Hi everyone,

Click on photos to ENLARGE and then hit the back arrow to return to the post.

As we start this new month of February we focus on heart health, a topic near and dear to me and my heart.

National Wear Red Day is Friday, February 3, 2023. Together, we can wear red and be a BIG difference for a better life for women everywhere. 

Go Red for Women is a division of the American Heart Association that encourages awareness of the issue of women and heart disease, and also action to save more lives. The movement harnesses the energy, passion, and power women have to band together and collectively wipe out heart disease.

As many of you know who have followed me and become members, I have had cardiac issues since 1993. I was born with a rare genetic disease called ARVD where the heart muscle of the right ventricle gradually turns to all fat and therefore leaving that part of the heart useless.

Over time the heart becomes weaker and weaker and eventually does not work anymore. I was on medication from 1993 when I was diagnosed to 2018 living a fairly normal and healthy life with medication and an implantable defibrillator until those treatments no longer worked and I was evaluated for a heart transplant in 2018. I was devastated and in shock since I never had any issues until my early 30’s.

Fortunately for me, I was evaluated, accepted, and notified by the wonderful doctors on the transplant team at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in NYC that they found a match for me and I was blessed with a new heart in January 2019, from a generous donor that decided upon their death they would donate life.

I was given a second chance at life which I cherish each and every day. It is not an easy road to receive a new organ but the results are miraculous and wonderful.

I am asking and hopefully encouraging all the women out there to be more aware of their heart health and be more mindful of their nutrition, lifestyle, and heart-healthy practices.

As women, we tend to put everyone else first and put ourselves last but what we should do is put our health first so we can be there for the ones we love and it is not selfish to take good care of ourselves.

We know a lot of numbers by heart in our daily life like phone numbers, pin numbers, birthdays and anniversaries, and passwords. But most of us don’t know the most important and critical numbers for our heart health. The knowledge that could save our life.

The personal health numbers that we should know are Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Blood Sugar, and Body Mass Index (BMI). These numbers assess the risk for heart disease and stroke. Take the time to make a cardiac check-up appointment to learn your numbers.

Talk to your healthcare provider. You can’t manage what you don’t measure, which is why knowing your risk is critical to preventing cardiovascular disease. And knowing your risk starts with knowing your numbers.

This month CVS drug stores along with the Go Red for Women movement will provide heart health screenings- please take advantage and start your journey to heart health and wear RED on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, to show support to all women.

I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to meet many wonderful healthcare providers that helped me get to where I am today and I am proud to say that I just celebrated my 4th-year post-transplant.

Take care of your heart for the ones you love!

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Below are some photos from my 4th post- transplant celebration with my husband…..

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Wishing all the dads, dads-to-be, grandpa’s, and pet dads a great day!

Wishing you many blessings and much happiness

from
DishingwithDiane

Hi everyone,

Hope you are well. I took a little hiatus from the blog for a little while to have cataract surgery on both eyes and I wasn’t allowed to be on the computer while healing. During my recovery, I have been thinking about all of you and what we have in store for future posts. And I have some I think you will definitely enjoy.

I will be back next week with NEW posts and I can’t wait. I just wanted to take a few minutes to wish all the ladies a very Happy Mother’s Day… Have a special day and a special weekend. See you next week.

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Hi Everyone,

(Click on the photos to enlarge and hit the back button to return to the post).

Today I am celebrating my 3 years post-heart transplant with the love of my life Bob (aka my angel on earth who I adore every single moment) …….. and I wanted to send my deepest love and gratitude to all my family, friends, DishingwithDiane members and prayer warriors for all the caring and support since this cardiac journey began.

I cannot explain how much you all mean to me and how you have helped me get through some dark days, stressful days, made me laugh and gave me the extra push and strength to go on and try to fight and become a warrior.

A heart transplant is much more than getting a new part, it’s a lifelong commitment to a new and often challenging lifestyle.

I also want to stop and say a prayer for my donor (whoever he or she is) along with their family for being so generous and loving in their time of grief to give the gift of life to a stranger. I am truly blessed and honored to be chosen and I will give my everything to take care of this precious gift.

And a major thank you to the incredible team of doctors and nurses at Columbia Presbyterian Transplant Center in NYC, who devote their lives to saving others.

So, on this 1,095th day of my second chance at life, I just want to say thank you to all….

And never give up hope, work hard, be determined, be kind and thoughtful, love each other, don’t sweat the small stuff, see beauty in every day and believe me, “miracles” do happen every day so smile, believe in the good, and enjoy each day.

Love you, Diane

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to wish all my members a very Happy and Healthy New Year and thank you for being so supportive of me personally and this blog these past six years.

I consider you all a part of my extended family and I wish you all the best that life offers and many blessings in the new year. May all your dreams come true.

I pray we all have Good Health, Happiness, and a pandemic-free world in 2022.

I raise my glass to all of you….salute!

Here is to the year 2022!

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Please ask your family and friends to “follow”, “like” and “share” DishingwithDiane.com 

Once you become a member, you’ll never miss a post…

Also, continue to send me your comments, I love hearing from you.

Dear Everyone,

GOOD NEWS... We are back!

Oh, how I have missed all of you. For the past few weeks Dishing with Diane has had a few technical difficulties posting my photos to my blog and nothing seemed to work to get me back online and posting.

It was such a frustrating experience not being able to connect to my beloved members and friends, aka extended family.

A million thanks to the trouble shooting technicians at WordPress that worked so diligently to help me resolve the issue. And now, I am more than happy to say that we are back and ready to post once again.

Thank you so much for your patience and I look forward to picking up where I left off.

Make every day a Celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well. I missed communicating with all of my members or should I say extended family on this blog, because that is what you are to me-family.

A lot has happened since my last post… As you know I had a few medical setbacks that landed me in the hospital for 3 weeks with intense and aggressive treatment and came home to a very slow recovery. I want to thank all of you for the cards and comments during my recovery, they truly helped brighten my days.

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Well, bad days don’t last forever… A few short weeks after being home, Bob and I celebrated our 33^rd wedding anniversary.

And then we watched with pride as our only child got married the following day to his lovely bride Samantha (we never thought standing on those church steps after getting married in 1988 that 33 years later, (almost to the day) that we would be attending our son’s wedding). 

We haven’t seen Michael since December 2019 – he was required to stay close to the hospital because he was always on call for his patients during the Covid 19 pandemic.

We had our son help us disinfect the hotel room because I am very vulnerable to catch any germ (which I will make another post in the future to give you hospital recommended tips for safety in a hotel). Michael is a doctor so we knew we were in good hands with his recommendations along with my transplant team recommendations.

Michael and Samantha had a lovely but small wedding at Belhurst Castle and Winery in Geneva, NY. Beautiful venue and surrounded by lots of Love and happiness and we had a wonderful wedding weekend.

Michael & Samantha were off to Hawaii the following day and Bob and I came home with new titles, “in-laws” ……

To keep me safe and abide by Covid restrictions, only immediate family members were in attendance and their wedding guests were invited by Zoom invitations so all could participate in the wedding celebration.

I would have loved to have been surrounded by family and friends to celebrate, but we had to be extra careful this year. Hopefully, I can give Michael & Samantha a one-year anniversary party and I pray the pandemic will be over and I can celebrate with family and friends.

Day 836 …. since heart transplant plus many setbacks, side effects, and bumps in the road, but I was alive & blessed to see this milestone event and all that has happened to me since transplant was worth the struggles just to get to this day. I kept thinking of my donor all day (whoever he or she is) and how grateful & truly blessed I am for yet another special gift and this wonderful new life I have – my second chance. I will concentrate on the gift of life and not the obstacles I have to face.

A day I dreamt about but never thought I would be alive to see because of my history of cardiac issues for the past 30 years and yet, here I am walking my son down the aisle………

Thanks to God, my guardian angels, my prayer warriors, my wonderful extended family blog members and a fabulous heart transplant team that worked so hard to make sure I was well enough to be released from the hospital and able to attend my son’s wedding.

God and Life is good. My best advice …. Enjoy each day. Be happy, be grateful and count your blessings. Always look for a silver lining in the bad days (it’s always there, believe me).

I wanted to share our happiness with all of you who have been by my side from the start of my journey and thank you for giving me hope, and strength, and comfort during the rough days. You are the most amazing group of people and I love you all.

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Diane

Hi Everyone,

Hope all is well. I just had to share this with all of you. I just love when a member prepares one of my recipes and then sends me a text to tell me their thoughts about the final product. And I am over the moon when I get a picture to go with the text and that is what happened today.

There is an absolutely lovely member that I have known for a few years and her name is

Natalie Ciaccio Bales

Today, Natalie posted that she made the recipe I posted two days ago for the Saffron Fregola with Clams, Mussels and Shrimp and loved it and she posted a picture and I want to share her post with all of you.

“Thank you Diane Kantor for this recipe. It is absolutely delicious and a keeper! Saffron Fregola with clams, mussels and shrimp.” – Natalie….

Natalie did a great job and I encourage any member who makes one of my recipes to send me your thoughts and a picture of your meal. It makes writing this blog and what I do so gratifying to me.

I hope you all have a safe, happy and wonderful weekend.

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

Thank you for visiting my blog.

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Hi Everyone,

I just want to take the time out to thank so many of my members for all the congratulations and well wishes I received for reaching this milestone of

2-Years Post Heart Transplant.

It has been a bumpy ride but I want to thank all of you for your support & love. Your kindness and caring mean the world to me. I appreciate your patience when I was in recovery and couldn’t post regularly and your encouraging words to keep me motivated. You have all become family to me and I cherish each and every one of you. Thank you.

I had a small celebration this year and couldn’t go out to dinner with friends like last year but Bob came through as he always does and he made me dinner, decorated and bought me a scrumptious cake – a 3 tier shortbread cake with cream around the edges and filled with fresh strawberries. He remembered how much I liked the cake last year (photo below) that was also a shortbread cake but filled with bananas, strawberries and raspberries and all topped with macarons.

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I wanted to share with you some pics from this year……. my beautiful cake, balloons and cards from family. It was such an emotional day for me and I am so grateful for this second chance at life and the opportunity to have these past 730 + days to make new memories and appreciate each moment of being alive and being able to do things that I couldn’t do before transplant like go for a long walk or climb a flight of stairs.

So, take it from me- when things get tough, look for the silver lining. There is always something to be grateful for each and every day. Stay well, stay safe and know how much I care and cherish each one of you for being a part of my life.

Looking forward to year # 3 and what life brings….

January 31, 2021

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!!!

Stay well,

Diane