From the heart ……

I have not written a blog post in ages. When I finally stopped long enough to think about why I was avoiding posting on my blog I came to the following realisation. I started blogging with the idea to “have a space for ME, a space where I can vent and have my say” as I stated in my first blog post. Subconsciously I decided that this meant only writing about the good, funny and upbeat stuff going on in my life. Yes, you have guessed things haven’t been very upbeat around here recently and thus no blog posts. I have however decided to change that. Given what is happening in my life at present I now more than ever need a place to speak from the heart. So don’t expect any funny upbeat posts for the moment. I am dealing with serious stuff and maybe there is someone out there that can benefit from my sharing what I am going through at the moment.

In a nutshell – my husband of 39 nearly 40 is in end stage heart failure and needs a heart transplant urgently. Wow, I have said it. There is a part of me that just cannot believe that this is actually happening to me. Yes you read right, a TRANSPLANT not a bypass or heart surgery (been there done that), but a real life Chris Barnard style heart transplant!! I am tempted to joke or try and be brave and upbeat about this, but the truth is, I am scared shitless. I wake up in the middle of the night in a pool of sweat, feeling as if I cannot breathe.

For those of you out there who may be as ignorant about this as I was a while ago, transplants are a lot more common today than they were years ago. Heart transplants are also no longer only performed in Cape Town at the Grootte Schuur hospital. The Milpark hospital in Johannesburg runs a very successful programme for the Gauteng area, and heart transplants are also performed in Kwa Zulu Natal. Grootte Schuur remains the only state hospital offering this course of treatment. Yes, a heart transplant is a standard protocol and the only treatment for end stage heart failure.

With all other options exhausted and our hopes in our shoes, a dedicated team of professionals walked in to our lives this past Monday and gave us something to hope for. On Monday afternoon we met Dr C, a cardiologist at Milpark Hospital. He is the physician who assesses potential candidates to determine whether they are suitable for the programme. It was truly an uplifting experience to deal with someone so passionate and positive. He exudes confidence and I instinctively felt that I could trust him. We also met Marlize Frauendorf, the Recipient Co-ordinator for the Gauteng area. Marlize is a qualified nursing sister with the mammoth task of matching donor and recipient hearts and lungs.


On Thursday we spent a couple of hours with Marlize going through the whole transplant process in detail. We also met with the Psychologist that forms part of the transplant team. The next step in our quest to be added to the heart transplant waiting list is the physical workup, consisting of series of blood tests and a right heart catheter procedure scheduled for Wednesday the 1st of July. This initial process is involved and sometimes daunting but what scares me even more is the waiting game once he has been accepted to the programme. There is so much more to our story but as things unfold I will continue to fill in the gaps. It is my hope that this will be a story of hope – a story of new beginnings and a story of a brand new heart…..