My transplant

I waited 6 weeks for my new lungs. I signed the dotted line on May 26th, 2010 with the surgeon. My blood sugars spiked to 21 mmol...normal is between 5-7. I have great control normally over my sugars....even my body knew what a stressful moment that was. I waited for 5 weeks on the 'normal' highest status 2 list. When I kept dropping week after week with frequent hospitalizations, never being able to leave or get off IV, we started to get scared, really scared. Seeing your lungs, your life decrease week after week so rapidly, was not the best time in the world, I had no more room to play. I was down to 15% lung function, so they put me on the 'rapidly deteriorating list.

I waited 6 weeks in total for my new lungs, mostly all in hospital gasping and drowning for breath.

On July 5th, 2010, after the long weekend, I woke up to a nurse coming in to my room to wake me up, my new lungs were here. Someone had been brave enough to sign their donor card and tell their family their wishes...they gave me life again. My donor saved my life and I have no idea who they even are...

It was a long hard recovery. I was three weeks in and out of ICU, told my family I was dying twice, wrote on my doctors hand "I won't be here tomorrow"... I was intubated three times, my sodium levels dropped, my new lungs filled up with fluid. This part of the journey SUCKED.

After 5 weeks in hospital, one bout of rejection, I was finally stable to go home. I was breathing on my own, and slowly learning to re walk. I used a walker for months, and my legs and feet had something like foot drop, and I was diagnosed with ICU neuropathy (nerve damage after so long in ICU). I spent 5 months in physio rehab, working my butt off trying to get my feet to stop clomping along like a horse.
By six months I was walking pretty normally again, and by 7 months I was even beginning to run a little.

The first month or two after transplant I was unsure whether this life was worth it. It felt worse then before transplant. I was in a medicine induced head fog, since the drugs they pump you full of are just so toxic and it seems your body needs a little while to get used to them and find an equilibrium. After 3 months, my 'brain' emerged from the medicine head fog, and I became me again...but me with super powerful new lungs.

There is still a lot of hardships and bumps and frustrations on the 'other side of the tracks' with transplant. But at least I am conquering these feats with breath, which makes the journey a whole lot easier and certainly worth it.

Life is good again. Life is great again.

I'm laughing, breathing and living. Finally. You don't know what you are missing out on all those years, gasping, coughing, chocking, drowning to get even a little air deep in to your lungs, until you are able to do everything, everyone has been doing their whole lives without a second glance or fleeting thought....breathing.

Thank you donor for making this possible. You are my rockstar.
Wanna be a super star? Sign your donor cards today. Be someone's hero. Visit Trillium Gift of Life website to learn more about saving someone's life. Mine was saved on July 5th, 2010, when I underwent a double lung transplant.