Another newspaper spot

Happy President's Day!!

Glad I have today off ... not sure why, not really being all that productive. Waiting on Hilly to get home from class so we can take Maggie across town to play for a while. Then I will do dinner, write out some bills, and get ready for the rest of the week. Tomorrow it is back to work, two days of audit review, and I meet with the HR guy this week to talk about my time off for the actual transplant and finalize my EIT time for the upcoming trip. My BGs have been so out of whack lately, I am really not sure how I am suppose to feel. I am not nervous, a little anxious, but am hoping for the best. Most of my anxiety comes from the pure fact I have shitty veins and the thought of multiple pokes by multiple people can get me going. I am trying to keep a positive attitude in that this is a teaching, research hospital and my experience with these sorts of facilities have been EXCELLENT!! Some of the best of the best .... I will maintain that hope. Now, been thinking of the real rest I am going to snag on this week. How sad is that??? That I would want to check into a hospital just to get a rest, don't most folks go to a resort, hotel, ocean side pool, cruise, etc .... well ... I can't afford those so I guess a room overlooking the bay will have to do. I have a hell of an imagination!!!

Got an email response from the editor of the paper here www.chinoreview.com this morning, asking if she can run another update story with a photo of the quilt and info on the upcoming trip as well. It should post this week, paper comes out on Weds.

Also, I was sent a link ... will post here at the end, of some patient reviews from a study done at the University of Minnesota sent to me by my cousin Bridget, via a friend in the medical field. I was pleased by what I read of these patients having had their transplants done almost 8-10 years ago. I hope that some of these stories can help relay why I have chosen to undergo this trial. I realize that the risks may seem extraordinary to some, but for me, being single, not wanting to lose my independence, not wanting my child to have to tend to me at the risk of putting her own life on hold, etc .... is reason to take the chance. As in any medical procedure, and I have had more than I can even count anymore. All I know is I ran out of little lines on the medical history forms many years ago!!! LMAO .... This is my chance for a promising future, a future that I myself am unaware of how it may be. I don't know what life is without needles, finger sticks, a catheter hanging from my stomach and a pump hooked to my belt. It is an opportunity I am ready and willing to embrace, not only for myself, but for the future treatment of kids being newly diagnosed. The stories are very promising!!! Enjoy .... and try to picture what my life has become, and what it has the potential to be.

I really have not been a fan of disclosing my health status to many over the years. I have in actuality gone out of my way on many occasions to keep it my secret. I no longer have that luxury. I really need the "surveillance" of those around me to notice things I no longer have the awareness to do and this is by no means a method in which I want to live. I am a very independent woman. I like to do for myself and I have had to dig deep inside myself to muster the strength to ask for help. Help from my friends, my family, the community at large, etc. It has been a very humbling experience thus far. I don't know what to expect, I don't know how to respond often times just welling up and saying Thanks!! I could be so much more technical here, but don't want to steer those that may wonder, away in fear. I can't wait to meet this team of professionals and be able to witness the miraculous things they are doing, and to know that I too, am playing a large role.

Check out the stories on the following link .... hope you enjoy the outcomes, for those that have gone before me in the early stages of these trials and know that there is real hope out there!!!

www.citisletstudy.org

The Clinical Islet Transplantation Consortium - there are a lot of very helpful, useful, and informative links on this page. If you click around, you will find the area in which patients who have undergone this procedure back in late 90's, early 2000's are doing and the change they have undergone.

Thanks to Bridget for investigating and sharing this with me!!!

Peace and Light
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