BACKGROUND

As many of you know, Jodie was born with congenital heart defects and had surgery at 10 days and 18 months old. She did ok throughout childhood, but had to be on some medications through high school, then another was added in college. Jodie went on to grad school, and unexpectedly required a valve replacement in 2007. It turned out she was in the early stages of heart failure, but only found out after the procedure. She needed to get a pacemaker since her heart stopped beating on its own, and then a few months later upgraded to a pacemaker/ defibrillator due to low heart function. In 2008, Jodie was told that she would eventually need a heart transplant, and that the doctor predicted it to be necessary within the next 5 years.

In the 12+ years since then, Jodie was upgraded to a bi-ventricular pacemaker/defibrillator which helped her feel better but didn't improve her numbers, had it replaced two more times due to the battery almost running out (normal process), was put on a new medication that helped her feel much better but still didn't improve the numbers. Then in April of 2019 things started to get interesting. Jodie went into an atrial flutter and after 3 weeks, had to be cardioverted (think being shocked with paddles, but more controlled and while under anesthesia) to get her rhythm back to normal. Then over the summer she started feeling more and more tired, and having slightly worse symptoms. Jodie had some tests in August that showed things were worse, and the doctor told us in October that we would need to check back in early 2020 to see how things are. After having those tests, its clear that Jodie needs to have a heart transplant.


WHY DID WE START THIS BLOG?

Jodie and Peter decided to keep this blog for a few reasons. First, as a way to keep our friends and family up to date. Second, as a way to share how we are doing and what we are going through (and potentially what we need). Third, as a way to document this journey.

We have learned that we want the people around us, and those who care about us, to know what is going on, but don't always have the energy to talk about it over and over. We will be sharing was is "on our hearts" as we go through this journey. We welcome you to check in as often as you like. Thoughts and prayers are much appreciated. You are always welcome to reach out individually, but please feel free to leave comments on our posts and we will try to respond to everyone when we can. We are also planning to use this platform to share news when we don't have time or energy to send to everyone.

Some of our posts may be more emotional, and some may be about more mundane things. Once we get to step 4, it could take anywhere between 1 day and a year or more to reach step 5. We have no way to know. As we are in that waiting period, we do know that one of the things that will be helpful to us will be to keep busy - board game nights, movies, etc. If you are nearby, please do reach out. While Jodie can't be doing anything too strenuous right now, we still want to connect with people. If things come up that we need or could use help on, we may post it here, or reach out specifically to those who have let us know they want to help.

Thank you for walking with us through this journey as we share what is on our hearts. Please check back for updates. We will add information as it becomes available and as we go through the process ahead.

God bless,
Jodie & Peter Elliott

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Contemplation, Columbus, & Cake

Yesterday was a long day. Jodie got the call yesterday morning that she was being listed, and she let me know soon after. I knew that we would be getting that news, but actually hearing it really brought it home. I struggled to keep my focus on work for the rest of the day.

That afternoon, I had another contractor come by to give us a quote. He was very helpful, transparent, and thankfully much lower cost than the previous contractors that had either quoted out of our price range or wouldn't consider such a small scale project (I hope we can move forward with this project soon).

We were happy to celebrate Jodie's birthday, but we had packed a lot more into the day than we anticipated. We had planned a last-minute trip to Columbus this weekend, that had depended on waiting to hear from doctors before we booked anything. When Jodie got home from work, we finalized packing, settled Stella in with our neighbors, and headed to the airport.

The flight boarded at 7:30 pm, so we didn't have long at home before heading back out. Lack of prior planning resulted in the need to scrounge for adequate airport food right before our flight. Not ideal considering Jodie's dietary restrictions, but we managed to make it work with steamed dumplings from one place, and a crackers and cheese package from another. We will need to be better prepared to prevent this sort of scrambling for food; especially since Jodie's diet will be much stricter post-surgery.

The airport was deceptively large, and by the time we reached the gate after getting food Jodie was wiped out. I got permission from Jodie, and went to the Delta person at the gate to ask about getting a wheelchair available for us upon landing in Columbus. It was a good thing I did, since after landing we needed to traverse what felt like two stories of switch-backing ramps from the plane into the airport proper. We will definitely need to request something similar for our return flights.

In Columbus, we were met outside by my parents who drove us back to Sarah's place to meet the baby. I always enjoy getting to spend time with my mom and dad, and having their physical presence and hugs was comforting and very welcome with the recent events. To some extent I feel rather isolated in North Carolina so far from family, and despite living elsewhere for the last almost 10 years; it still feels like I'm coming "home" to Ohio. We only overlapped with them for a few hours before they went home and then left again to travel to Maine for a couple days to check on the new house they bought recently.

When we arrived at the Welch residence, Jodie and I finally got the chance to meet our new nephew Mason Anthony Welch. As soon as she could, Jodie was seated and ready to receive little Mason into her arms. Right now she really shouldn't stand or walk and hold him, and probably couldn't for long. Then we briefly and quietly (there was a sleeping Leah child in the house) celebrated Jodie's birthday with a delicious red velvet cake with cream cheese icing.

It warms my heart to get to see Jodie with a baby in her arms. The sight gives me hope and I pray we can be so blessed to have children of our own someday. Jodie would be a great mom, and I would love to be able to raise children with her. I can't wait for her to have the energy to live life fully with a healthy heart, and I'm looking forward to having a family of our own.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, caring, loving, supportive, wonderful wife. I'm so blessed that I have her in my life; seriously, she's the best.


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