May 13, 2018

May 13, 2018January 12, 2019 ~ Campjustin ~ 1 Comment

They told me I would leave the hospital today or tomorrow!

Finally! Staying in the hospital is horrible.

However, I wouldn’t leave to go home (which suacks). I would leave to the Ronald McDonald House. Yes, Ronald McDonald. Ronald McDonald of McDonald’s, the fast food chain.

McDonald’s has a charity that sets up housing near hospitals for families with their children in critical care. Hence, the Ronald McDonald House. There’s tons of them around the United States.

I am so glad I’m leaving. Every since day one of transplant, I’ve been dreaming of getting out of here. Pain is really, truly, honestly horrible. Is leaving the hospital going to get rid of my pain? Hopefully!

Today is also Mother’s Day. I’m gonna say my heart transplant was the biggest present for my Mom. When I was put on the transplant list, she had so much anxiety. She started taking pills. Thank God I was only on the list for 2 weeks!

Oky, so I’m not leaving today. I’ll leave tomorrow. That’s fine.

The doctor came in to talk to me about my staples. During rounds, I mentioned that before I left the hospital I want my staples taken out.

The doctor told me I would either have to wait until the next biopsy to take out my staples, or take them out now when I’m conscious.

I choose to take them out now.

They took a stapler remover, and used it on a human person. I’ll repeat, they used a STAPLER REMOVER. The staple removers you use to get out the staples in your homework packet, and used it on human flesh.

It was… painful.

What was surprising was no blood came out. The nurse gave me a hot pack to put over my chest.

Even though it was painful, I’m glad they took the staples out. I had a lot of anxiety over the staples because I was afraid that they would just pop out and my chest would just open.

Later in the day the nurses also took out my PICC line (see May 5, 2018). I think a PICC line is like an IV, but larger. Removing the tape made me really anxious, but it didn’t hurt to take out the PICC line. I hate my imagination.

The PICC line was at least a foot long! That was in me? That was in my veins? Oof.

Now all I have is my heart monitor. I ain’t got no tubes, poles, or even IVs. That’s awesome.

May 14, 2018

May 14, 2018January 12, 2019 ~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

Well, I’m not leaving today either. They told me yesterday that I would leave today.

I took my Chinese final today. I take Chinese class, but I have to take the final before school ends, which is in one week.

It was hard taking the final because I take prednisone, a steroid. With prednisone, my hands constantly shake. I can barely write the characters.

The staples, IVs, and PICC lines are out (see May 13, 2018), so I really liked today. I went upstairs to the playroom to play on the 3DS. The hospital has a playroom, where patients can go and… play.

September 28, 2018

September 28, 2018January 12, 2019 ~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

Today was my doctor appointment. At 7 AM I woke up and got into the car. I slept on the whole ride to Stanford, except waking up to take my medicine.

I remembered to grab the cards we made at the Pink Dot Club meeting (see September 18, 2018). After putting on my mask, we went to my appointment.

After my echo, which is an ultrasound (the ones the doctors use to take pictures of babies in their womb) of the heart, we were told to wait outside. After a room was available, we quickly went inside.

The doctor examined me and told me the results were good. My Prograf levels were good, and they didn’t change anything. I talked to the doctors about my leg pain. Last year, I was hospitalized for extreme calf pain. After being discharged from the hospital, I had to be homeschooled for a month before I was able to walk around my school again. My mom expressed concern about it being from my hypereosinophilic syndrome, a blood disorder I contracted leading to my heart failure. The doctors told us to book an appointment with the doctor that deals with my hypereosinophilic syndrome (see October 16, 2018).

After the appointment, we delivered the cards. We went to the Cardiovascular ICU (Intensive Care Unit is where patients are admitted when they have a serious illness that needs constant monitoring) and delivered as many cards as we could. We also saw Jessica (pseudonym) and delivered her card. We couldn’t say hi because she was too busy with her VR game. Nicole’s room was empty.

The rest of the cards we donated to the Family Resource Center. The Family Resource Center is a department in the hospital that allows patients to rent games, movies, books, or is a place for families to relax or get work done. It’s where I rented the Mission Impossible series, Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Avengers series, the Captain America series, Matilda, Tom and Jerry, and other movies.

Later that day I had a swimming lesson at 4:30. I’m still a beginner at swimming, but I know I have the ability to get better. After transplant, I can even be on my High School’s swim team! After swimming, we met up with Joanna and Andrew (see June 16, 2018) for ramen.