Mountain Climbs

About Kelly

Background

Heart Transplant

In November 1995, Kelly’s health had unavoidably declined to the point of congestive heart failure. Her condition became so severe that she was kept alive only because of IV drugs and was subsequently placed on the recipient's lists as a priority emergency candidate. Fortunately, less than 24 hours of her arrival to the UCLA Medical Center, she and her family were advised that they had identified a matched donor heart. After a few delays, they were confirmed for a midnight surgery. Thanks to a very talented group of surgeons, Craig and Kelly were reunited just six hours later.

Approximately one week after the surgery, Kelly had her first of many biopsies that revealed her body was rejecting her new heart. It was frightening to hear this news even though they were told it was not uncommon for a transplant recipient to experience at least one episode of rejection. The protocol for her rejection was to be administered high doses of IV steroids for three days to combat her T cells, the cells responsible for putting up the fight. The transplanted heart is “foreign” to the recipient’s body and the only means to help the organ to be accepted is through drugs that suppress immune system. The challenge for the doctors is to reduce the recipients immune system enough to keep the body from rejecting the heart but not so much that the recipient is a host to other diseases or infections. Therefore, during this period it was critical for Kelly to wear a mask and gloves when in public to avoid possible exposure to anything that could cause a further setback.

After 4 months of treating her rejection with various treatments from OKT3, high steroid doses, medication changes, and a new experimental process known as Photospheres (this is sort of a combination of dialysis and chemotherapy), Kelly finally received a positive report indicating her body was no longer rejecting her new heart.

Upon hearing the good news, she immediately began to take steps towards getting to know her body, which physically no longer seemed like her own. This meant that she had to get acquainted with the dynamic of a very “alive” heart in a very “frail” body. She began with baby steps - learning to modify her exercise patterns as needed due to her heart response delays and blood pressure changes. As frustrating as it was at times, she kept at it, doing something active every day. She continues this philosophy as she believes the process of gaining strength is just as important as maintaining it. And what a luxury - to be able to do what you want without your body saying “no”.