Mending the broken heart

Rebel's surgery went very well.

"A perfect surgery," said one of her surgeons.

All in all they were nearly done by about 7 AM after being in the operating room since 1AM. The VAD and ICD( pacemaker /defibrillator) were removed first of all before Rebel was put on the heart/lung machines and the heart surgery could begin.

There also had to be extra precautions because of the MRSA virus.

Given she has been on blood thinners there is the possibility of bleeding and that is all being carefully managed.

Rebel is now back in the intensive care and recovery rooms. They expect to take her off the breathing tube later today or tomorrow, and they say she has been very responsive.

The new heart is doing very well.

Thank you everyone for your kind words of encouragement. It certainly makes us all linked .....again, please send prayers to the family who is mourning the loss of their young 18 year old son.....

Lily

A New Heart!

Last year at this time, a very good friend of mine called to tell me her teenager was really suffering from a bad cold and had been to the doctor's. All they could come up with was she had bronchitis and that with the proper medication she'd be back on her feet in no time.

Bronchitis was then diagnosed as pneumonia and that with the proper medication she would be back on her feet in no time.

Throughout the summer the young lady would get better but then fall into a bout of wheezing, coughing and sudden extreme tiredness, the doctor's were now starting to take things a little more seriously, things were just not right.....her heart was being affected and they didn't know why.

Turns out that she had contracted one of the "new" virus's that are entering into North America and it had attacked her heart. By late summer the Ottawa Heart Institute was now involved and the talk turned to surgery with the installment of a pace maker. Know as a LVAD.

We all thought that this was just a temporary measure until the Saturday before Christmas when all hell broke loose...

My friends daughter was sent by ambulance to the Heart Institute where she was put into a drug induced coma for months....while everything about this situation was being assessed.

By February, small steps were being made and as we most affectionately call her "Rebel" was slowly brought back to consciousness....it has been a very long, arduous journey.

To make a long story short(er), it was determined at that time that Rebel would require a heart transplant.

Today is Rebel's 20th Birthday,

Today, they found a Heart.....please pray that this is the perfect match...

Please pray for the donor's family. The gift they have given in the midst of their tragedy is so very beautiful and amazing. Please pray for the surgeons and the care givers as they minister to our Rebel girl, giving her new life.

Take today to sign your donor cards, give thanks for your health, your family and friends....Take today to reflect how fragile life truly is and that we are truly blessed to enjoy this day.

Life's fun if you don't weaken!

Lily

*************************************************************************************
UPDATE:

(from her Mother)

"The perfusionist came with the charge nurse from the Ward around 7 AM to tell us that she was `going like a pony!`

At this moment she is still in the O.R. as they are waiting to ensure all the bleeding subsides and that all continues to go well.

So we now want to ensure that that her body does not reject the heart. All seems to be going very well."

Please continue your prayers for our Rebel.....

and the family of the donor in their time of grief.

Lily

More than 100 runner's from Ottawa at the Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon

One of the most prestigious marathons in the world, let alone North America!

Mark Sutcliffe staff writer for the Ottawa Citizen wrote an article today, highlighting just some of the National Capital runners'.

One runner being one of my running associates, Alan Rushforth.

Alan began running when he was 69 years young. He had witnessed the vibrant, happy looking groups emerging from the local Running Room. Mentioning that it was a horrendous step for him to get from the comfort of his car, he joined his first "learn-to-run" clinic.

Five years later, by "accident" Alan met a group of runner's training for a marathon at Niagara Falls in the fall of 2007 and joined in. It was at this race that Alan qualified for Boston!!!

Through sheer dedication, determination, running through our long, frigid, snowy winter, wonderful, quiet, smiling Alan will race tomorrow as the only Canadian in his age category...75!!!

We will be cheering for you Alan (bib #21133), run strong, run safe and have the race of your life.....

Life's fun if you don't weaken!

Lily
** updates as they happen.....

Alan Rushforth, age 75 ~ finished: 5:15:29 ~ Congratulations Alan !!!

** Marathon Dude Bill ~ Bill Carter finished: 2:59:10 ~ Congratulations Bill !!!

** Nitmos ~ Michael Barr finished: 3:59:03 ~ Congratulations Mike !!!

Saturday and all is well

It is a beautiful, bright spring day! The birds are chirping, flirting, singing and doing the "birding" nasty.

I've been on a flu induced taper this week.

You know the story, wake up on Monday and soldier your way into work because, well, you have to....make it until 10am and just as you turn that sickly colour of green, you make the only wise decision you can make....get home while the getting's good!!

Withholding all the gory details, I went into work on Tuesday and ran Tuesday night. Well it went downhill from there. By Thursday, let's just say I probably made a better looking corpse than live human.

Friday was the only day to date that I was able to hold any sort of sustenance in my body.



Today will be spent outside in the sun collecting the necessary gamma rays from the sun and overdosing on vitamin D from old Sol as well....rest assured I will have my cowboy hat on and my 60 sunblock.




I think my running shoes may still be on a hiatus this weekend (well, I may try to get a nice slow 10K in), however, my long run in town on Sunday will go by the wayside.

Monday is the Boston Marathon!

Several of our fellow blogger's are heading to Boston as I type this up....Marathon Dude Bill, and Nitmos, to them, best wishes, run strong and make Great Memories....plus share them with us upon your return!!! (I know I've missed somebody...sorry).

My personal friend Alan is heading for Boston today. He is the only Canadian man in his age group to be running the marathon. Alan is a spritely 75!! (we will be talking about Alan later....)

Best Wishes Alan!!!

Enjoy your day, I have to get out into the sun and rake up the oak leaves....

Life's fun if you don't weaken...

Lily

Life is a Bowl of Cherries!

We've got sunshine

and

warm temperatures for the next four days!

Life's fun is you don't weaken,

Lily

I'm so excited

My Man Buster....busted.....

As I previously posted Buster Martin finished his first half marathon in March and was 101!!!

He said his time would have been faster but he stopped for a puff and a pint along the way....you gotta love that! My Kind of Man for Sure...

Buster then decided he would run his first ever marathon and picked the Flora London Marathon, in London, England on Sunday.

I got up extra early on Sunday morning so I could watch part of the marathon (well the results at the splits) before I headed off for my run. When I got back I couldn't find anything about Buster and his run, so I thought, well that's great at least he didn't pass away!!

So I get a post from my photogfriend Babooshka that indeed he did race, he did finish and of course had a puff and a pint to celebrate.....

Well, granted Buster ran the marathon, heck, he even finished BUT instead of the reported age of 101, he's ONLY 94!!!

Yup, he fibbed...he told a lie and he was supported in his lie by his employers to get some free publicity. As reported in The Mail on Sunday Darn them!!!

Here I thought I'd not only found the man of my dreams, but one who wouldn't lie to me....

Well, back to the drawing board for me...

but as was commented in The Mail;

"So if Buster has been busted, and he's only 94, then could the people from Guinness tell us, who really is the oldest person to complete the London Marathon?- Scarr, Dublin

Okay Guinness, who is the oldest person to complete the London Marathon if it wasn't my man Buster??? **

(hey, maybe he meant the Beer Guinness not the World Book of Guinness)

Lifes' fun if you don't weaken, oh and

CONGRATULATIONS BUSTER, NO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE, YOU ROCK!

Lily
** Buster eventually finished the course in just over ten hours.

Guinness World Records lists the oldest man to complete a marathon as the Greek runner Dimitrion Yordanidis, aged 98, in Athens in 1976. He finished in seven hours 33 minutes.

The oldest woman to complete a marathon listed by Guinness World Records was Jenny Wood-Allen who completed the London Marathon at the age of 90 in 2002. She finished in 11 hours and 34 minutes.

32K Recap

After Sunday's 32K run I sat down to write up a full report on it...but as you know if you sit too long after a run like that you start to cramp up...so I thought well, I'll just wait for Monday and then post.

Monday arrived and so did my massive bout with the flu...gah, you don't need all the sorted details of woofing my Wheaties, tossing my cookies, whatever way you want to describe it...blah...I was sick....but.....

here it is in a nutshell:

Positive : ) We did it!!!!

I think our average pace was about 8:28 (well, that may have been mine, Shirley, Rick and Jen were soldiering on at a faster pace than me. They will absolutely Rock the Marathon!!!

Negative : ( Cold, wind, no really windy, and some frozen snow

The run itself was not too bad, considering....then we turned to finish the last 5K and I ran into my nemesis...the wind...I really started to lag behind, I was huffing and puffing like an old freight train, my mind was fried. Rick the dear that he is dropped back to run with me....thanks Rick!!!

Positive : ) We did it!!!

We still have a lot of miles in front of us before the actual marathon including another 32K, but with that one down, the next one may be a little easier!!

Tonight is our clinic night and a 7K tempo. I'm still not feeling great from the flu, but I feel amazingly great from the run....go figure....

That's it in a nutshell!!!

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily