Heart Awareness Month

I was all about coming up with my usual facts and helpful sites regarding heart awareness month and then enter the biopsy results of Friday.  So here's where it gets real and it gets in your face.  Congenital Heart Defects can range from something simple as a "hole in your heart" that closes up without any medical intervention at all or they can be completely fatal upon delivery for newborn babies because their hearts are so dependent on their mother's circulatory system that life on the outside is not sustainable.  Or you could be an adult walking around with a heart defect without ever knowing it until you have a major health crisis - or the unsuspecting high school athlete that passes away suddenly without ever realizing something was ever wrong.

Olivia is the in-between best and worst outcomes.  Her heart defect of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome is treatable - not curable but definitely can be compatible with life with the right surgeons and medication regimen.  Sometimes the surgeries aren't a success, the repairs too much to overcome or the heart muscle too far gone.  Enter transplant.  A transplant can have its own set of complications - case in point our weekend past in the hospital treating Liv for some moderate rejection. It also comes at a high price.  One life exchanged for another and all that may entail mentally later in life.

So bottom line my friends and family - if you have a well working four chambered heart; let's not abuse it.  If you're overweight try to lose some weight.  If you know you don't eat as well as you should and your blood pressure or cholesterol are high; try to eat better and bring those numbers into range.  If you have a crappy, stressful job and know that it's taking years off your life - maybe consider changing it.  Mind you the previous statements are also being written by me who just indulged in a few junky meals while Liv was hospitalized because it was easy and comfort food; I have been stressed by work more than once and I don't exercise as much as I should.

All that being said, I just spent another weekend in the hospital with a bunch of kids that had no say in the hand that they were dealt and I bet they wish for a beautiful perfect four chamber heart as well as the luxury of spending their weekends outside playing with friends and family.

Do not worry - I am not as down as my post may come across, just tired and probably more than a little cranky.

Miss Livvy was a supreme crabby patty this weekend and is now happily sitting on my lap as I type this post very much into contributing her own random keystrike here and there.  :)