If you’ve been following along on Facebook, it’s been a roller coaster the past few months, but especially the last week.

In early January, I went to the local ER 3 times with chest pressure. I didn’t feel well and I knew it wasn’t another Heart attack, but something wasn’t right. I was sent back home each time, never admitted, nothing beyond blood tests.

Until the 4th time, during which I refused to go home. I was admitted for 3 days, they did a stress test (I passed), but my echo showed congestion around the heart. Sent home with a “increase your diuretics” and take it easy.

Only problem was that my kidneys were already signaling ‼️ “danger” ‼️ in my labs, moving more from cranky to angry. My Tx team, told me to watch my weight and diuretics and we’ll see how things go.

They didn’t go well and so I started retaining weight and my diuretics stopped being effective, because my kidney function was crashing. Your kidneys need to function to pass the fluids, diuretics help them do that. When they don’t work the kidneys get congested which backs up to the Heart

I went back to the local ER for the 5th time and they called cardiology. They were okay sending me home, but thankfully the ER doctor told me his gut told him to admit me and so he did.

They took me to the Cath lab the next day for a Right Heart Cath & Biospy (to check for rejection and how my heart was pumping) and a Left Heart Cath to check for blockages (all clear 🙌🏻). I wasn’t in rejection but my heart function had dropped.

They started IV diuretics and pushed the dose way to high, causing my BP to bottom out. They stopped one of my major cardiac meds to allow for the blood pressure to come up some while continuing the higher diuretics. This is when things really went downhill.

The nurses were holding the diuretic the last 2 days, i was admitted, because my BP was too low, without alerting the doctor. 🤬 they discharged me told me to take 3x as much diuretic I went in on and sent me home in kidney failure. Oh and that cardiac med they stopped, prescribed exactly to help heart function in transplant patients.

I came home sicker than when I went in. My PCP saw me 3 days later and was worried. She re-ran labs which didn’t look great, but we were heading up to Hopkins in 2 days to see cardiology so we talked with Tx, told them about the labs, and agreed we’d repeat them that Friday.

Oh, and we did. And they were really bad. My general cardiologist saw them first and expressed his concern, as they were edging at the dialysis level. We talked about a few things, agreed that my kidneys are top priority and then I saw my transplant coordinator.

She saw that the repeat labs that morning were still not good. I was told to hydrate and go to ER if symptoms worsened. I pushed fluids all weekend, and then I started having the runs (b/c why not). Not good when you are trying to hydrate.

Transplant teams have a different threshold than other doctors, because we can have really wonky labs, but then bounce back. But everyone was in agreement that I was on the edge of an admission being needed.

I saw my PCP again this past Monday, she took one look at me and told me to go to the local ER for labs and fluids and to be admitted. So we headed to the local ER on Tuesday am (because I selfishly wanted a good nights sleep).

We were fully prepared for an admission, but when I tell you there were tears when the labs resulted back at my baseline, there were tears. Mom and I both had our moment. Mine when I went off for test, hers while I was gone at said test. The labs should not have resulted where they did. My team all thought without an admission it would take weeks and even with admission it would take 2-3 weeks. But it happened in 3-days.

At the bottom line, my transplant team pushed the “wait and see” a little too long, things got behind, the local hospital messed up multiple times. I was a very sick young lady at home for about a week, and then with my team working together we righted things. This isn’t a story of doom and gloom, it’s a story of how fast things can change. And how Hope Wins, in the end.

I’ve never been scared post transplant. Worried? Yes. But I was never scared until the past few weeks. The talk of dialysis, the local hospital majorly screwing up my case and making me even more sick, labs in critical range. It was very scary.

I now have to do labs every couple days to monitor things, I’ve talked to my transplant coordinator every day this week, messaged with my PCP and still need to loop in my general cardiologist.

We’ve all had moments where it felt like the heaviness of Good Friday. That all hope was gone. But 3 days later, Jesus rose.

If you find that with life lately, you feel like a passerby on the road to Calvary….You can hear Jesus’ heavy breathe from carrying the cross, you can feel the dust from the road kick up as the cross drags along, you can hear the crowd, you watch Veronica wipe his face, you see the anguish in Mary’s face, I’d encourage you to sit in that place in prayer this Holy Week, so that you can experience the joy of Easter morning. And be filled with the Hope of the Resurrection, for that is ultimately where Hope Wins.