Happy Birthday

 

Today is my grandson Jude’s third birthday.  He has been counting down the days with the excitement and anticipation that any three year old would.  While I have seven other grandchildren that I very much love and care for, Jude and I share a birthday together.  It was three years ago (well actually tomorrow, Sep 11) that I received my heart transplant.  People that receive transplants figure they have been given a new life and will use the date of their transplant as a new birthday. So I guess if you figure in the two stem cell transplants I have had, plus my heart transplant and my original birthday, I am aging at four years to every 365 days.  That must be the reason why I am looking like an old dog more and more every day.  Well Happy Birthday Jude.  I am glad to share this day with such a fine young boy.

Since my last posting the doctors have been helping to bring my blood pressure up to a point where I am safe.  I will run the risk of passing out should the levels get much lower.  The heart transplant has made it hard for me to maintain a healthy level of blood pressure.  I tell people that when you are transplanted with a new heart, the plumbing is hooked up but not the wiring.  All nerves to the heart are severed and are not reconnected through transplant.  The main series of sensory nerves that maintain communication between the brain and heart run through the vagus nerve.   Before I received my transplant, my body would communicate with the heart when there was a drop in blood pressure from standing up.  This is done automatically.  We do not realize our heart kicks in a few more beats to pump blood through our body to maintain a healthy blood pressure.  A transplanted heart, while keeps you alive, it does not provide this service.  Also my adrenal gland is not producing the hormones I need to maintain a healthy blood pressure.  I was told that many stem cell transplant patients will experience damage to their adrenal gland as a consequence of the chemo given to destroy the bone marrow.  It may be that with additional time this will heal and begin to function normally again.  Changes to my medications should address this.