September 2

Well there goes summer.

My last text post was in June, after my two month medical fiasco. Things have stabilized since then, nothing new to report there. Will probably be due for a clinic visit relatively soon, and another biopsy in December I'm guessing. Really trying to keep up on the water intake.

Unfortunately, I have made little progress with those Incompletes. I did finish another exam for Statistics (I received an 80, which would make my current average around an 83). So that's not terrible. I also started doing my practice exams for my MAT 103 course. I did alright with the first one which covers things like combinations, permutations, probability and a few other things, but the second one about mathematics of finance I had a lot of difficulty with. I tried to find solutions in my notes and within the text, and even with the help of my math major/teacher bestie Michelle we couldn't figure out about half the problems. So, I wasn't able to make much progress without my professor. I had even called the Writing/Math center to see if anyone was available to help, but no one was. The last course I have (PSY 393 - Experimental Methods) has the most work and is the most difficult. It will be quite the haul for that. It is what it is at this point. Now that school is back in session, I am hoping that I'll be able to knock out these courses fairly quickly and then apply for graduate school.

In the meantime, I've been looking for a job. Any kind of job really. Job searching is a huge pain in the ass. I probably spend at least an hour a day searching. Another kink is that I want to be searching for jobs near Farmington, since Kyle and I are hoping to live together come April once the lease on his current place is up. However, I'll be going to graduate school in New Haven hopefully, so that will mean a bit of a commute. So, do I try for temporary jobs near home and stay until April with something not career-related just to make the money? Or stick it out for something in Farmington, and if I get it, just commute home during the weekends and stay with Kyle?

Being in limbo is. The. Worst.

Want to know what else is crazy? Later this month is my TEN YEAR high school reunion. Holy shit we're old. I imagine most people are going to be married with children, and I'll be like, "So, I bought a new book the other day!" Yeaaaaaaaah. I live life on the edge. Whatever, I like my life for the most part. I know for sure that Miller is going (since I'm taking his wife's ticket) and Courtney is going. Two of the best people that I know.

One of the nicer things that has happened recently is that I reconnected with a girl named Jessie, whom my family and I met way back in the day when I was diagnosed at Yale New Haven. My brother busted his head at her house once and had to get stitches. Anyways, we found each other randomly on a Facebook group called "Heart Transplant Survivors". She had posted that she was looking to see how many younger transplant recipients were around. I recognized her, and we started chatting with each other. Apparently she doesn't know anyone else with a heart transplant. I've known a handful and its always nice to know people who have been through similar hardships as you. There's a kinship there that is hard to find and duplicate. Unfortunately for Jessie, she has hit a bit of a rough spot. She went in to the ER for shortness of breath and palpitations. Turns out she had congestive heart failure, a lot of fluid accumulated and her ejection fraction was only about 16%. They treated her with Solumedrol (IV Prednisone, basically) and diuretics and that seemed to help. Brought her EF back up to about 35%. Last Wednesday she was doing well enough to downgrade her from the cardiac ICU to the general cardiac floor and I visited her that night for a few hours. It was a lot of fun talking to her, she was very sweet and in great spirits! Here's a shot of us:

Isn't she adorable? I look huge next to her, but really she's just petite. They did end up bringing her back up to the cardiac ICU for a few days, they were considering doing plasmapheresis but her doctor ended up not doing it. So, surprise surprise, she gets to go home tomorrow! I'm so happy for her! I can certainly empathize with not wanting to be at the hospital any longer. Lucky for her, she lives only 15-20 minutes away from the hospital. Hopefully sometime this coming week or the next I'll visit her again. Also on the friend front, I've been able to spend a bit more time with Kayla. She's been doing pretty well medically with the exception of messing up her foot. Her brother's dog rammed into her foot and messed up her ankle. She is now hobbling around, but able to drive much to her relief. She has a new nannying job that she's excited for.

In addition to my turning 28 years old (oh sweet Jesus...) my Zoe girl turned 6! I can't believe how much grey she has accumulated on her muzzle! Playful as ever though. Been able to walk her more and you can just see in her body language how happy it makes her.

I was thinking of going out to Arizona in October or so to visit my dad and brother, but it seems that they will be coming out to CT around then. At least, my dad is talking about doing so. I miss those guys.