1988 Heart & Lung Transplant - Part 1

It was a battle for me back in 1988, to be honest it was probably the worst shape I had been in my life.

Cystic fibrosis was doing a great job in killing me at 28 years old. When Renee and I were first married we were both young at 18 and my health was doing pretty good. Of course I was battling the disease even then but life was much simpler. Unfortunately fighting a terminal sickness like cf, health seems to dissipate rapidly and sometimes without notice. Renee and i both believed we could beat this ugly thing. We fought hard, had Our children and lived life to its fullest the best we could.

Ha, the best we could, what does that mean? We did have a lot of fun snow skiing, water skiing and camping but ever so slowly the dark cloud of cystic fibrosis moved closer and more threatening. Eventually for Renee it meant life became consumed with keeping me healthy as possible and for me it meant giving everything I had to survive each day.

I think the most disturbing truth I was losing ground in the fight regardless of what we did. Time became a slow siphon of my health and energy disappearing.

We tried everything at home but the time came once again, back in the hospital. We despised being in the hospital. I needed to be at work, home with the boys and Renee but my body just wasn’t allowing it. The thick mucous clogged my lungs to the point of needIng full time Oxygen with percussions 4 times daily to loosen the congestion and cough it up. Everything was becoming out of control!

On the third week of this particular hospitalization my doc came in and casually asked Renee and I what we thought about getting on the heart & lung transplant list…….What is a heart & lung transplant?

Renee, myself and some of the 1988 SF 49ers