Well 2009 is in the books, and I must say....thank you! This year was officially the worst year of my life. The year started off with the best promise but never did fully deliver for me. Being the total optimist I am this let down comes as quite a surprise. Looking back, this year took more from me than any other to date. For the new people in my life in late February while vacationing in Florida I got quite ill. I was as usual looking forward to this yearly trip since its so nice to get out of the nasty Pennsylvania winter weather and into the Florida sun for a few weeks every year. Its also a great opportunity to go to kick off summer by catching a few Spring Training games (I'm a baseball nut). This year though, during the second week of our stay I was feeling so bad that it was a huge effort even to leave the condo let alone do anything. We even called the airlines to see about flying out early so I could get home and mend. When we did finally get home the rest of the year has consisted of; hospital stays, home IVs, the experience of desensitization to an antibiotic in ICU, the need to now be on Oxygen, retirement from work, social security and last but not least the need for a double lung transplant. The three types of pneumonia and a staph infection I cultured have taken a huge percent of my lung capacity away leaving me with only 28% to go. The loss of capacity and freedom have really turned my life on end. Lucky for me I had a good job with Air Products and have a long term disability policy that pays 70% of my salary or we would really be screwed.
There was good this year too of course, we did get part of a good week in Florida and a trip to the Outer Banks in NC with the dogs, the yanks did win the series and I did after all get a wonderful BMW M3 for my 40th birthday gift.....
Now a new year begins and I plan to greet 2010 with the same optimism that I am usually known for. I'm not sure what will happen this year, but guarantee it will bring new experiences. Whether or not I get transplanted this year it's going to be an interesting ride.
*****A quick note, I changed the blog settings to allow anyone to post a comment.
Hi Jim. Thanks for your comment on my blog. I just read all your posts and it sounds like you've been having a hard old time - hang in there! I got to 35 before my Tx, so you at 40 are doing really well. Also like you my health fell off a bit of a cliff over 1.5 years with a series of infections, a bad bout of Norovirus and resistance to all the antibiotics building up. I never did quite end up on the Oxygen 24/7 - I think the Tx came just in time to stave that off - I was using it for any kind of walking though. I managed to work 4 days/week up to the Tx but it was hard going - luckily an office based job (in product design and engineering), although there should have been travel but recently I'd had to say no. I'd been over to the States a few times with work. CF is a bugger of a disease, especially when you've been used to a life of achievement, meeting your goals and doing really well. Having gone through the first 10 weeks post Tx I'm starting to believe I can regain all of that stuff - it really is pretty amazing, not without its downsides of course, but amazing. Good luck with the assessment - my first three blogs detailed my experience of assessment so you might want to look back and read those.
ReplyDeleteCheers for now, Will
Will I also started my career in Engineering/Design also, a large portion designing LNG heat exchangers. I read your whole blog history, it's such a great document for those of us going through the process. Thank you for sharing your story.
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