27 Days of Thankful - 10

Day 10: I am thankful for doctors!! I know I complain about doctors alot, there are quite a few who I just don't like, and for very good reasons!! (You can;t charge someone $700 to look at an echo each time your view it, then view it 3 times, then view it in color for an additional $900, then view it in video for $1200. Trust me, your're not going to have a lot of friends. Also, you can;t try everything you can think of, all at once, and cross your fingers that something works. How are you going to know WHAT worked?! AND- Most patients don't appreciate it when you talk DOWN to them, or treat them like they come in to the dr's for every little hiccup and cough, I'd appreciate it if you just figured out what was wrong, rather than treat me like I'm 12!) Ok, I'm done, but I really am thankful for them! Without doctor's and all the advancements we've made (in the past 20 years alone!) I really wouldn't be here right now. The doctor's knew something was wrong when I was born (my OSAT was at 17, they told my mom it was "a little low" - now I'm at a healthy OSAT of 96.) The doctor's discovered I have transposition of the great arteries (TGA) and they preformed a balloon suptostomy (created a hole so I could get oxygenated blood to the rest of my body) and then when I waas 2 they did a standard Mustard procedure, where they re-routed the blood flow. (Now, it's typical for dr's to go in just after birth and switch the arteries and valves, just switch em!) The best way I have found to describe TGA is : most people's blood pumps in a figure 8, heart to body to heart to lungs. When I was born, my blood pumped in 2 seperate cycles : heart to lungs to heart to lungs. heart to body to heart to body. They put the hole in there so I would get a mix. But anyways, so they dr's figured that one out. Then just this last year in August I started having migraines really really bad (I've always had them, but not THIS bad!) and I went into the dr who told me to go to a cardiologist. They did a bubble study and noticed that most bubbles went 1 way while some when another way. They found I had a hole in between the chambers of my heart. So they went in to do open heart surgery again in February. They found it wasn't a 10 mm hole, it was a 2 inch gap in between the chambers (not a hole from my heart leaking to my body, it was a hole in my heart leaking into my heart) the procedure that was done when I was 2, had completely deteriorated. So they fixed it! But one of the surgeons on my heart last year, has the same defect I do, and had the same repair done to him that he did to me! How freaking cool is that?! It was such a relief to talk to a doctor who was able to say It will feel like this, it will hurt this much, you will be able to do. Rather than, tests say this, and we think this is how it'll feel. Anyways, I am thankful for the doctor I have now, she's pushinf forward and really trying to figure out my migraines and what's causing them. I had a sleep study last night, and I never would have thought to get one. I am thankful for doctors that think outside of the text book. I am thankful to be here now.

What are you thankful for today? Check out Amanda's thankful post!

Love, bry and mark