"Professional Volunteer?"

So, I have "moved up in the ranks" of volunteering (I got a REAL badge!) and now I get to run around the hospitals with the paid donor service lesions (the people that work for the organ procurement agencies-the people that meet with the donor families or schedule training event dealing with organ donation for hospitals). We only got through a very small part of Santa Clara's HUGE county hospital and an even smaller part of Santa Clara Regional Hospital, but I learned so much today. It was great to be there today for so many reasons:
Many hospital workers had never met a recipient: Even people that directly deal with donor deaths had never met a recipient, so I think it was nice for them to finally see that they were actually doing something, that the organs and tissue were actually getting somewhere.
I learned more about CTDN and how they acquired the tissue bank and more about tissue banking: CTDN is a very complex network and there is so much going on with it that there is always more to learn. Thankfully Mina was training a new hire, so we were both learning the ropes. This is good for me because I think I would like to work for something like CTDN one day and it gives me experience with it. It is getting me out in the hospitals and familiar with the hospitals, and I already know when to call CTDN, which is more than I can say for some experienced nurses. Did you know CTDN does an audit of hospitals to see if the hospital staff missed possible donors. I also learned more about tissues donation. There is all this hype about organ donation because it saves lives, but tissues donation also saves lives and I just learned more about that side of donation.
Hot Doctors: We all agreed the ED has the best (looking doctors, and friendliest! doctors). Since two out of the three of us not married and would be perfectly fine with marring a doctor, we decided me must visit the ED of every hospital-for an extended stay. Infact, we got invited to the Halloween party of one hospitals.
New Friend/Good Conversations: There was LOTS of driving and LOTS of traffic, so it was good that everyone was so open, friendly, and talkative, sometime those kinds of rides can be sooo awkward! I got to hear Kari's liver transplant story-she was transplanted when she was 9 years old! And I finally got to hear Mina's husbands story. That was such an emotional story. Sometimes hearing a story like that makes you wonder how someone can get through life. Mina has been going to school for counseling, going through what she has gone through she is so in-tune with the transplant world and our talk was better than any and all the therapy sessions I have had combines from all my transplant career.

Crickadoddle

about is a picture of my baby cricket, whom I missed when I was away from her (while I was in the hospital from October-January). I took the pic to send with my bio for a ctdn thing and for the trio youth group. She is a Siberian Crickadoddle (or a Pappillon)
So, I have had extreme nausea for quite awhile now, and I had a biopsy Tuesday and got the results today. Last week I lost 10 lbs in 1 week for not eating ( I have Kix for breakfast, no lunch, and no dinner, and maybe a snack with night meds like 5-10 small pretzels). I thought I was definitely rejecting, and I was almost hoping I was-so I could take massive doses of Prednisone and end the nausea, but no, I got the results today and it was just a 1r/1a, so my medications don't get changed. (The scale ranges from 0 (no evidence of rejection to 3 which is bad rejection). So tomorrow I am going to a gastroenterologist to see if they will scope my stomach to see if I have an ulcer or infection, but this is just a consultation, so I don't know when or if I will actually get this test.
I just can't wait to be fully recovered from the tx. This is one of the frustrating things of the tx, no one knows what is wrong and I just want to be normal, feeling well, and in school and working! I don't think I have ever wanted to go to work or school (or ever will) was much as I do now! But my mind is still on another planet and I can't remember anything.
But I am still thankful for this whole process, it has taught me so much and has slowed down my life from what it was-I was totally all over the place (working on more than one Bachelors degree at two different schools, volunteering, and working over 25 hours a week). As I like to joke-it has given me the gift of time-time off from the craziness of my normal life.
I have been trying to think of/do things to maximize my time that I have off. One of the things I am doing is (trying) to learn Spanish, volunteering as much as I can with transplant related things (I would like to work in the transplant field), lately I have been thinking about collecting data for a project I know I will have in nursing school that I could base around transplants.
So, in December I was asked-kind of pushed into speak at a religious women's event and I just don't know what I am going to talk about or how I am going to do this speech at all. Almost everything I have done for CTDN I have almost winged it, and I joke with my mom and grandmother that I am going to wing it, but I honestly don't really know how I am going to deliver the speech. Usually I am somewhat funny, and I really have to be serious-which I am not. And then my mom says I can't make it sad-which would be the next thing to do, so I guess I will deliver a boring speech? Hahah, like I said, I think it will go best if I "wing it"

More CTDN-Eden Run to the Lake

So today was another fun filled CTDN day-which was so nice because I was literally in bed all day yesterday so I would wake up this morning to make it to Eden.
Nana and Katie walked the race and the picture, above is their "before" picture. Dad and I worked the CTDN booth with Robert (a heart and Kidney recipient of only 4 months!) and his wife. It was nice to put a face to the name that everyone was talking about at the TRIO meeting. And is amazing how he doesn't even look sick 4 months out. Seeing people that have just had their transplant looking so good is so inspirational to people who are still on the list. I remember being at Kaiser's Heart Transplant support group and seeing a man in his 70's that had his heart transplant 8 weeks prior-he looked like a normal healthy human. He was my "vision" for everything being okay-I though that if he can do it (and look that good 8 weeks post op) than I definitely can do it.
I also met Natalie-who is a double lung transplant. It is always good to meet other recipients/family members and compare stories. She had a crazy (sad) story. She needed her transplant after an infected lung puncture from a biopsy. But she is doing great 18 months out and ran the race. Again, another inspiration-maybe next year I will at least walk it. She also seemed like she was "mentoring" a 19 year old girl waiting for a heart/lung transplant. I love that-there is not many young women with transplants, and it is just nice to see them sometimes.
I was a little nervous to work the booth-I had never done it before and did not really know what to expect. It was pretty easy, nothing serious happened, but some of the things people said were hilarious. One guy said he believed in organ donation, and "had the dot" when it was a sticker, but did not like how the new dot was printed on the card. He felt that he wanted the choice-I was (thinking): "What?!?!? First of all-you would be dead-you would not get the choice and second the sticker was okay-but the sticker being printed on the card is not okay?!?!?!?" Another lady said signing up to be an organ donor was like asking to die-it puts the "thought" out. I thought this was cooky-but to both people, Roberts wife had the best response: "Well these two heart recipients are sure doing well with their organs" As Sheldon would say: Bazinga!
We got a few sign-ups, a lot of weird questions (one lady asked EXACTLY what happens-like she just said "What happens"-awkward!) we gave out a bunch of pens, key chains, VEGETABLE clips (hahah chip clips) and pamphlets.
Then I came home and crashed and slept for 5 hours-hahah, but it was all worth it!
Goal for next year: Do the Run to the Lake and work the both afterwards!

Transplant filled day-2

So this "morning" I did not wake up until about 12 (in the afternoon). And even at that point I was not even up-I was still exhausted from last night. I think I went to bed around 2 am after getting home at 12. I was sooooo tired.
Then I met up with Kara and we went to Berkeley. We were early, so we went to college and got lunch at La Med (my favorite!). Then, we went to this new hat shop and Kara got a Cloche and I got a feathered headband. The store was so cute, I wish I was working right now-I would have bought a million hats from there.
Then we went back to the campus and I did my talk. It was for the National Youth Leadership Forum. It was a bunch of JR. High/ High School Kids that were bored out of their mind listening to lectures the whole week on medical issues. I tried to be funny and make light of the "lecture", but I think that the students enjoyed the hearing my story. When you say you are a heart recipient, you usually get a longer stare than if you said you were like a kidney or liver. Anyways, it was also fun talking today because it was the first time I have spoken to youth. They asked the funniest questions, like if I have developed any skill my donor had, etc.
Then we drove home and I drooped Kara off and my family called me to go to Bancheros (my other favorite place!) It was so yummy! I normally love kids, but tonight I sat right behind a bunch of really annoying kids, I was joking that it was the best form of birth control ever! Being with kids like that makes me realize, maybe I am better at loving kids from afar-it was meant to be that I don't have any.
Then, I rushed home to do homework. I failed another test. I just don't know what is going wrong with me. I took this class last semester (but had to drop it for the TX) and had an A going, I have not done well on any of the tests. I wonder if my brain is every going to get better and when that will be. Anyways, I don't know what to do with this whole school thing-any suggestions?

The picture above is of my dog Stella-Luna-it just makes me happy!