Hi Everyone! It's been 3 years since our beautiful wedding! I can honestly say I married not only the man of my dreams but one that will stand by me through the good times & the BAD times. Shortly after our wedding I started noticing that my legs began to swell, more so my feet, so I went to the doctor that sent me to a Nephrologist *kidney doctor). This doctor turned out to be a complete 'QUACK"!!! After battling with him for months about the swelling, shortness of breath & hardly able to walk up 10 steps to get to my office, I finally switched doctors that was referred to me by my sister's friend, who is now considered my Guardian Angel on Earth!! Anyway, turns out my kidneys are failing. I'm in (ESRF) End Stage Renal Failure. So the new doctor wants order an Echo of my heart just to rule out any issues there, well...here's the curb ball...I'm in Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) too, with 5 blockages more than 75% each! Yes! Oh it gets worse, my Cardiologist sends me to a Vascular Surgeon to see if I'm a candidate for By-pass, which as it turns out I'm not! Ok God...is this a joke is what I'm thinking but ok...we'll see where this takes us. So...back to the Cardiologist we go. After a series of Stress tests that nearly killed me, finally they decide I can get stents. I now have 3 stents in my heart was wearing a "Life Vest" which was horrible because I had to wear this thing 24/7 unless I was in the shower. Because they had to do an angiogram to determine my issues I had to begin dialysis because the dye would shut my kidneys down completely & we were hoping that I would be a candidate for transplant for my kidneys. Anyway, now I do dialysis everyday, my heart is only functiioning at 35 - 40 % & that's only half of my heart, the other half at some point was damaged from a significant heart attach which was a silent one because I never realized the symptoms. Please if you have heartburn ALOT check wiith your doctor & have an EKG just to be safe! So I do Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) at home nightly. It's been a downhill slope for me but my husband is still by my side every step of the way. I'm very thankful for him.
We've had to deal with so many medical issues the first year of our marriage & obviously some life threatening ones. I now have an ICD implant which is a defibrillator for my heart so I don't have to wear that darned vest anymore but I've got this lump under my skin that is there for protection & this tube coming out of my belly for my dialysis. It's been tough. In the beginning, I looked at my husband one night & told him you know if you wanted to walk away right now I'd understand, you didn't sign up for this. I still feel that way because he really didn't. But his response was & still is "I took vows & I'm sticking to them" How sweet is that???
Just wanted to check in with anyone that was married in 2016 & say hi & I hope all is well. As for us; we're taking life one day at a time & realize that my time will be much shorter than his. The bad news is I don't qualify for a transplant because of my heart issues but with the grace of God hopefully I'll stick around for quite a while.
I wish you all happy weddings, & lives and offer this advice, don't take anything for granted. love like there is no tomorrow, forgive easily & don't let you health slip away.
No pity party...no I'm sorry's just be happy. I am & know that there is a plan in place that God has for me & I trust in that! God bless you all!!!
