On February 11th, 2011 I received a double lung transplant the greatest Birthday gift of all, I had been on the waiting list for right at four days and praying for a donor organ to come available for me. This was a hard thing to do as there was always the thought in my mind since I found out I needed a transplant that someone was going to die for me to live. I am still not sure I have come to terms with that. I just thank God that I was blessed with a family who decided to let their loved one be an organ donor. I am able to write this because of them. My life has changed so drastically since the transplant that it is hard to describe the emotions I have been through. My transplant was not one of those "walk in the park" transplants. I did have some set backs in ICU. I spent 27 days there due to complications that were unforeseen. A reprofusion of the new lungs and a rejection in the first 7 days caused me to be re intubated for 12 days. I spent 8 days in a coma that was induce 40 days in the hospital in all. Now things are going really great. New lungs are functioning well . For those of you who are still smoking. My new lungs has given me new life and a lot more years to enjoy my family and friends but please remember even though I have been blessed with this extension of life, my life will still be shortened because of my smoking. Eventually, the smoking I did will kill me in one way or the other. If not from the lung rejecting it will be more than likely from one of my other organs failing due to the medications I am on baring some accident that would cause my death. The longest living lung transplant patient just recently died and she had a double lung transplant 15 years ago. If I get 15 more years from my new lung I will be ?years old…. LOl
On February 11th, 2011 I received a double lung transplant the greatest Birthday gift of all, I had been on the waiting list for right at four days and praying for a donor organ to come available for me. This was a hard thing to do as there was always the thought in my mind since I found out I needed a transplant that someone was going to die for me to live. I am still not sure I have come to terms with that. I just thank God that I was blessed with a family who decided to let their loved one be an organ donor. I am able to write this because of them. My life has changed so drastically since the transplant that it is hard to describe the emotions I have been through. My transplant was not one of those "walk in the park" transplants. I did have some set backs in ICU. I spent 27 days there due to complications that were unforeseen. A reprofusion of the new lungs and a rejection in the first 7 days caused me to be re intubated for 12 days. I spent 8 days in a coma that was induce 40 days in the hospital in all. Now things are going really great. New lungs are functioning well . For those of you who are still smoking. My new lungs has given me new life and a lot more years to enjoy my family and friends but please remember even though I have been blessed with this extension of life, my life will still be shortened because of my smoking. Eventually, the smoking I did will kill me in one way or the other. If not from the lung rejecting it will be more than likely from one of my other organs failing due to the medications I am on baring some accident that would cause my death. The longest living lung transplant patient just recently died and she had a double lung transplant 15 years ago. If I get 15 more years from my new lung I will be ?years old…. LOl
ReplyDelete