Jesse's Big Heart

August 18th Update So it’s been just over one weeks since being released from my 7 week stay in the hospital. Things are going very well in my healing process although I had to go back to the ER on Sunday morning because I was experiencing a lot of pain in my chest and had major chronic diarrhea. (yeah maybe it’s more information shared than necessary but I have to keep it real… lol). I ended up going to the ER in the new Zuckerberg SF General Hospital since it’s really close to my home. Beautiful and as modern as it is, I won’t ever go there again

by choice. I should have stuck with where I knew I would be treated with my full history intact, but all in all being there I was set back on the track. It turned out that I was release from the hospital last week without the full medicine regimen that I should have been on and I knew this when I started to fill my own pill box for the week. I was given subpar treatment for the pericarditis, which is swelling around the heart, which caused the pressure to push out on my ribs on my left side. This happened on Saturday night as I couldn’t lie flat without extreme pain on my ribs and I didn’t get any sleep that night. It felt like I was being stabbed with a sharp knife. So when I went to the ER in the morning they assessed me and managed my pain as best they could and then told me that I would be admitted for an overnight stay. At first I just thought, “Please God not again!” but even thought I was not happy about it as I had barely had the chance to be home for a few days I knew I needed to be taken care of.

By Monday midday once I got on the right medications and enough time past for the meds to do it’s thing and the pain started to subside. I asked what the plan was for my release but since they had not heard back form my surgeon they couldn’t give me an answer. I convinced them that I take good care of myself and religiously stick to my medical regimen and that I really didn’t want to stay in the hospital another night. The attending physician agreed that it would be agreeable to discharge and started the process rolling. To be quite honest I just did not enjoy being there. At UCSF Medical Center all the nurses were great! The food at UCSF was 1000 times ahead of anything I could have imagined for hospital food. They have a full menu, which for some reason reminded me of Denny’s extensive menu. At Zuckerberg Hospital you didn’t get to make ‘any choices’, you get what you get. When I was being screened for admittance I told them I was Pescatarian, which they really didn’t know what that was (Fish and vegetarian diet). I was given a dry egg and dry hashbrown breakfast , a chicken dish for lunch and then Meatloaf for dinner. Not good. Luckily friends brought me sandwiches and I had dinner when I was released from the hospital Monday night. In my final few hours of my stay my cardiac surgeon came and saw me. He had three first year med students with him. He wanted them to listen to my heart since it was a good chance for them to hear first hand what a mechanical valve sounded like. He also told them that I was a great patient, that I was an over the top, in great health fitness coach and that my dietary lifestyle too was over the top which has been a tremendous help getting me through the delicate and severe health issue prompting the need for the open heart surgery. It was humbling for sure and with that it made my stay at Zuckergerg General Hospital worth the experience helping, once again, plant a seed of realness for the new med students to realize that with each case there is an individual and that they need to be treated as such. Gods amazing power at work again!

So I was sent home to continue my healing. I have a nurse coming every other day to help me with my IV home infusion. It’s a 24/7 ordeal which is just like toting my love/hate relationship with my IV pole in the hospital, although I have a lot more freedom with my big ass fanny pack mobile mini pump and medicine bag. I tend to forget I have it and it pulls me back when I’ve reached the end of my tether. Things could be worse but I only have to live with this until September 13th which then I’ll be off all antibiotics, and hopefully get my bowels back on track, again keeping it real… hehe. Anyway, I am home again. The construction of the new apartment building outside our living room window hasn’t been so bad this past week but as they prepare for the first floor of apartments I’m certain that we will be having a lot of hammering and other noise sooner than later. With the dust and noise swirling around I would keep the windows closed but with our west facing windows it gets fairly hot in our 411sqft apartment.

With the sawing and dust flying around we can’t have the windows open, which sucks big time. So I am praying that that part stays low key as I’m using this downtime to finish studying for my Sports Nutrition certification and to keep using my meditation/healing ritual for a full and speedy recovery. With that being said I need to listen to my body and be mindful that it needs the time to fully go through the healing process. It’s easy for my mind to make me want to just run forward but I obviously need to walk before I can run. It is also a bummer that this whole experience will bring me to being out of work for nearly ½ a year really makes it difficult to just sit back to heal, but as I mentioned in a previous post my friends and family have been there for me in the past as has my faith in God that really makes me stay calm and centered. On that note I want to share the fundraiser page that my dear friend David Aguilar created on "GoFundMe.com" that was put together so that those of you who are able, or are moved to assist Brett and I financially over the course of my health challenge as I have not been able to work and still have 3 months for recovery where I might possibly go back to work part-time in a couple months and the stress is not here yet but by beginning of September it's going to look challenging. It's humbling to be in this position in this unforeseen situation, but again I am grateful to all of you for the love and support over the past 2 ½ month with your well wishes and prayers and contributions to the GoFundMe and the fundraiser that my colleagues at work held for me last month, so thank you again! https://www.gofundme.com/2innmvw So dear friends I end this post with this personal thought, “You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friends nose”. I don’t know why that came to my mind to share but in that there must be some hidden wisdom… lol. I'm glad we picked each other!.