thanks

[Guest guest]

Thank you to all who welcomed me to the list.

A bit more about me: I am soon to be 55 (I'm hanging on to 54 for as

long as I can); married for 29 years with two sons, 27 and 25. I'm

now mom to my Jack terrier, Gimli; Monkey, my 17 year old

cat; China, my cockatiel; and FISH, my betta.

After years of being blessedly healthy things just went downhill. I

had known about my heart condition (an enlarged hearts from bacterial

endocarditis) for 10 years before needing surgery. The bottom fell

out then. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks prior to the surgery

while they tried to figure out why my white count was so high. Since

testing revealed nothing (a test for leuk was included lol) surgery

was performed. I almost bled out on the operating table. I was back

in the hospital soon after coming home with pericarditis (fluid in

the sac surrounding the hear) and then again for pleural effusion,

which collapsed my lung. This was all in October - December. In

January of 2001 I was diagnosed with CML and in February congestive

heart failure. In April of that year it was the breast cancer...

mastectomy in the following month after a platelet transfusion. In

June I was again hospitalized with a staph infection in the wound of

the mastectomy.

I've had far more sugeries than I care to remember. I've also been

dxed with both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis and peripheral

neuropathy. I've also fought clinical depression for most of my life.

I'm doing well now, I garden, mow the lawn, pretty much do whatever I

set my mind to... even things I'm not supposed to do LOL. It's the

arthritis that gets me down the most. I'm decidedly not a sit still

person, who doesn't know when enough is enough.

I tend not to dwell on CML too much. To me it is something that I

have to live with, as with all the other diagnoses.

Again, thanks to all for the warm welcome.

Take care,

Zazzy