes, but then I gradually went to 20 minutes. I walk on 3.0 speed. I talked to her about running on the treadmill, and she told me if I was to run, I should do it on 4.0 speed. Moreover, I should be careful when running.

Last year I was sent to the hospital for leg cramps. My leg cramps were in my right and left calves, but they hurt devilishly awful. The doctors predicted that my blood thinning medication, Coumadin, interacted with my arrhythmia medication, Amiodarone, and caused swelling in my calves. Turns out amiodarone has a ton of side effects, so that sucks. After I was released from the hospital I was homeschooled for a month and a half before I could return. In site of not taking the medication anymore, my calves are still sensitive and will cramp after exercise.

My physical therapist asked how I was doing with my stretches. Before I left the hospital, they gave me a list of stretches to do everyday. I told her I was doing well with them, since I continue to follow their stretch everyday.

After my physical therapy appointment, I went swimming (see same post today). After swimming I went to a bike shop. My mom bought my bike from my house in Pleasanton to the Ronald McDonald House. I’ve outgrown that bike so we went to the bike shop to have it altered. At the bike shop they adjusted it, but my mom asked me if I wanted a new bike instead of my old bike. With a new bike I could bike faster and easier.

I told her no because I won’t be biking much in the Ronald McDonald House. I appreciate her offering though, a new bike is a lot of money! Since I want to focus on swimming and running, I don’t want to add the burden of biking. When I go home, I can start biking.

July 7, 2018

~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

My dad and Julia came to visit me today. Every Saturday my dad visits me at the Ronald McDonald House, and today he brought Julia, my sister. We went to Redwood City to watch Ant Man & the Wasp. Before the movie I bought a salad. I hate salad, but it’s one of my daily requirements:

  • Exercise at least 10 minutes walking on the treadmill
  • Ride at least 1 hour on the gym bike
  • Walk 10,000 steps (tracked by my Fitbit)
  • Eat a salad or another vegetable dish
  • Drink a protein shake

After we watched Ant Man & the Wasp we decided to drive along Seaport Blvd. We went to Seaport Blvd in Redwood City for Fourth of July (see July 4, 2018). My mom and I didn’t get to explore the boulevard that day, but it seemed pretty cool.

Seaport Blvd is a boulevard along the bay. It loops around, and in the loop are tons of office buildings. They have tons of areas to sit and watch the sea, which is pretty cool. We drove to a nearby private yacht dock to admire the scenery.

When we got back to the Ronald McDonald House we went across the street for dinner at the Stanford Mall. We ate at True Food Kitchen, a restaurant claiming to have “honest” food. The wait was terribly long, and the service was awfully slow.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5