When Denial Became Impossible

I made it through the rest of that year without further incident. In October of the folowing year, I walked all over the small city I was living in at the time, campaigning for political office. It was a wonderful family experience, as brothers and their wives came to help knock on doors and hand out campaign pamphlets.

I lost weight with all the exercise and felt great. I still had never followed up with the doctor and as each day passed I felt less compelled to do so.

After the election, which I lost handily, we paid a visit to my wife's aunt and uncle on their farm in Ohio. We took our little angel girl with us and she got to see her first cow up close.

Everything seemed great, although with colder weather settling in for the winter I began to have shortness of breath. I was giving my little girl a piggy-back ride when I suddenly felt stinging pains in my chest.

The pains were not like the chest pain I had had two years earlier. These were stinging chest pains that felt like lightning bolts shooting throughout the whole chest rather than the sub-sternum pain concentrated in one spot that I had felt that fateful Thanksgiving. I found out later that these were angina pains. They are a sympton of poor circulation in the heart.

After we got home, things only got worse. I couldn't move quickly up the stairs of our apartment. I couldn't even pick my little girl up, let alone give her a piggy-back ride. The number of times I experienced breathlessness and angina pains increased dramatically.

There was no more room for denial. I finally made an appointment to see my family doctor.

Next time: Another traumatic holiday experience.
Please visit our website at www.codacharity.org and make a tax-deductible contribution.

The Call to the Doctor and Denial

As I said in the last post, I had all the signs of a heart attack: ringing elbow, tightness of chest, shortness of breath. I called the family doctor and described what had happened and he told me in an amazed tone that it sounded like a heart attack to him. I should come in and see him the next day.

I slept alright that night and at 28 thought there was no way it could be a heart attack. The next morning I got up, felt fine, and despite my wife's misgivings I went to work rather than the to the doctor's office.

Little did I know I had dodged a big bullet and that it would catch up with me later.

My First Heart Attack

I had my first heart attack at the age of 28. I remember it well. My young wife, my baby daughter and I were returning home from my parents on a Sunday night.

We had spent Thanksgiving and the weekend with them. It was pitch dark on the road when my Chrysler Valiant went dead. I was furious and concerned about the health and welfare of my wife and baby. This was in the 1970's so no cell phone.

I had to leave them in the car and walk about 2 miles to a gas station for help.

By the time the car was towed and our family back in our apartment, I could feel a persistent, uncomfortable ringing in my left elbow. It was as though I'd hit my "funny bone" and it wouldn't stop. There was a tightness in my chest and nausea also.

Next: My phone call with the doctor.

Organ Donation Myth #1

I'm still coming down from the elation of the news of my granddaughter, due in November. However, I wanted to address one of the most widespread myths about organ donation. When I speak the issue never fails to come up.

Myth: If the doctors and hospital know I'm an organ donor they won't do everything they can to save my life. That is completely wrong.

First, the doctors who declare a patient brain dead ( it takes two) are the treating physicians. The doctor and nurses wh0 recover the valuable, life-saving organs upon a patient's death are from an Organ Procurement Organization (OPO), set up by the federal government. They are unrelated to the hospital or the physicians who declare the patient dead.

Second, with all the people who treat a dying patient, there would have to be a massive conspiracy to hide a false declaration of death by the hospital. Someone would blow the whistle.

Third, a good prosecutor wouldn't hesitate to charge the doctors with first degree murder.

Doctors do everything they can to save their patients. Most take it very hard when they lose one. Don't let such a silly myth keep you from saving the lives of others by being an organ donor.

Visit our website at www.codacharity.org and please make a tax-deductible charitable contribution.

Breaking News!!! First Grandhild!!!

My intention is to blog through my heart transplant experience in close to chronological order, but digress when I have major family news to report. We have just found out today that that our daughter-in-law, who is five months pregnant, is going to have a little girl. She will be our first grandchild.

My son is a proud Navy Seabee and also a proud soon-to-be father. He met our daughter-in-law while he was stationed in Sicily. He is currently serving in Iraq.

When I had my heart transplant my son was in Sicily and if a heart hadn't arrived in time I never would have seen him again. Since my transplant not only have I been able to see him, I met my daughter-in-law. Now I have good reason to hope that I will hold my first granchild.

Why? Because my anonymous donor and his family had the courage and kindness to donate his heart to someone they didn't even know. They are my heroes. They gave me the greatest gift since my parents gave me the gift of life.

Please make sure to be an organ donor so others can feel the joy I feel today. Be assured that if life brings tragedy to you or a loved one you have one last chance to do a courageous act by saving the lives of others.

Visit our charity's website at www.codacharity.org and make a tax-deductible contribution today. Yippeeeeeee!!!

As A Child

Before I was born I lay in my mother's womb as genes from the two sides of my family competed to determine which side would dominate my life in a particular area. Unfortunately, one of the genes that dominated came from my mother's side of the family.

The technical term for it is 'hyperlipidimia'. It meant that my body would never be able to properly dispose of that bad cholesterol (LDL) that blocks up arteries in the heart and other places. Blocked arteries, as most people know, cause heart attacks.

Doctors had little or no knowledge of cholesterol's effect on the arteries back when I was growing up in the '50's. I don't think they even had a blood test for it back then. No one knew that every time I ate something my bad cholesterol would rise about 5 times as would the normal person eating the same thing.

A school physical for boys consisted of being weighed, a blood pressure check, examination by the doctor of the ear, nose and throat, a listen to the heart. Then you turned your head and coughed and were declared fit for school.

I was athletic as a young boy. I played baseball, basketball, ran track and cross-country. I was in great shape as far as anyone could tell. Little did I, or anyone else, know that I was headed for a medical crisis early in life. More the next time.

Please visit our website at www.codacharity.org, review it and then make a tax deductible contribution.

The Children

I always believed in organ donation as far back as I can remember. I never thought I could take them with me, nor that they would do any good in the next world. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, as they say.

I learned a lot going through the tranplant experience. The most surprising thing, though, was the much larger number of children and adolescents who need transplants than I ever expected to see. It is so sad to think that a child will die, without a chance to seek his greatest potential, for lack of an organ donor.

Look at the waiting list numbers on our website at www.codacharity.org. Those national numbers contain thousands of children out of the 92K plus who need an organ. Please also consider a donation to our charity.

My Heart Transplant

My blog will take you through my personal experience of having a heart transplant. It will show the importance of organ donation. It will give guidance in case you or a loved one have to go through the transplant experience.

If the averages held, on the day I received my new heart 18 other people died somewhere in the U.S. because there wasn't a heart, kidney, liver or other organ available to save them. That makes me a very lucky guy.

I now have a chance to see my first two grandchildren this year. Both my daughter and my daughter-in-law are pregnant. Even more importantly my father, who has inoperable pancreatic cancer, has a chance to see his first two great granchildren before he dies.

What do you do when you have been blessed with a second chance in life? That's an individual decision for everyone. I decided to organize CODA. The aim is to provide financial help to the less fortunate for the cost of prescription drugs and medical costs. It also awards scholarships to young organ recipients to help them with school costs. It is a 501 (c)(3) charity so financial contributions are deductible according to state and federal law.

Organ recipients have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their life. If they don't, they will die. Many people cannot afford the costs involved in a transplant. Through CODA I'm trying to help. You can visit our website at www.codacharity.org.

Don't be intimidated by the "Make a Donation" button. It's not asking for you to donate an organ. It merely takes you to "Paypal" if you'd like to make a secure tax-deductible charitable contribution via the Internet. Thanks and I hope you enjoy reading about my personal experience.

Any day is a great day for a patient to receive a transplant, but to receive my heart on Valentine's Day, 2004 is very special to me and my family.