I Say a Little Prayer For You!

Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House

Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House is one of my all time favorite movies and this is one of my favorite scenes. It now reminds me of you Steph!! Tropical Green and so on.

The Beach

My Neighbors Yard

Oregon Sunset

Optical Illusion

No Biopsies for Beckham!

One of the things I have had the hardest time with during my years as a heart transplant recipient is the heart biopsies. I started out having them once a week then I went to every two weeks, then three and so on until finally I only had to have a biopsy every six months. Now almost 19 year later, I have the luxury of only having a biopsy if we suspect something is wrong. As unfortunate as it is....the biopsy is really the only true way to test for rejection in heart transplant recipients. Unlike some whimpy kidney recipient friends I know who only have to submit to a blood test and urine sample. (the babies)

Anyway.....The procedure goes like this:
The skin on the neck is scrubbed and a local anesthetic is given. When the needle goes in it stings like you wouldn't believe! A thin tube (catheter) is inserted through the jugular vein in the neck and then carefully threaded into the heart. A type of moving x-ray called fluoroscopy is used to guide the insertion. A catheter with jaws in its tip, called a bioptome, is then introduced. Once the bioptome is in place, three to five small pieces of tissue are removed from the heart muscle. (as shown picture above) The heart does not regenerate and scar tissue builds up where the pieces have been removed.

The heart pieces are then placed under a microscope and examined for rejection cells.

I have now had well over 100 of these procedures performed. I still grimace when they insert the needle into my neck and when they pull the heart pieces off it feels like they are going to pull my heart out altogether! I do not have a lot of easily attained heart tissue left.

Nathan told me that Little Beckham will not have biopsies unless it is absolutely necessary AND he will not be on prednisone which has been the second hardest thing for me to deal with.

So, you go Beckham! You are one lucky little guy!

Beckham's New Heart

Our little Beckham recieved his heart transplant today after ten days on the waiting list. We are grateful to the family who made the selfless decision to donate their childs organs.

They will never be forgotten.

Watch Out For That ....... WAVE!

Our first day at the beach..... just watching the waves.
Notice little Taylors arm coming up from out of the water..
I have never seen a group of people move so fast! Poor Taylor..
Cassidy and Lindsey look like they're going to cry. Taylor is saved by her dad.

This photographer stayed quite dry....... laughing til it hurt.

My dad fishing the Salmon River in Oregon

Kyle and Brittany

Never looked better Kyle!
Definitely model material

Allie and Taylor

Before they knew I was taking their picture.....and after.

Todays Green Plate Special