This book is a true, real life account of what it is to hear “your daughter’s heart is failing; we are going to place her on the heart transplant list. The journey we were on is nothing like what you see in the movies. I wish it was. Nothing prepared us for what our lives would be like for nearly a year and a half. The doctor’s favorite motto was “this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
Finally got the ‘courage’ to start reading my Mom’s book- Strength in a Heartbeat, where I left off.. and I’m blown away with everything I/my family went through. There are things I went through that I had no idea.
Needing an organ transplant is far from how they protray it in the movies. There isn’t that special room in every hospital that just keeps healthy organs ready to go. All coming with zero complications and a lifetime guarantee. HA! Some people may only wait days, others months (I waited 9 months & 16 days) or years, while some never get ‘the call’ or even put on the list.
If you’d like to learn more about our incredible journey and what I had to go through, just to be able to write this post today, check out Lynne Matosky Robitaille new book.. Strength in a Heartbeat.
You can get it on.. www.strengthinaheartbeat.com
Amazon
or come stop by & see me for your copy🙂
Thank you to those who have already purchased & read it! 🖤💜
Online Shopping, my thoughts…
Yes, I shop online, let’s be honest we all do. I have to say, I do know some people who don’t. That’s their choice. Me, I love it.
If I don’t have to go out to a crowded store, I’m in.
I found the love of online shopping, when I was living in the hospital with my daughter, when she was waiting for her new heart. I would find myself just browsing around different sites, and Lauren would say to me “all the stuff you don’t need but want”. But to tell you the truth, I would look for stuff that I could use in the hospital. Maybe something just for myself to make me feel little more human. A new color nail polish, or a sleeping mask. Nothing big, but something for me.
That’s what made me think, “I am going to create a Amazon store on my website”. It is a project in the works right now. I have created the page and started to place items for sale that someone living in a hospital just might want. Be patient with me, I want to select item’s that people need, want or looked at it and said “I want that”.
Keep checking in, as I will be building it.
Please leave any feedback on items you would like me to carry.
Looking for a great book: Strength in a Heartbeat, Diary of a Heart Transplant.
Lynne
Organ and tissue donation is more important than many of us realize—for society and for the individuals it directly affects. Today, there are nearly 118,000 individuals waiting for an organ transplant to live healthier, more productive lives (Unpublished data, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network [OPTN], April 2013). For some people with end-stage organ failure, it is truly a matter of life and death. Add to these the thousands more whose lives will be improved through tissue and cornea donation and transplants that can help them move better, see better, and live better.
Donation affects more than the donors and recipients. It also affects the families, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who love and support those in need of transplantation, and who benefit from their renewed life and improved health after transplant. For my part, I have experienced not once, but twice how donation and transplantation affects individuals.
Twenty years ago, my wife, Donna Lee Jones, died in a severe automobile accident. Her death was a shock, and my family did not know what to make of our tragedy. Then we were offered the opportunity to donate her organs and tissues for transplantation. While it did not lessen the pain of her loss, it brought comfort to us knowing that out of our tragedy, some good would come, and others could receive the gift of life. Because of her donation, several people received a new lease on life: a man in Tampa, Florida, received her heart; a teenage boy in Washington, D.C., received a kidney and pancreas; a hospital custodian received her other kidney; a woman in Pennsylvania received her liver; and her corneas went to a young woman in Baltimore, Maryland, and a government worker.
Four years later, my 20-year-old daughter, Vikki Lianne, was struck by a car and died. Losing a spouse was tragic enough, but the pain of losing a child cannot be expressed. Falling back on our previous experience, we decided to donate Vikki’s organs and tissues for transplantation. Again, several individuals benefited from her gift: a mother of five children from Upstate New York received her heart; a widow with four children received her lung; a 59-year-old man from Washington, D.C., who was active with a local charity, received her liver; a widower with one daughter received her kidney; a working father received the other kidney; and her corneas went to a 26-year-old man in Florida and a 60-year-old woman in Pennsylvania. And we, her family, took comfort in the idea that Vikki’s legacy was one of life and giving.
Organ donation provides a life-giving, life-enhancing opportunity to those who are at the end of the line for hope. And the need for organ donors is growing. When Donna Lee died in 1992, there were 27,000 people on the transplant wait list. When Vikki died just four years later, that number had grown to 47,000 (Unpublished data, OPTN, January 2010). As of April 5, 2013, there were 117,812 people waiting, with hope, for an organ to become available (Unpublished data, OPTN, April 2013).
One way to expand the number of organs available for transplantation is to expand the number of donors, through carefully and safely considering individuals who in the past were not included. The guideline in this special issue of Public Health Reports provides a scientific, evidence-based process to assure a balance between organ safety and availability for each individual on the transplant wait list. As our knowledge and scientific capabilities regarding safety and availability grow and evolve, donors who in the past would not have been considered as donors are now able to provide the gift of life to others.
This guideline will help improve organ transplant outcomes, leading to more individuals being able to live healthier and longer lives. The science and evidence are clear and will improve the safety of organs, balanced with a clear and conscious regard for donors and recipients. It is the human aspect of donation and transplantation—helping people. It is the right thing to do.
I would like to thank the Chicopee Register for such a beautiful article they wrote on my book, “Strength in a Heartbeat“, Diary of a Heart Transplant. Thank you Chance Viles writer of the article. Strength in a Heartbeat, is a journal I kept when my daughter Lauren Meizo was placed on the heart transplant list, living our lives in the hospital. I am sharing our story in hopes of helping other families living in the same situation we were in. Living in a hospital is hard, very hard, and lonely. I want other families to know they are not alone. I have created a Facebook page; Strength in a Heartbeat, a forum for families to communicate with each other waiting and also to those who have lived it. We all need a support system, I am hoping this will become one.
I know I am not the only one who could say this:
I have slept in a hospital chair, window sills and couches. Skipped meals and cried from fear. I have become an expert on my child’s condition. I am a strong advocate that had to make life-changing decisions. Lynne
Click on paper to read the article
Click on book to purchase
To purchase your copy, please click on book, selling on amazon and createspace
The launch of “Strength in a heartbeat”, Diary of a Heart Transplant book, is still in the works. Tomorrow it will be available on Kindle, for everyone who love’s to read on their devices. Didn’t forget about you, just took some time.
I would like to “Thank” everyone who has read the book for your kind words on our story. This is a true story, of being placed and living on the Heart Transplant waiting list. I published our story for one reason-to help others that are living in the same situation that we were living in. To let them know they are not alone. When I would walk around the hospital or sit and just watch my daughter, I felt so alone. Thought I was the only person with all these feelings of frustrations and loneliness.
If you know anyone that my book could help, please pass this one. At the end of the book, I created a list of helpful hints of amenities you can ask the hospital you may be staying in. You would be surprised at what is offered, but you need to ask. Vouchers for food or parking, just to name one.
Please visit http://www.strengthinaheartbeat.com to purchase your copy.
Thank you
Lynne
Introducing my new book
Strength a Heartbeat
Diary of a Heart Transplant
The book is a journal I wrote when my daughter Lauren Meizo needed a heart transplant. Life, living in a hospital.Thoughts, fears, laughter and crying. The purpose of this book, I would like to help other families living in a hospital, knowing they are not alone. My daughter, my husband and I lived it for more than 18 months, with a lot of family and friends support.
You can purchase a copy on Amazon and also www.createspacestore.com My new web site is created http://www.lynnemrobitaille.com is also up and running. Please visit.
If you know someone who has had a transplant or waiting for one please pass this on. The book contains our true feeling on what life is like living in a hospital for a lengthy period of time.
new heart = new beginnings 