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Sulley
Member
Username: Sulley
Post Number: 1
Registered: 02-2011
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 11:33 am: | 
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Hi all, my name is Sulley but you can call me Sulley, its great to find this site, i live in a small town in central NY just east of Syracuse, to start with my dad died 35 years ago from heart failer at the age of 53 the age i am now, he was life long smoker, long hall truck driver 5' 3" and 195 lbs, i have one brother and two sisters, i am 5' 7" and 185, never smoked, no fried foods, no red meat and i fairly good shape, i had been an iron worker for 38 years, i am married, have to girls and two grandsons, 5 years ago on Feb19 at 9 in the morning i had gone out to get the sunday paper, living in NY we have snow about 9 months out of the year LOL we had got a few inches the night before so i grabbed the shovel and move a little snow, well about 5 mins in my back started to hurt, i live on the second floor so i came in the house will bad back pain, my wife was up at the time and asked what was wrong, she said i looked gray, well i flashed back to the night i last saw my dad alive and before he left for work was having some problems and looked gray.Well the pain moved from my back to my chest , sweat poring from my fingers and left arm pain, i had been an EMT for 12 years and i had a real good idea what was going on, 911 and im in St Joes hosbitile in Syracuse, i had an MI with my right corinary artory brocked and 85% blockage in my left, heart cath, three stiens later all better. At that time they told me my Aortic valve was bad but not to worry, well 4 years past and i was doing well untill Dec 1st 2009, i had CHF, now my aortic vavle was very bad and needed replacing, i got through the holidays and on Jan 6th 2010 i had open heart surgery to replace the vavle with a machanical valve and repair my mitro valve, the first three days did not go well, my heart would not beat on its own and my breathing wasn,t good but as the days went by things got better, my heart rate was very low, in the high 30s low 40s but they told me it should come back, they debated weather to put in a pacemaker before i left but didn,t, i was home for about 2 weeks when my heart rate would not go above 40, on Feb 5th 2010 i had a two wire pacer put in, felt like a new man, rate at 70 got the world my the •••, 3 months later on May 17th the good side of my heart started to fail, back in for a three wire/ Defibulator, back on my feet again feeling great, but in another few weeks things weren,t feeling wright, my EF was at 15 again same as it was before the valve replacement, transplant was talked about, i went to Strong Heart failer center in Rochester NY, a bunch of test, make sure my insurence will pay for a transplant and talked about the way they determan if you can be on the list and how blood type plays a roll in that, we my mom is B+, my brother is B+ and i know one of my sisters is B+ so i just figered i would be, we were not sure what my father was but my mom said she had his dog tags from WW 2, i came back the next month for the results of my test and at that time i was told i had O- blood, great, O- being one of the rarest bloods a transplant was not looking good, so they started working with meds to help take some of the srtain off my heart. At that time we had talked about the LVAD but it wasn,t for me, i did not want to go through the hassel of the batters, monitor, line coming out of you, i went back for my 6 month compairison test and my #s were down, so they really wanted my to consiter the pump, it has come a long ways in 5 years, battery life is now up to 18 to 21 hrs a day and the outlet side for the lead is getting better, wow does my finger hurt from typing, LOL at this piont i am in that range to recive a pump and i am going to do it, it will put me up higher on the list because it become urgetsey and with O- blood thats what has to happin to move uip the list, well thats my story so far, sorry for the long windedness LOL all is good. Thanks for this site. Sulley |
Happy2Bhere
Forum Leader
Username: Happy2bhere
Post Number: 3967
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 04:11 pm: |
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Sulley,
I can relate to many of your symptoms with your heart failure. Here's my story http://www.heartandcoeur.com/story/bob_story.php
Like your Dad, I was a over-the-road trucker for many years before retirement. You stated above " sorry for the long windedness LOL"____ Heck, don't worry about that, dear friend. We are all here for you.
You will discover many, many members on this site, who have experienced the LVADs and rec'd their heart transplants allowing them to live a very normal life post transplant. We all can understand your feelings of anxiety on that Waiting List.
Good luck and God Bless
Ol' Bob
P.S. Welcome to Transplantbuddies 
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Dottie Lessard
Forum Leader
Username: Dottie_lessard
Post Number: 148
Registered: 03-2009
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 06:07 pm: |
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Dear Sully,...welcome.
Thanks for sharing your story and know we are all here and wishing you the easiest road to health possible-and you have a good one to look to in
Ol' Bob. We are all here for you and keep on keepin on new transplant buddy friend!
Dottie
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Happy2Bhere
Forum Leader
Username: Happy2bhere
Post Number: 3970
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 09:45 pm: |
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Sulley,
I'm not very up to date on various blood types but I have been told for many years, type 0- is very uncommon.
Sulley, I have several heart tx pals living there in NY State, One of them Donald Arthur plans to walk in Marathons in all of the states over here in honor of his heart donor. He has already competed in almost 30 states or possibly more at this time.
Good luck and God Bless. Our prayers are with you, my dear friend.
Dottie, thank you for your compliment, lit'l lady....."you have a good one to look to in Ol' Bob"
Ol' Bob
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