I have to apologize, as my previous posting was posted prematurely…below is the edited and full version of what was SUPPOSED to be sent.

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My sister and I have a stupid joke that helps me cope with my frustrations…it involves me making up a silly song mocking how much I LOVE whatever person, place or thing that is causing the problem.  “I love hospitals,” or “I love IV needles…” (lather, rinse, repeat, and repeat again). Yeah, not exactly Grammy-winning lyrics as far as creativity is concerned, but it usually makes us laugh and therein is the purpose.  🙂

Today, though, I’d need a list of songs to help me through my latest saga.  The pain in my left lung from the pleurisy did not go away, and instead got so bad my breathing was affected.  So, I decided to go to the ER for my simple steroid shot that has always helped it go away.  (You heard “simple” and laughed out loud, didn’t you?)  Yeah, it never works that way for me!  Turns out, when they did the cat scan of my chest, they found several blood clots in my OTHER lung (something, of course, that is pretty rare for dialysis patients), and wanted to admit me so they could clear them up.  Since I had gone to a nearby hospital that doesn’t do PD dialysis (not thinking I’d need it), they had to transfer me to another one that did via ambulance. After being up all night with this, and finally meeting up with the pulmonologist (lung doctor), they have told me that the medication needed to treat this blood clot could delay my transplant by one to two YEARS! I told them that wasn’t an option and they are trying to look into alternatives, but from what I’m hearing, there might not be one. I was not prepared for that, and am desperately trying to summon the hope that they will find another option and not force me to endure several more years of this torture! Of course, my biggest fears start taking over and I’m stuck asking whether I’ll have these types of complications the whole time. Will I be able to keep my job? What if someone turns up for a live donation, will it effect that too? I’m trying to hope for the best, praying that I can fight my way back from this latest setback as I have all the others.

In the meantime, I’m also left wondering if these steroids for my pleurisy are masking a bigger, continuous problem as well, or if I just unfortunately keep getting new cases to deal with every few months. I’m also having to go forward with filing an extension on my medical leave (Dr.’s suggestion) so that we can get this taken care of. I’m not sure they’ll accept it, but what can I do?

I’m scheduled for another cat scan and possibly a scary (to me) procedure that will take samples of the liquid in my lung. I’ll keep ya’ll updated as I learn more.

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Things I’m thankful for today:

1. That we found out about these clots before the could cause a stroke!

2. That I made a new friend in the ER!

3. My friends Andy and Laura had a beautiful baby girl last week! 😀

4. That I was able to get a nice surprise dose of Taco Casa with my Justin and Mark before getting stuck with nasty hospital food…