A public service announcement...

On what I would LOVE for people to know about organ donation!!

I chat in a few forums, and a couple of times, the topic of organ donation has come up. I'm very passionate about organ donation, and will share our story any chance I get.

I have heard people make comments on why they don't want to donate their organs, reasons being that they were afraid that the doctor would make a mistake, and they weren't actually dead.

In one instance, I engaged with a poster, who said that she heard a story that a guy was in an accident, his heart stopped, and they decided to harves his organs. On the way to the OR, his heart started beating again, and he made a full recovery. This poster was using this as a reason that she wouldn't donate her organs.

*Organs are not taken out of a dying person. They are taken out of a brain dead person...BIG BIG BIG difference!!! Also, they do not rush you from an ambulance to the OR to remove organs. A lot has to be arranged, before they even think about cutting the person open!*

More recently, a poster claimed that she'd read an investigation that if a doctor knows ahead of time, that a dying patient is an organ donor, that he might be likely to let that patient die, in order to harvest his organs. That the doctor might not do all he could to save that patient, so that another could live.

*Why would a doctor let one patient die, to save another? He wouldn't. Unless, maybe it was his mother, who needed the organs!! Even then, there are these pesky oaths, and ehical guidelines that doctors must deal with! And, again, organs are taken from a brain DEAD person, not a brain-DYING person! BIG BIG BIG DIFFERENCE!*

Misinformation like this makes my blood pressure sky-rocket, my heart race, and my emotions run wild.

This stuff couldn't be farther from the truth.

I just wanted to share our experience, so that people know exactly what goes on, behind the scenes of organ donation. We've been on both sides of it, so I'm speaking from our personal experience, particularly, in donating Joey's heart.

Organs are only harvested from a person who is brain dead. Brain dead is all dead. There is no recovery from brain death. When a person is declared brain dead...that's it. There will not be any miraculous recovery, and brain death is not the same as a coma. In a coma...the brain is injured, maybe impaired, but, not dead.

The doctors do several tests to declare brain death, before the organs can be harvested. We were allowed to be present for Joey's tests, so that we could see for ourselves, that he was indeed, gone. They did an EEG, to measure brain waves. They did a test on his pupils, to see if they reacted to light, and they pulled him off the breathing machine to see if he tried to spontaneously breathe on his own.

After this was done by one physician...they waited over night, and repeated them in the morning, by another physician.

The process to donate an organ is long, and tedious. It is not a hurried, rushed decision. There is a lot that has to happen and that has to be arranged, before they take the brain dead person (NOT BRAIN DYING PERSON) to the OR.

It took about 24 hours, or more, between the time that we signed the organ donation consent, and the time they took Joey into the OR.

I am very passionate about organ donation. A stranger's gift, gave us three months that we might not have otherwise had, with Joey...and his heart still beats in a precious little girl, named Daniela, today!

I hate that misinformation is used to scare people into making a decision against organ donation. I've lived it...both sides of it...and it's beautiful. It's incredible. It's AMAZING!! And, most importantly, it's carried out respectfully, and carefully, by people who genuinely care. For a few years after Joey died, I still talked to the nurses who came to harvest his organs, on the phone. I still send them Christmas cards, to this day.

I would be happy to answer any of your questions about the process. I love talking about it, and would be happy to share our experience, and even more happy to eradicate any misinformation out there!!!

My best shot…

A wedding photographer, I am not…but, that didn’t keep me from giving it a whirl.  It was a small, laid back affair…a cousin of a friend from high school.  It was supposed to be an outdoor wedding…which is one of the only reasons I thought I might be able to pull it off. 

Rule number one, in wedding photography…never, ever, trust the weather to do what it is supposed to do, or rather, what you need it to do!!

It rained…on the big day! 

Ironic…cliché…and a total a cog in the gears of my confidence!!

But, I did my best, and while the pictures weren’t as wonderful as I’d hoped…this one picture, made it all worth it for me! 

I only hope the same was so for the bride!!

Ponch…

And you can’t haaaave none!

“They don’t hear their mother calling them but they hear that motherfucking ice cream truck from ten blocks away!” – Eddie Murphy

 

First ya take ya laces…

A few of you guys asked for the link to the video we watched.  Here it is…

This video was moreso, a trip down memory lane, than effective shoe-tying instruction.  Not to mention, a tad creepy.  The little girl looks like she’s being held at gunpoint, to film this bit!!  Or possibly drugged.  Maybe a little bit of both!

After the video, we noticed that Jack was having trouble with the hand switching part of tying your laces.  Gotta give it to him, it IS a little tricky.  So, Jake came up with a way to teach Jack, that got us around the hand switching.  It was brilliant…Jack picked it up, right away! 

So, tonight, I’m gonna make a new video, of Jack tying his shoes, maybe that will help some of your little guys out!  And ultimately, help you out!  So you’re no longer the lazy mom, like me, sending her kid to 1st grade in velcro, because, it just SUCH a pain in the ass to teach kids to tie their laces!! 

Rest assured that there will be no muppets in our video…no children will be forced to participate, against their will…wait.  I can’t promise that…nevermind.  I can promise that I won’t be singing atrociously.  Which means, I won’t be singing, period, because when I do sing, it’s atrocious! 

A made man…

has to be able to tie his own shoes!

 

All of my other kids were taught before they started kindergarten.  It was a house rule.  You had to learn to tie your own shoes, before you started school. 

It’s totally true that the baby of the family is spoiled, coddled, and has his own set of rules.  Because only after my friend’s not yet five year old daughter was doted on by her mother, on facebook, for tying her own shoes, did I realize that I’d forgotten to teach Jack how to tie his! 

So, we searched youtube, found a video, and all sat and watched (because without cable, youtube videos, with muppets, tying shoes, is seriously freaking entertaining), as Jack soaked in a little knowledge, that was long overdue. 

We all rooted him on, and erupted into applause, when after just a few minutes, and a few tweaks to the muppet’s technique, he was a shoe tier. 

It’s about damn time!!

Men...

If there is a god, and I get to stand before him on judgment day (you know, before he casts me into hell for all eternity), I've got a question for him.

Why did he give men the mega metabolisms, since it's us women who gestate the children. We stretch out, puff up, get beat up from the inside out, and literally sucked dry when nursing our young. Why didn't he give us cool metabolisms to go with that? Just to make it easier to shed the extra lbs?

Intelligent design, my ass!!

We've been eating healthier, and started P90X. I look exactly the same as I did about ten days ago, when we started. Jake, on the other hand, is already slimming down. Like, a lot. His spare tire is nearly flat, his face is significantly thinner, and he's tightened his belt, by a notch!

Nice work, honey! I'm super proud of you, but, it kinda sucks having a workout partner with the metabolism of a 16 year old!

I can't help but feel like I'm at a bit of a disadvantage. You know, because of all the people that have lived in my abdomen, and all the ravenous young that I have fed with my breasticles. My weight loss is always a bit disappointing, to me. I have these visions of a tone, firm-ish body, where my thighs don't rub together, my arm fat doesn't flap, and the only muffin top to be seen, is blueberry flavored, and delicious!!

I have come to the realization that I don't firm up.

No.

I sag. I droop. I deflate.

Yup...the only way I can firm up, is to go under the knife. A little nip and tuck! Maybe my first gig, when I become a nurse, should be for a plastic surgeon's office. You know...for an employee discount!