New Journey

I had my six-week follow-up and another bronchoscopy this week. No rejection. How lucky I feel. I'm still sore from surgery and I'm still weak but I get stronger every day. Despite that and the side effects from all the medications, I can do more now than I did this time last year.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around everything that has happened and is happening to me--the illness, the surgery (and the world I lived  in while sedated and on narcotics in the ICU), the new lungs, my donor, my new life. Honestly, I feel a bit lost. I'm finding my way back to a world I was part of. But everything is different--my life, things around me, what I can and cannot do, my friends and family... and my perspective. Another paradigm shift. This time, so great that I'm overstimulated and overwhelmed.

Since returning home I've spent most afternoons on the phone with mail-order and specialty pharmacies, doctors, insurance companies, etc. We had to switch insurance plans (long story). It's nothing short of a headache trying to to get all the medicines I need for survival. When I'm not on the phone, I take pills. I realize it will get easier and things will resolve. It already feels wonderful--producing the oxygen my body needs--even though I haven't done anything overly significant lately. Oh, but I suppose I have. I survived the greatest battle I've ever faced in my life. And, my friends and family, I could not have done it without your help and to my donor and his family. 

I'll never be out of the woods. I'll always have restrictions of some sort. I'll always be on medicines. My immune system will always be compromised. I'll always have the burden of medical costs. I'll always be tethered to Cleveland Clinic. But that's okay. I've accepted that. So please, my friends, have patience with me as I start this new journey.