Twenty-four years ago today I woke up in a hospital bed at the Hospital for Sick Children no longer intact. During the wee hours of that Valentines Day morning back in 1988, I received a new, healthy liver in exchange for my old, diseased one. In some ways I went into that surgery as one person [...]
When it comes to the language of illness, I hate the word accept. The concepts behind the word bother me. If I accept my illness, then by definition I approve of it and consent to how it affects my life situation. I am implying that I see my illness as suitable, and am willing to [...]
The year begins with a toast. Granted, my glass is filled with Coca-Cola instead of wine, but the sentiment is the same. I am surrounded by friends, my sister, and people I’ve only met this night. I am physically present in this moment, but my mind is taking a trip down memory lane. Last year at [...]
It’s Christmas time again and this season of joy is driving me nuts. Today I went to what I consider to be my work Christmas party, which is actually the Christmas party for heart transplant recipients at TGH. I put on a happy face, talked animatedly with my friends and ended up with three name tags instead of one [...]
It’s the 29th of October and I feel like this month will never end. Over the course of these 29 days I’ve had two ventilation/profusion (VQ) scans, two sets of blood cultures (one contaminated, one not), a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) scan, an echocardigram, an abdominal ultrasound, a heart biopsy, and a superfluous antibiotic IV. The thing is, [...]
