Louis, usually I don't respond to these posts, but today I am compelled to do so. You see, in June of last year, my beautiful, vivacious 29-year-old daughter was diagnosed with stage II non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She underwent 8 gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and was considered in complete remission in November. Her last round of chemotherapy was November 20th. On Thanksgiving, as we prepared to truly give thanks for the 2nd chance at life that Amy was given, she became noticably ill. Since Thanksgiving was on a Thursday, she waited until Monday to call her oncologist. By then, she had entered into end-stage heart failure. It seems that one of the cancer drugs--the one most effective against lymphoma--is also cardiotoxic and Amy was a statistical rarity. She was placed in intensive care in our local hospital, but they couldn't treat her so she was transferred to the University hospital in our state. They also didn't think they could save her, but a wonderful, courageous cardiothoracic surgeon thought she might have a chance if he implanted a ventricular assist device in her heart--a blood pump. The surgery was long and she almost didn't make it through because the mass that had been her tumor was crowding for space inside her chest. As the dr. tried to reduce it, she nearly bled out. But Amy is a tremendous fighter and she did make it through the surgery. We brought her home from the hospital after 6 weeks of intensive care. She now awaits her final chance at life--a heart transplant.
You mentioned that you hadn't considered death until your near-brush with it twice. My point is this--whether we have near brushes with it or whether we simply voice the time worn cliches, we are ALL going to die at some point. For that reason, we should ALL consider becoming organ donors. If we choose to agree to such a gift, we should discuss it with our families. Having noted and read with interest the recent discussion about Freud, I wonder--wasn't it Freud who considered death a natural part of the life cycle? We are all so afraid to talk of it, lest we hasten its arrival. I believe that in talking about it, in acknowledging its very real presence, we defeat it. Becoming an organ donor is one way to make sure we live on. I'm sorry to any of you that I might have offended with my PSA, I don't usually post things of this nature, especially in such a public forum. But then again, maybe I should do more of this. Just my $.01999 worth. Carol
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