Living on the frontlines

I know, I know, it’s been a while. Totally not reliable. Totally not what I had envisioned. I have a good excuse. I’ve been busy getting a lung transplant! Yep, I was one of the very lucky to get a lung! I have many upcoming posts to talk about that. After all of my desire to record this HPS journey, I’ve left out one of the most dramatic parts. As I got sicker, I just got more tired all the time. There are certain things one has to do in life – fix dinner, work on things that bring in income, go to medical appointments and pulmonary rehab. There simply was less energy to do anything that, while perhaps important and meaningful to me, were not absolutely necessary to my survival. As you might imagine, recovering from a lung transplant is no small matter either. I am now four months out, have had one major setback, and am still in pain every day and currently struggling to walk further than a block. I had been up to a mile and a half before the most recent hospitalization. But, while...

We've added six new HPSers to the registry. This puts us at 55 to go on the Hundred People Search. 

We've added five new HPSers to the patient registry. This puts us at 61 to go on the Hundred People Search (HPS). 

It has been a few weeks since my second dry run. I wanted to blog about it sooner while the experience was still fresh, but well, it’s been a little rough since then. My family had gone to Baltimore for Thanksgiving. I elected not to go with them for a number of reasons. First, I get very anxious whenever I feel like I’m very far from the transplant center, even if I am within the allowed range. Traffic in Washington can be horrible. A traffic accident here or there can take what might have easily been an hour trip and turn it into several. Too much is riding on these new lungs to risk it. I also get anxious when I’m very far from home because my oxygen needs can be so unpredictable. If I cough a lot, I could burn through three or four tanks in an afternoon. If I don’t, one might be plenty. I’m always anxious about literally having enough air. The other reason was I get so tired easily these days, and I don’t like being around a lot of people. Talking for very long at this point makes ...

We've added two new HPSers to the HPS patient registry. This puts us at 66 to go on this year's Hundred People Search (H.P.S.) 

We have a new HPSer added to the registry. This puts us at 68 to go on the Hundred People Search H.P.S. 

More updating to do here on the Hundred People Search! I had another transplant call (no lungs though) and then got sick, so I'm catching up again. We've added eight new HPSers to the registry, thus we are at 69 to go on this year's Hundred People Search, or H.P.S. Keep up the outreach! It is helping!