Tyler's Heart

Pictures - Pictures from Houston.
LVAD Video - A YouTube video about living with an LVAD.
HeartMate II Video Clip - Short video clip about the pump Tyler has.

Another good blog to read is from our friend Bill. Cozumel Part 1 - This Might Be Habit Forming.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Resilience - and Anniversary?

 So, one more day, October 24th, will make 1 full year from the fateful words, "I don't feel good".   Wow, I can't believe typing the above sentence still feels like a punch in the gut.  But damn (excuse me), what a difference in one year!   From death to life.  From "life will never be the same" to "life is becoming the same".   From "oh my god, I'm going to have to do what?" to not having to do much except listen for alarms every now and then.

In one year Tyler has gone from death's door to pretty much the same old Tyler.  Physically Tyler is doing very well.   Last June when I decided to take a solo trip to visit my family, I was pretty confident that Tyler was ready to take over his care.   Since then, with some minor backup, I've done nothing.   My gig is up.   Tyler has taken care of all his meds, supplies, appointments, etc.   Even taken a trip by himself to Phoenix.   And to top it off, he won a national design award just a couple of weeks ago.

A friend of ours likes to joke about "how hard it is over at the Anderson/Swoverland household", since we don't seem to be "suffering" enough.   When Tyler won the award, he said.. "Oh great, we are going to get the 'oh it is soooo hard over there' speech.   It was then that I really started to understand resilience.  Notwithstanding the massive generosity of friends and family, in the form of prayers to money, that allowed us to survive the initial part of the crisis,  Tyler and I have been resilient in moving forward with the life that has been dealt to us.   It took a long time, about 9 months, to feel like we were getting back on our feet.   Things are still a bit murky as to how things will continue, but we have survived and continue to push forward.

Tyler has done some smaller jobs and continues healing.  He is getting physical therapy on his leg and it seems to be helping a lot.   More pain, but we still take that as a good sign for nerves coming back in his leg and foot.  No ER visits and no real excitement with the pump.   He is feeling a pain in his abdomen on the side where the pump is and will be checking that out this coming Monday.   The one worry may be that the pump has attached itself to the abdominal wall.   So they will do an ultrasound or X-ray to check things out.

So, wow, one year later.   Tyler is moving around better, cooking again (thank god!), reading again, staying up late and sleeping late (okay, that one is new), and truly is so much better.   I'm still cancer free, the animals are doing well, and life just keeps moving on.   To think back to the night of October 25, 2009 (the first night we got to St. Luke's), when I stood outside staring at the medical center buildings in Houston and wondering what in the world I was about to face,  and to sit here now in my house with things basically back to normal, is truly a testament to resilience and the power of family and friends!

Robert