Monday, August 3, 2015

ANOTHER MILESTONE!

So today I hit another Milestone in my post Transplant life. Today is my 9 month Transplant Anniversary when I was blessed and given the Gift of Life!

I find it so hard to believe that 9 months have gone by already. I am making good progress in my recovery and, while there are issues here and there, things seem to be going well overall. There will always be bumps in the road being a Transplant Patient and I know I ask my Coordinator SO many questions, I'm sure there are days she'd like to trade me in for someone who wants less information.

But I find my Coordinator to be such a fantastic resource, with never ending patience and so helpful with all my questions and anxieties when they pop up. The entire Transplant Team is simply the best and I would not be celebrating this milestone without each and every one of them!

Next week I have my 9 Month Bronchoscopy and hopefully that will show all is well with my lung. The next one will be on my 1 year anniversary! That's rapidly approaching - November 3rd. I plan on having a big celebration to mark that date, which I am calling my "Re-Birthday"!

Before then, I plan on hitting another milestone as I will be doing the Hike for Lung Health sponsored by the Respiratory Health Association on September 20th with my brother. I am raising funds for them and so far I am the #1 Individual Fundraiser for the Hike! I am so close to reaching my fundraising goal, I hope I get there.

I have hit so many milestones along this Transplant Journey and that makes me so happy. I wrote my Donor family back in April which has very strict guidelines and you never know if you'll ever hear back. Over this past weekend I was so surprised and pleased to received a letter back from the Donor family in which they express their desire to meet. I have contacted the Transplant Team and they are starting the process of putting us in touch. I consider it a very special second gift that to have received a letter from them telling me about my donor. I am so blessed and grateful and hope to meet them someday soon.

I continue to fight whatever comes my way. Right now I am fighting a virus that is making it hard to work out, but today I pushed myself and went for a walk anyway. I did not go far, only 1 mile, but it's better than nothing and I could not have done as much one year ago. So it's another celebration of my 9 month Anniversary!

I have so much to be grateful for. When I was waiting for my lung, it was hard to imagine ever getting it, the wait seemed so long and yet it finally came and I got my beautiful new lung. As I woke up in recovery still intubated, with 2 chest tubes and line in my neck and IVs it was hard to imagine moving past that to even get home. But I recovered quickly, getting extubated after I finally was awake and they determined my vital signs were good enough to remove it. The chest tubes came out soon after along with the line in my neck. I never would have guessed I would go for my first walk 4 days post transplant. Everything seems so far away but each item gets checked off and I was discharged from the hospital only 7 days post transplant! I never would have imagined that was possible. At that time, rehab was SO challenging but I did it. I could never imagine that 9 months later I would be planning to walk 3 Miles to raise awareness for lung health!

But here we are; 9 Months Post Transplant! It's another Milestone for me that is worth taking time to celebrate and acknowledge! 


First Walk - 4 Days Post Transplant

First 3 Mile Walk - 8 Months Post Transplant







2 comments:

  1. You are such an inspiration!
    Your courage and determination is admirable.

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    1. Thank you; I truly appreciate your words of encouragement and support! It means a lot!

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