The First Post!

Man. There's a lot of pressure for the first post, you guys. It needs to be...pithy? Dripping with wit. Fiercely intelligent! Thought provoking. Or inspiring, perhaps. It feels like some great wisdom should simply spew forth from my fingertips.

*waiting*

...Sadly that is not the case. So you, my dear readers, are left with only my own thoughts as they trickle from my head, to my hand, and onto this brand new blog. Speaking of which, I first need to thank my ever supportive husband, Joshua, who designed this site for me and showed me how to use it. I also need to thank my mom, who has been nothing but encouraging and cheerleading from the moment I hesitantly mentioned wanting to try journaling my thoughts.

But it's time for me to let you all in on a life development, if you haven't already guessed from the title of this website:

I'm being evaluated for candidacy on the heart transplant list.

Very dramatic, no? But that is a fancy way of saying my heart is on the fritz and I'm in the middle of the longest, most important pass/fail test of my life. In early August I'll spend 3 days as an outpatient at Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute (SHVI) in Charlotte where they will evaluate every facet of my life before presenting my case to the transplant list committee. There is an extensive--dare I say exhaustive--list of things they will look at to make sure I have everything in place to handle such a big life change. Cardiac health (duh), financial stability, a pulmonologist, a nutritionist, a consult with a social worker (to make sure I have proper support systems/people in place), mental health, running some tests to get images (MRI, CTs, echocardiogram, ultrasound, etc.), drawing labs, a surgical consult, and an infectious disease consult. THEN if I make the cut, they'll put me in, coach!

That's all I want to say on the matter in this first post. The point of this website is to update, entertain, and hopefully educate a little. I've been journaling for a couple weeks already, just putting my thoughts on paper. And at first there was this weird pull to try and put down every thought, every emotion immediately. (Because honestly, it's a lot of feelings, you know?) Which was making me seem like an over-eager, pubescent squirrel trying to impress at a party with how many nuts could fit in their mouth at once. Just...awkward. And not good reading. So I decided to avoid any unfiltered, emotional frothing at the mouth and keep this first entry to just the facts, ma'am. Which is why I'm ending this post here. You know, to prevent it looking like I've leaked the user manual to the international space station.

It buoys me to know that if you have read this far, you must have at least a passing interest in me, my journey, or my truths. I plan to do another post soon with a few more of the details. If you have questions, love, or words of advice, feel free to leave a comment!