Halfway through Sick Girl...

RETELL:  In the last 2 weeks, I’ve had the chance to read from chapter 13 to chapter 21 in the book titled Sick Girl by Amy Silverstein.  After my last blog, Amy’s boyfriend Scott had just proposed to her before her heart transplant.  After her surgery, she found out she had received a heart from a 13 year old girl from Ohio who had died in a car accident.  Since it was very rare for a woman that young to receive a new heart, a few doctors gathered to witness her surgery.  When she got out of the surgery room, she felt peace in herself for the first time since they had diagnosed her with low blood pressure.  A few days after her surgery, a nurse named Vera made Amy stand up for the first time.  She made her brush her teeth.  Even the simple movement of her arm was painful and difficult.  Not much later, Amy took her first shower after a long time.  With the help of her step-mom Beverly, she was able to get in the shower and to bathe herself quickly before she felt weak.  In the shower, Amy realized the medicine she was taking had caused her to lose her belly button and had caused her to have a pot belly.  In the next few days, Amy was lucky to meet with a girl about her age that had also lived the experience of a heart transplant.  The only difference was that she had lived it 3 times.  When Amy was finally sent home from the hospital, she slowly took her life back in hand and started doing exercise.  She started by walking on flat ground, graduated to hills then started running.  Amy indicates that her inspiration was Scott.  He never gave up on her, even when she wanted to give up on herself.  Ms. Silverstein was also told to wear a mask when walking around in New York City to reject every germ possible because a simple cold could kill her at the time. 

Exactly one year after her surgery, Amy found herself in a Cinderella-gown walking down the aisle holding her father’s arm.  She did it!  She went against all her chances and survived to see this special day.  Yet, she wasn’t even close to being done her recovery.  She’ll never be done.  During the cocktail hour after her wedding, she had to leave her own party to meet with a nurse who would give her medication.  These drugs would sadly cause side effects like nausea, intense shaking, headaches and she would feel seasick.  Amy was given 10 years to live with her new heart.  As time went by, she knew her few years to live would be fading away.  Amy was the kind of woman who would hide her sickness from everyone and act as if she wasn’t sick at all while she was secretly dying.  This strong lady really wanted to have a baby, so she paid a visit to her doctor.  He recommended her to finish her studies as a law student, to pass the bar exam and to start working before he could consider it.  When she did, he still wouldn’t let her.  She was 28, and wasn’t allowed to have a baby and they predicted 8 years for her to live.  During the last chapter I read, Amy started hearing her heart beat loudly every day.  Since it was driving her crazy, she decided to see a therapist who finally, didn’t help at all.  She decided to help herself and to have a positive attitude.

RELATE:  I can barely relate to Amy Silverstein and to her condition.  The only way I can relate to her is that she started running when she came back home after her surgery.  I also run and I’ve been running for a good part of my life.  Almost everyone in my family runs so it was easy for me to take part with this activity.  It is very hard for me to relate to her in any other way because her life is extraordinary while mine is quite normal.  Amy is very courageous and I have never been able to show that much courage.  Actually, I am able to relate to her in a certain way since I also suffered through an operation even if it was quite minor compared to hers.  I got a hernia.  My intestine passed through a whole found in stomach muscle.  Somehow, that incident could help me relate to Amy Silverstein.

REFLECT:  This book still impresses me with every word I read.  I can’t imagine a woman with such a young body going through that much pain.  I am now at page 200 of this 289 page book and I wish it could be much longer!  I have never heard of such an inspiring biography.  I can’t wait to see how it will finish.  I do know she has a son but I wonder if it was a natural birth or an adoption because her doctor indicated that she shouldn’t have children.  This still is the best book I’ve read in my whole life!  By far, it is the most interesting one.  I officially put Amy as one of my heroes.  I can’t get over how difficult her life must’ve been.    

The beginning of Sick Girl...

RETELL:  Sick Girl has been the most interesting book I have ever read in my whole life!  Amy’s life is out of the ordinary...  In the last 12 chapters, she’s gone through many things like her first diagnosis as low blood pressure.  They later discovered Amy’s diagnosis was much more than simple low blood pressure.  Amy got sent to many different cardiologists to later get sent to a few hospitals.  Amy was a really difficult patient at first and didn’t want to cooperate, not even for a simple IV.  Ms. Silverstein also went through many heart biopsies.  These are operations that take off a part of the heart to see its health.  Amy was given several medications to take daily that could help her condition.  Sooner than later, she realized they didn’t do anything other than give her symptoms like blindness and lost of breath.  Amy was desperate to know what was wrong with her heart...  They diagnosed her with cardiomyopathy, heart muscle damage.  The doctor told her she didn’t yet need a heart transplant and might be able to live with the help of her medication.  A few months later, the night before her boyfriend’s University graduation, Amy felt terribly sick...  Her boyfriend Scott brought her to the nearest hospital where he had to witness his girlfriend get electric shocks to get her closest to normal heart rate back.  Amy always had these kinds of attacks.  Day after day, she suffered a great amount of pain.  It was explained to her that she also died once when she was given medication through a tube that was connected to her groin.  After that, she was terrified to stay alone.  Day after day, Amy got tired of living and wanted to die.  She got the news that she’d need a heart transplant.  Scott, her boyfriend also proposed to Amy right before her surgery.  I am now at that part in the book, when she comes out of the surgery room... I can’t wait to read the rest!

RELATE:  This story is extremely difficult to relate to since I never had a problem with my heart and I certainly did not have a heart transplant.  Perhaps, I can relate to the family members that visited her at the hospital often, since my grandfather had leukemia.  I would visit him at the hospital in Toronto about once a week and I saw him suffer through a lot.  I felt extremely bad for him and I wished I could do anything to help him.  He would have seizures and he was never conscious.  I felt powerless towards seeing him die slowly and painfully.  When they took away his life after a few days on life support, I was happy he wouldn’t have to suffer.  I’m sure the visitors of Amy feel the same and can’t handle seeing her suffer.  There isn’t any other way how I could relate to this woman.

REFLECT:  Honestly, this book has been so interesting.  I’ve already read 123 pages and I got my book exactly one week ago.  My book is just a bit short of 300 pages.  I estimate that I might be finished this amazing biography by maximum two weeks!  Wow, I can’t believe I could even read that fast.  This woman was so courageous and I look up to her for that.  She could’ve gave up on life so many times but decided that the people surrounding her were worth the fight.  I also find amazing that her boyfriend proposed to her as if she wasn’t dying.  He believed in her the whole way through her long years of recovery and they are still happily married with one child.