The Journey Continues…

Things are quite a bit more settled than when I last wrote in August. Circumstances required me to be hospitalized again for a few weeks. I was really uneasy and anxious this time because I had grown too weak to do much of anything. With my huge 30^th birthday party quickly approaching, I needed to be recovered enough to first get out of the hospital and situated at home again. I worked hard, but progress was slow to non-existent. Even though I wasn’t truly ready, I got discharged and went home the week before my party. Back in my house, I was severely debilitated and deconditioned. I spent nearly all of my time in a recliner since I was virtually unable to walk or stand up. Still, I was dead-set on enjoying my birthday.

The party was AMAZING and there were over a hundred wonderful people there to help me celebrate both my lung transplant and my 30^th birthday. I really felt special just knowing how many people cared. I was wheelchair bound but I was still able to dance around from the chair thanks to some great friends who helped wheel me around the dance floor. I thought that this would be the start of a hospital-free future, at least for a while. I was wrong.

I wound up needing to stay in the hospital for a couple weeks sometime between September and October (by now, I’ve lost track of when/why each hospitalization occurred). If I remember correctly, I was discharged a few weeks before Halloween (my FAVORITE holiday). This was the most recent hospital stay. I’ve only been back to Madison for checkups since then, which is a great leap forward for me! So, that’s my last few months in a nutshell. I’m still working on my strength and endurance and dealing with some fierce lower-back pain, but I’ve come a very long way just since August. And if I may say so, I’m proud of myself.

Sharing this long, hard transplant journey through my writing has been quite a healing mechanism for my soul. I feel the need for my family and friends to be a part of such important milestones in my life and the only logical way I know to do this is by bringing everyone around the proverbial campfire to hear me tell the story. Perhaps this is a way to make the whole experience more real to me because sometimes I feel like this year has been a dream. I need only look at my scars, feel the cool air circulate in my new lungs, or remember my donor and her family, however, in order to remember that all of these blessings have truly come to me. This is REAL life, and it’s getting better every day.