Skip to main content

1 Year On The List

 


One year....One year of doctor appointments, blood draws, heart caths, stress tests, CT scans, MRI scans....and one year of lots of adventures. 

I think it is safe to say that we used this last year to just....live. We went to Florida to see Nana and Rick, a Disney cruise to Tortola and St. Thomas, up to Great Gram Grams across the bridge, Spring Hill, Leland, Crystal Mountain, Alpena (a few times), the beach, and lots of adventures around Michigan with friends and family. Mike and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary by crusing to the bahamas in early November...a week just the two of us. By the end of summer the boys were asking us to just stay home LOL! 








As the year went on Mike grew stronger and started to feel good, back to his normal self. We recieved cards, messages, texts, phone calls, and lots of prayer. With each heart cath we recieved good news that Mike's heart is staying at his new normal and got better from when he was in heart failure last fall (2022). Mike's last heart cath was November 27th and as we talked with the doctor they told us his case would be reviewed at the next heart meeting as his one year on the list was coming up. 

December 11th marked one year on the list...and on December 11th the heart council met and decided that Mike is a little to healthy to be on the list. December 12th we got the phone call that Mike is no longer on the heart transplant list. The two of us put on some ugly Christmas sweaters and celebrated with a night out...soaking in the news all to ourselves...and the bartender who gave us free shots! 



We are over joyed and beyond blessed by God's healing hand over Mike's hearts. This isn't the end to his journey, his heart is still weak; beating fast, little higher blood pressure, and an ejection fraction of 19. But for now he doesn't need a heart. In December Blake and Easton had their heart checkups and they have beautiful healthy hearts, no sign of cardiomyophthy. 

What does 2024 have in store for us? What will one more year bring? I have no idea...but with God in our hearts and on our lips I know that anything is possible. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Miracles Do Happen

 It's been 3 days since Mike got his new heart, and I can hardly believe that it actually happened.  On Thursday September 5th Mike was told we had another match. Dr. Hooker said he was bound and determined to get Mike a new heart by the Michigan game that Saturday. At this point Mike was a level one on the Unos Heart Transplant List and basically top of the top. With both sides of his heart being supported he needed a new one badly. Mike, the boys, and I shared this little secret that Friday and went on about our day. The more we learned the more we became excited that this was actually the heart. This heart was a DBD heart (Donation after Brain Death). Througout the day we learned that it was a great match and Mike's OR time was set for Saturday, September 7th at 10am. We were confused that we were not given a donor OR time, and as time went on we realized there was no transport time for the heart...the heart was in the same hospital as Mike.  I got to spend time with Mike th

Lub-Dub Lub-Dub

 A normal resting heart rate is between 60 to 100 beats per minute. If you listen to a heart it often is describe as if saying Lub-Dub Lub-Dub. Mike's heart rate is between 120-140.  If he laughs hard (which is often), gets agitated, or someones gets him on his favortie topic of finace it starts to soar about 140+. Every once in a while it will peak up to 180 when he gets into V Tach and it skips a few beats. The nurses watch him carefully as he walks on the treadmill and talks away or while he is working, and sometimes they have to shut him down for a bit. Except for some weight and muscle loss Mike's body and mind are in good working condition, but his heart is just failing him.  I had previously reported that on August 7th Mike recieved the Impella Pump to support the left side of his heart. Since then the left side has significantly decreased in function and is almost not moving at all on its own. Over the past few weeks they have been watching the right side of heart and s

Free Ice Cream & A New Heart

 As we celebrated 7 months off the heart transplant list we quickly found ourselves back on the list. Many of you will be shocked by this news...and I won't lie...we were too Mike came down with the tiniest of colds and a little cough at the end of June 2024. His appetite dwindled and he just wasn't interested in being super active. By the devine grace of God and His perfect timing Mike's doctors office called and randomly wanted a blood panel completed. The results caused them to call and Mike expressed his concerns about his little cold and other small symptoms. They had him come into the office gave him an IV to help get some fluid off his body. He lost 10 pounds in less than 24 hours...and his cough went away. They set up a right heart cath for the next day to see what was going on. The results came in a bit worse than the previous November 2023 cath, but not too alarming and they released him to go home.  We took the boys to SpringHill, enjoyed some alone time, picked