"Child, I know you're weary
And your eyes want to close
The days are getting longer
We're not getting any stronger
Trust me,
Mama knows
But lie in my arms while you're sleeping
And think of the rivers you've crossed
I'll tell you the dreams I've been keeping
For moments like this
When your hope is lost
Hear my song
It'll help you believe in tomorrow
Hear my song
It'll show you the way you can shine
Hear my song
It was made for the time
When you don't know where to go
Listen to the song that I sing
You'll be fine
Child, I know you're frightened
And your throat's parched and dry
But just trust in Mama's singing
And the gift tomorrow's bringing
Trust it, don't ask why
Just lie in my arms
And I'll tell you
The things that you know but forget
The lies no one ever could sell you
I know that it's hard
But don't give up get
Hear my song
It'll help you believe in tomorrow
Hear my song
It'll show you the way you can shine
Hear my song
It was made for the times
When you don't know where to go
Listen to the song that I sing
You'll be fine
Cause I'll be singing
Hold on
Hold tight
I know it's dark right now
But just believe somehow
That soon there will be light
Hold on
Hold fast
That's not enough for some
But trust the light will come
And we'll get past
You and Mama
Safe at last
Hear my song
It'll help us get through til tomorrow
Hear my song
It'll help us survive all the pain
Hear my song
It's the one thing I have
That has never let you down
Listen to the song that I sing
Listen to the words in my heart
Listen to the hope I can bring
And you'll start to grow
And shine
Listen to the song that I sing
And trust me
We'll be fine
A new world calls across the ocean..."

 

 

This song was performed at the Broadway Beat: Sassy Songs for a Heart Benefit. It was very touching and I wanted to share it with everyone!

Thank you to everyone that attended the benefit! A special thanks to Salling & Tate General Dentistry, Opera House Theatre Company, Pine Valley Market, Bottega Art & Wine, Juli and Selina Harvey, Logan Mock-Bunting. I want to thank everyone that performed: Chiaki Ito, Debra Gillingham, Teri Harding, Katherine Vernon, Megan Rose, Kendra Goehring, Emily Anne Jones, Amy Tucker-Morgan, Rachael Moser, and Jason Hatfield. A warm thank you to Megan Rose that made this benefit possible. With her help we raised $990.

 

 

On May 3rd Fanboy Comics are doing a silent auction and raffle. The proceeds will be donated to the Anita Trivette Transplant Fund.



If you would like more info on this please vist: http://www. fanboycomics. biz/fcbd08/#_anita

The doctors confirmed that I have Gilbert's. It is something that they can not do anything about except change my diet again.  So, I can't have two things that I love, Sprite and Milk. I can have soy milk or rice milk but not cow's milk. The doctors also said that my congestive heart failure is causing my gallbaldder to thicken. I go to Duke on the 29th so we will see what they say about all this too.

On April 24th there will be a fundraiser for my heart transplant. It will take place at Bottega which is on Front Street. There will be a bar and live entertainment. An artist by the name of Logan will have photographs for sale. All door prices are $25. The fundraiser will began at 7 and end at 9pm.

I know that I havn't updated in awhile. Just the other day I went in to get my blood work done. I have to have my blood taken everyday 10 days until the leavels of my blood thinner are on target. The doctors went ahead and did a liver, thyorod, and kidney test as well. When we got the results back if showed that the enzymes to my gallbaldder are elevated. The next day I'm getting an ultrasound done and it showed that the walls of my gallbladder are thickened. What does this mean, I don't know! That same day I had a nuclear scan done and it showed no gallstones, yeah! I went to a GI and they are doing more blood work. I am hopeful that everything is going to work out. All the doctors are saying that it could be congestion from my CHF. Once I find out more about what's going on with my gallbladder I will let everyone know.

 

Thank you to all of you that have been suportive. I can use all the support I can get!

As of 6pm I was put onto the trasplant list. So, I will be packing a bag and keeping it in the car. They told me that the wait could be anywhere from 6 months to 1 year. My blood thinner levels are doing better than what they were, it's a 2.6. I did not know that I had to limit my vitamin K, because of that my levels were not staying within range. I went to Dr. Rogers for my doctors apt. and he said that I was doing pretty good for what I've been through the last couple of months. He said that he had patients before go through the same surgery I did, that did not make it. It took a lot of me with the surgery (where they had to deflate my lung). That made me feel like I could acomplish anything. I know that once I get a new heart it's going to be a lot of hard work, and I know that I will be able to do it, and I have great support from all of you. I am doing a lot better, I'm just really tired. I started driving again, so watch out, I'm on the road again! LOL! I didn't drive for 2 months, I was a little rusty at first but it's like riding a bike. Please keep me in your thoughts and I will keep you in mine.

I am doing better than what I was. I am still really tired, and I still have some nausa. I am able to do a little more than what I was just a few weeks ago. I am still having trouble keeping up my energy but I'm sure that it will come back soon. If I could just get my energy level back up than I will be like a new person. Thank you to everyone that has been helping and calling. I go to Duke on Feb. 26th, I will let everyone know what Dr. Rodgers says. For those that don't know Dr. Rodges, he is the transplant cardiologest at Duke. The best transplant doctor that I may add!

Well, I woke up in the wee hours on Sunday not feeling like myself. I could see two of everything, I had the worst headach of my life, and I had really bad nausa. About fifteen before 5 Brad called the ambulance to come and take me to the hospital. I layed in the bed with a towel over my eyes for 6 hours before a doctor saw me. I could not stand to take the towel off of my head because that ment I was going to see two of everything. The doc ordered a CAT scan and a bunch of bloodwork and found that I had a mini stroke (TIA). Scary!!! The next day I had more bloodwork and another CAT scan with contrast. I guess it did not tell them anything different so they ordered a scan of my throat and found a blood clot. The clot is still there, so I can't do any jumping. They are going to let the blood thinners do there job and desolve the clot. The next day they did a TEE. This they put me asleep and put a camera down my throat so they could look at my heart. They found that I have a birth defect in my heart. It only took three years for someone to find it. I have an aterial ablation (I think that is what it's called, Brad knows) were extra blood comes out of my heart and it's easy for it to develop blood clots, so this could be the reason for the heart attack that I had. A doctor once told me that if seemed like it was from a blood clot from the scaring on the heart. I had my pt/inr (blood thinner level) checked today and it's a 2.34. Since I have thrown a clot in the past week they want my level to be around a 2.5-3. We are almost there. Thank you to all the doctors especially Dr. Forrester, and to those that came and saw me in the hospital. Thank you! If I call you and talk to you and say the same things just bare with me, I will be back to normal in no time!

The visit could have not gone any smother than what it did. I was in the room for 45 min. The two techs were calling out a different numbers and messuring my heart waves as they changed the numbers on the device. It was really cool sitting there and watching one tech do an echo while the other one was programing my device. They said that they improved my cardic output, not by much but every little bit helps! Since it has been a couple of days I can tell a difference in the new programing, because I have a little bit more engery than what I did. Of course some of it is because I am recovered from the surgeries. I am still a little slow on some things but I can stand and walk a little bit further.

I went to the surgeon today and he told me that everything was looking good! He said my incisions are healing nicely and I don't have to go and see him anymore!

I'm sorry that I have not kept the website up to date. The surgery and recovery have been very hard on me. After I got out of the hospital I was in so much pain. I could feel where they did the tunneling to place the third wire and the spot where they had the chest tube. I was not able to get out of the bed by myself. Bradley and his mom had to help me get out of the bed for at least a week. Every time that I moved it was so painful. For two weeks I was not able to eat sold food because I was so sick to my stomach and the doctors had given me some anti nausa pills and it turned out that I was allgeric to them and my neck swelled up. So, that was more pain added to the pain I was already in. Since I was not able to eat much I gained a lot of water weight. Right now they doubled my lasix so I could lose the weight and I have lost 18 pounds. My stomach was big and painful. After a couple of weeks my blood pressure was staying at a normal range so the doctors started me back on some of my meds. They had to stop some of them while my blood pressure was so low because the meds could lower the blood pressure even more. I went last week to get my blood taken to check by blood thinner numbers and it was at a 6.4 when it should not be more than a 3. So, I had to stop taking my blood thinner for a few days so the number would go down. Since it was so high I had a lot of nose bleeds but now the number is down to a 1.7, so on Monday I will be restarting that medication too.

 

If you had called and I did not answer please understand that I was going through a lot and there were times that I needed some rest due to the fact that I had no energy. The surgery and the recovery was very rough on me and those around me. I want to thank everyone that came to the hospital to visit me and thank everyone that is helping me raise money for the transplant. We are at $17,000. I want to thank Dr. Forrester for listening is me and helping me through the whole process, I know that it was rough for you too. Thank you Ma (Brad's Mom) for staying with us the last month. You have helped make things easier and Dot (my dog) likes the walks that you take her on. Thank you so much and I love you. Bradley I Love you and I could not have gone through this without you. Thank you!

 

I will be going back to the doctor on Monday (Feb. 4th) to get an echo done and they will be programing my CRT-D based on the echo. They want the CRT-D to help my heart pump to the full advantage. I will write back and let you know how it went.

Wow it has been a while. I hope Bradley has kept everyone up to speed. If not forgive him he has been very busy working and taking care of me. Let us begin where we left off. On Jan. 7th I went into the hospital for an outpatient surgery to change my AICD to a CRT-D. That is a more advanced device that is made just for heart failure patients. The procedure was going to take 2 to 4 hours and I would spend the night in the hospital for one night for observation. I was greeted after the operation by Bradley telling me there had been a complication. The 3rd wire had not been placed. My vein was too twisted to allow entry. They made three attempts but were unsuccessful, so they stapled me up. PLAN B Plan B had a scarey step to it.....DEFLATING MY LUNG. This was the plan for Tuesday, the day I was suppose to be going home. They made a small opening between two ribs and incerted a small tube into the side of my lung. Then they did a controlled collasp and started tunnelling through my muscle. When they reached my heart they screwed the 3rd wire into the back of it and tunnelled up to the device which is located just under my collar bone. They then took the staples out of the opening to the device and attached the wire to the new CRT-D. I woke up later that day to more pain than I could have ever imagined. I was on extremely limited pain killers due to the fact that my blood pressure was hovering around 70/40. This remained the same over the next 2 days. And the most distrubing thing was there was a tube coming out of my chest. It had to stay in for 3 days to remove fluid from my lung after it had been reinflated. I also had problems with my kidneys, they did not want to work as well as they should. I was released on Saturday, 5 days after I went in. I'm going to take a break now. I will write about the last 2 weeks later, after a little nap. Thank you all that visited and sent your love via Bradley.

Well the doctor just called and said that my blood thinner level is still not where it needs to be. Last week it was a 1.2 and this week it's a 1.4. At least it went up some. So after my surgery on Monday they will restart my med to 6 MG. They are hoping that it will get to the 2 or 3 mark with the 6 MG if not they will need to increase it again. The next time I get the bloodwork done is the 16th of Jan. My surgery is on Monday and I am sure that everything will go smothley. If anyone wants to come visit, it is alright with me, I like to have visitors. I will be at New Hanover Medical Center overnight. If anyone wants to come to the hospital just contact Bradley and he will let you know the room, or call the front desk. I will be coming home on Tuesday, if anyone wants to home to our house. Bradley's Mom will be coming down to help out while Bradley is at work, and I am so glad that she is. We will have a great time!

I want to take the time and thank someone that has been a blessing. Barbie is an old friend of Bradley's and she is doing everything she can to help us out. She lives in Maryland which is a ways away from us. Barbie you are a beautiful person and I wish the very best for you. You have been amazing and I can't tell you how thankfull I am to have you by my side. Thank you! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Day.

I have to get blood work done once a week for my blood thinner med. They have to take my blood and make sure that they give me the right dose and until they find the correct one I will be doing a lot of blood work. This week they called and said that they have to increase the blood thinner again and then we will check again next week. My number is a 1.2 and it needs to be between 2 and 3. Another thing they mentioned was that my potassium and magnesium is low, so they put me on two more prescriptions to get those numbers up. They said that with the low levels of the potassium and magnesium could cause extra arrhythmias that my heart does not need. I go back on Wed. to get more blood taken so I will let you all know what it says!

Brad and I went to Boone the day after Christmas. We wanted to go and see some of my family before I could not travel. It was the best time I've had in awhile. I got to see my Anut Joann, I've not seen her in five years! Way to long to go without seeing someone you love. We got to hang out with some of our friends while we were there too, but I think my favorite part was seeing the family. The weather was not so good, it was raining with some fog too. We were able to go to some of our favorite eateries which are: Mountain House, Macado's, and Back Yard Burgars. You can't get that kind of food here in Wilmington. We have some good places to eat here but nothing like going home and eating at your favorite place. If they mailed there food, I would do it in a heartbeat! It was a long trip and it made me very tired but it was worth every bit! I hope that I can go back up there sooner than I did this time. It's just so beautiful up there!

I hope that everyones Christmas is magical!!!

I wanted to take a moment and thank all of those that are helping. If it was not for your help the word of me needing transplant would not be out there.

 

There will be an ad in Bootleg Magazine in the Jan. issue. It talks about the benefit that is coming up at Thalian with Comically Imapired. I hope to see you all there!

 

 

 This is a flyer that we made to send out to Churches and Local Business.

If you have an idea on who to send this to, please let me know. Thank you for all the support.

So, I went to the man in white today. He was telling me that he could make me feel a little better while waiting for the transplant. On Jan. 7th, I will be having surgery to upgrade my AICD (Automatic Implantable Cardic Device). They are going to take the one that I have right now and replace it with a CPT-D (Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy-Defibrillator). This device is used in patients with heart failure. It will hopefully reduce my symptoms (some symptoms are water retention, extreme tiredness, shortness of breath) of the heart failure. There is a 7 out of 10 chance that it will help and it will buy us more time to raise more money for the heart transplant. The only thing that is different about the new device is that it will add another lead connected to my heart, so that will give me three leads total. One in the upper chamber, the bottom chamber, and the new one will go in the back side of my heart. The machine itself will be a little bigger than the one I have right now, it will measure 2"x2", and it is placed under my collar bone on the left side. The CPT-D will act as a pace maker, difibrillator, and heart failure control. The surgery will take 3-4 hours and I will have to spend a night at the hospital. I will be having this done at New Hanover Medical Center by Dr. James Forrester Jr. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Please keep me in your thoughts.

 

I'm a 27 year old female from Boone North Carolina and I need to raise money for a heart transplant. At the age of 24, I had a heart attack which damaged my heart. The doctors that looked after me did not think that I was sick from a heart attack because of my age, so they were looking at different diagnosis. it took 8 doctors and 6 months for them to tell me that my heart was severely damaged. I have cardiomyopathy (enlargement of the heart muscle), congestive heart failure (the heart can't pump enough blood to meet the bodies needs), arterial fibulation (a fast irregular heart beat), and I have an AICD implant. The AICD is a defibulator and pace maker all in one which helps my heart stay at a healthy rhythm.

I am currently unable to work, so I could use all the help that you are able to give. The transplant itself is around $365,000 and then after the transplant I will need to pay for medications, cardiac rehab, and doctor visits with rountine test. I have to raise at least $20,000 before I can even have the operation. That is just enough to pay for co-payments that my insurance does not cover. Duke University will be doing the operation and my pre and post evaluations.

There is several ways to donate. Please send check, cash, or money order to: The Anita Trivette Heart Transplant Fund, PO Box 16688, Wilmington NC 28408. You can purchase magazines up to 80% off at www.magfundraising.com/heart_to_heart. 40% of the profit goes toward my transplant. You can also donate buy purchasing T-Shirts at www.cafepress.com/anitasheart. You can also donate through paypal at my myspace page at: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=254139292