There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.-- Winston Churchill

Twelve weeks downrange from the transplant operation, June 8, 2013.  Despite some setbacks, things are progressing well. The HeartMate II, left ventricular assist device, was my 24/7 life support for 38 months and served me well, but having a heart transplant was and is the ultimate solution for end stage congestive heart failure.  I am one fortunate fellow.

Rejection speed bump encountered and passed.  No one knows what the future will bring: the key is to live in the moment.  Easier said than done, when you don't feel well and are in uncharted territory.  I keep telling myself that the only easy day was yesterday.  It has become a kind of mantra, quietly repeated, but it helps.

Hence the Churchill quote in the working title of this post.

I've had a week off from hospital duty but go back again Tuesday for another right heart biopsy to check the rejection factor.  Even though all heart transplant patients take a number of anti-rejection drugs, the body's immune system can still rear it's head and cause havoc with the new organ.

Meanwhile, I've applied to LifeSource, the organ transplant procurement agent put in place by the federal government, to be a volunteer speaker to high school students and others encouraging them to be organ donors.

Many balk at the notion of sharing their organs and tissues. But without donors there would be no transplant programs. It is not that you are sharing an organ or tissue with a stranger but that part of you continues on and selflessly supports a life in one who truly needed it.  What a gift.  

Being a donor is courageous, in my view.

Be a donor. Visit: http://www.thenationalnetworkoforgandonors.org