today I am 24

Today I turned 24. For a girl who didn't know whether she would see her 23rd birthday with her old lungs, 24 feels pretty awesome with new lungs. Pretty freakin' awesome.

me in a room filled with balloons...I am 24 years old.  

me and Tristan

so happy

all my balloons he blew up to give me a room full of balloons on my birthday...plus 250 more

this guy

out for dinner

christmas time themed birthday photos 

Thank you donor and to your generous family. I owe you my world, my life, my everything, my breathing, my birthday wishes.

i took my new lungs....

I took my new lungs to barbados. I took my lungs swimming in the ocean.  We climbed up and over rocks. We breathed in the hot thick humid air. We went snorkling and breathed through that tiny hole. Me and my lungs went on an airplane sans oxygen. We went walking on the beach. The most beautiful, we didn't feel tired or exhausted from all that breathing. Me and my new lungs make one hell of a pair.

Ten days in barbados, where you used to have to plan only going swimming once a day, maybe once every other day, for fear of walking along the beach and losing your breath. Dreading going for a walk. Getting Prednisone hot flashes because of the high doses, used to be me...10 days in barbados with new lungs, low meds, and swimming swimming swimming. December is a good month.