1988 Heart & Lung Transplant - Part 3

Understanding cystic fibrosis and it’s devastating attack is one thing but believing it will overtake one’s life is hard to swallow!

Both Renee and I saw and felt it coming. Saw it slaughter too many friends and this vile disease has now set its sights on me! This may sound dramatic & overstated but believe me when I say every word, every feeling is not the slightest exaggerated!

The hope Renee and I had in our strength had become futile which needed to happen, our only true hope of survival was in God Himself….

We did agree to the Heart/ Lung transplant list, only to be rejected 3 weeks later. Evidently the transplant surgeon concluded us cf patients were laden with too many health problems, Hmmm, too many health issues? We all knew that if cf did anything good it was make us tough like woodpecker lips! Cf in its late stages was always hell week that never ended! For both patient and loved ones it was one never ending circling the drain hoping and praying not to go get sucked down!

I was so close to that drain. I could see the looks on my family’s faces, My wonderful & loving Renee whom all responsibility with our boys, bills and everyday life, was hit so hard just as I was in a different way!

We chose home health care, just to get away from the depressive hospital but that choice proved miserably hollow. Between the percussions 6x daily, so much mucous filling so many cups, multiple IVs, full time oxygen, 10 hours a day feeding tube etc…….

I remember getting the great news! A new surgeon came on Stanfords transplant team. As if a gift from God! He was well aquatinted with cf and wanted me on on the list!!!!

I promise this gets better, hint I’m still alive!

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