Queen for a Day

Yesterday, my mom and Matthew came with me to the transplant clinic at the University of Iowa to get a check up.  The marketing department, along with the transplant team, asked me if they could turn our visit into an interview for their website.  They already wrote a fantastic article about our transplant and this blog (link above), and this video interview will be attached to that.

The team was so awesome.  They picked us up and brought us around the hospital, following us with a video camera  and photographer to capture scenes of us with the doctors and staff.  Mostly, it was just really great to see the doctors after all this time.  Our transplant's ten monthiversary was the day of the interview, oddly.  So celebrating it with the team was really special.  

I received my first transplant in Richmond, Virginia at Henrico Doctor's Hospital.  They did a great job as well and had a wonderful team, but after I moved to Oklahoma I wasn't ever able to go back to thank them.  I am so glad I had the opportunity to do that this time.  It means even more now because the work that the specialists at U of I have done on aHUS saved my life when I was really desperate.  

I also respect that Dr. Reed had to do some convincing to allow this blog to be attached to their site.  I have pictures that some people consider....what is the word.....taboo?  Maybe I am a little desensitized, but I just don't see the big deal.  I can show you ten pictures way more offensive on billboards over the highway or pictures in magazines, even at the mall!  And my pictures have a meaning that isn't just, "Behold, this picture of sex!"  It's nice when people understand me.  I only wish that I had such an advocate in Oklahoma.  I sometimes get tired of justifying this blog, and when I started it I never thought I would have to do that.  It was just a journal with some pictures that boosted my spirit.  Dr. Reed, if you are reading this, thank you for understanding and fighting for me.  I will be directing all future complaints your way.  ;)

It is always good to be reminded of my first transplant with Mom.  They interviewed her yesterday separately from my interview so they could get her take on the situation.  We still talk about her kidney that I have inside, but I love reflecting on the details of how awesome and overwhelming  transplantation is.  The bond you have with the donor is one words cannot describe.  Both transplants are different memories for me, but I think the three of us share a unique bond.  When I think of all the difficult nights the three of us spent in hospitals together, it makes sense that I have part of them inside me.  The are the two people that love me the most in this world, and vice versa.  I was really happy to speak about both her and Matthew.

Most of all, Matthew and I are happy to advocate for others who don't or can't fight for themselves.  Our health care system is messed up, and the people who need to have their voices heard are the sick ones.  They are using all of their strength just trying to survive.  People like Matthew and me are the ones that have to do the talking, mostly because we can, and we understand.

Thank you everyone who we saw yesterday.  Greg, Lindsay, Kaitlyn, Jim, Susan, all the doctors, nurses, and coordinators, and anyone else I didn't get to see.  You all made us feel very welcome and special.

In other news, my article on Intimacy is being published in The Fight Master  as well as an ad for Intimacy for the Stage, I have booked Dancing in the Storm for October of this year in Chicago with Adapt Theatre Company, and the first remount of Dancing in the Storm starts rehearsals in OKC tomorrow.  I am also taking pole and burlesque classes, continuing modeling and pin up work, and starting to write my book on Intimacy.  These are all a fraction of the things I can do now that I couldn't do a year ago.  Things are going to be busy when I get home, and I wouldn't have it any other way.