Have you heard about Rock Scar Love Designs?

     While surfing through FaceBook I found this great page celebrating organ transplant recipients with the coolest T-shirts for us ever!   You can find it at Rock Scar Love  .

This is a company founded by a transplant recipient- for all recipients to celebrate their scars and all that goes with them.  Now you  may think it wrong for someone to make money off our scars- but I wholeheartedly applaud this venture, mainly because it fills a void in promoting awareness. We can actually wear ladies tank tops or t-shirts with great sayings, plus more items to purchase.

She is active in the transplant community as well. I've ordered my shirts and will wear them proudly. After all, as you've heard me say before "I had to die to get these battle scars".

This I "borrowed" from their page:

Mission

ock Scar Love is a modern, trend setting clothing company focused on helping individuals with physical, mental and emotional scars to embrace the lessons they represent  We believe that scars are sexy and when embraced they can only change lives for the positive. We look to provide sexy scar owners a way to tell their story and inspire others to live passionate lives.

Our corporate slogan of “You choose” is the heart of human existence … do our lives define us or do we define our lives? Each human is given struggles in life.  Our experiences are our loads to bear…our defining moments.  Do they define us or do we define them? We can all choose to either use our experiences to empower us and make us amazing individuals, or to use them as an excuse for why we can’t do something. Everyone has the capability to choose to live every day, every hour and every moment with passion; to change the aspects of their lives that make them unhappy.  RockScar Love Designs challenges fans to take their life struggles and use them as a stepping stone to greatness.

Tshirt, women’s tanks, burnout tees or accessories…we have a way for you to rock your scar with love!

There is currently a giveaway  on their page for a great tank top. Please check it out and enter! giveaway

Caustic or Costic???

Like my new word?

Caustic is what this medicine is doing to my lip.

Costic is when I saw the price I paid vs the retail price.

I will never understand why pharmaceutical companies can't make small tubes of medication as opposed to larger ones that end up being thrown away. I mean geez, I have a 2mm spot on my lip that I use a Q-tip to put this medication on for 2 weeks tops. And the smallest they make is 30gram tubes. Do they expect us to use it all over or what?

Well, this is the second day and my lip looks pinkish and severely chapped. I am having withdrawal symptoms from Chapstick.  You can't use it while using this medication. I can us Vaseline -but my tubes are so lonely there on the shelf and Vaseline doesn't last as long either.

I've had an additional situation and not sure if it's separate or aggravated by this medicine.

My heart has been racing like the wind since yesterday. Got it calmed down yesterday evening only to have it start again this morning. I'm sure all will calm down eventually.
I got alot of sleep last night and feel much better.

So, to take my walks I need a bandaid on the area (feat of the impossible) and a hat. I tried a hat yesterday and for the life of me couldn't figure out how it will protect my lip with the Florida sun. No matter how I situated the hat it just did not shadow my face. It was a big straw hat -totally me- with rhinestone dolphins and jewels all over the brim.. My beach day hat. I opted for my baseball cap and walked with my head down.. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was insane or something.

Today we have to wait for it to cool off. Little DB would never make it in this 90 degree heat. I usually carry him most of the way at night-but he does much better if we wait.

We'll see how this crusty lip looks in the morning!

Upheavals and Understanding

    While it's been awhile since my last post, I have thought about finding a moment to sit and blog.
Update:
 I'm still off Insulin. Will let my doctor know at my appointment this month.
 I got the INR machine to test my own anti-coagulant level. It's fast and simple, just like checking my blood sugar. But it does save driving to Venice to the Doctor to have it done.

My Dermatologist did a biopsy on the lower left side of my lip last week. I've had chronic chapped lips for eons and joke that Chapstick and Carmex should send me a profit sharing check. Well, after a severe bout of stomach virus with a high temperature, my lip looked terrible. Plus it happened at appointment time. She didn't like it nor did she like the fact that it hasn't healed in 2 years.
  I am not ashamed to say, I almost passed out in her office. My stomach still had fully recovered and I was queasy anyway. You know it takes us transplants much longer to get back to "normal" than the healthy. So I waited a week and got the results yesterday.

It came back as pre-cancerous and she called in a cream prescription. After talking to her nurse and my pharmacist I am dreading using this cream.  She said it would make the area look like road rash. NOT a good visual in my eyes. I was joking with the pharmacist and he stated that was a nice way to describe what it'll do. His closing comment mentioned raw meat... Great ! just what I want others to see  when they look at me.
I asked him how I am supposed to eat with my lip like that?  "Smoothies" I suggest Smoothie King on 41.
Now we were joking through all this-but I know he was serious.

This brings up alot of questions living in Florida. Can I still take my morning and afternoon walks? Sure - put a large bandaid over the affected area. Have you honestly tried to put much less keep a bandaid  on the lower left corner of YOUR lip?The dermatologist put one there after the biopsy and it stayed all of 30 minutes. It was worse than trying to drink water after leaving the dentist! I was also told I need to wear a hat on my walks. Hmmmm.

I asked why can't it be cut out and forget it? The pharmacist replied "But you don't want this scar on your lip".  "Well, it would add to my Pirate persona -plus just think I'd be a hit at the Medieval Fair and not need make up~!"  He thinks I'm insane anyway, so we both got a good laugh.

I just had another thought . How do I apply it? I can't use my finger-it'll get road rash too right?

Oh the joys of life are fruitful and many!

This I too will conquer!