Saturday, September 27, 2008

NATIONAL TRANSPLANT GAMES!!!!!!

I'm back home after the Games!!!!!!!!! Don't know if I qualified yet, but it was awesome!!!!! So much fun... On Thursday evening was the registration and snacks and the AGM. Friday morning I went early to watch some tennis and chill out with the other competitors... Most popular question was without a doubt 'So, what did you get?'!!! Seems like this is the first year that LUNGS take part, lol!! Peter and I were the only 2 lung-patients taking part. Kidneys and hearts seemed to be the most popular... But the best part was the over-all atmosphere of THANKFULLNESS...




In the afternoon I slayed squash... I was the only woman competing, so had to play against a bunch of guys... So it was pretty rough, but loads of fun!!!! They didn't take scores into account at all (which is a good thing!!!!!), but rather judged how well you play... Afterwards they also had a bit of a squash-clinic with some of the guys who won gold medals last year at the World Games... needless to say I was pretty tired after that!!!! All in all I think I played well though...



Today was the running... yet again I was the only woman taking part in my events. Did the 200m and came last :-( Not fun running against professional male athletes!!! Especially in temperatures over 30 degrees Celcius. Anyway... I then decided to try the 800m too. Or actually my mom convinced me. So just before they were about to begin the event, I ran down from the pavillion to ask if it's too late to enter... well they let me, and as I sterted off I was thinking 'what the hell did I get myself into now!!!!'... At a certain point near the end I had to walk for a while, as my legs (that are stiff from yesterday's squash) were killing me!! In the end I finished in about 4 mins... which is not bad at all considering I walked a bit. The qualifying time is a bit faster than that, but seems like I was within 10% of that time, which means I can try again in Jan next year...mmmm. Except of course if I qualified for the squash, which would mean I don't have to run again in Jan, but can automatically take part in the event if I were to go to Australia... Will find that out tonight hopefully...


The guy in these pics with me is Trevor Gird... the guy who got my donor's HEART!!!!! How cool is that??? We were probably the most recent transplantees competing... He did VERY well, and qualified in his first event already, which was cycling!!! He's also doing very well healthwise, which is awesome. We played a bit of squash together, and he also ran the 200m and 800m with me. It was pretty funny... the commentator announced over the microphone that 'The same donor's lungs and heart are competing against each other... let's see who wins!!' Was quite mind-blowing!!! Unfortunately the heart won... although I didn't expect to win in a race against a 17 year old guy!!! I def think that on some level we are family now... we share some of the exact same DNA after all. Maybe he can be the brother I never had, lol!!! And I suppose we'd be able to donate a kidney to each other :-) Not that we'd want to!!!! One transplant is more than enough thank you. Oh, and in the first 2 pics our shirts are supposed to say 'I am 11', and 'Are you 11?'... we obviously had too much sun... :-)


Tonight I'm going to a dinner party that a very good friend of mine organised!!! It was suppose to take place 2 months ago, but everyone was sick!!! So tonight was the first night that everyone's available again... YAY. Going to be great. I'm missing the gala dinner of the Games, but that's fine. Trevor or his sister (who is my age and ALSO had a heart transplant) will let me know if I qualified for the squash...



Sooooo, now that that's over, I can start stressing about my new job that's staring on Monday... My mom is also returning to PE tomorrow, and I will hopefully get to see André tomorrow. He's still in hosp, recovering from the infection he got after his transplant a few weeks ago...



Anyway, that's that for now... will update again tomorrow or Monday! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!!

6 comments:

Bree said...

HOLY CRAP WOMAN!!! YOU'RE A ROCKSTAR!

Honestly, (though it would be AMAZING if you qualified) it doesn't matter if you don't. What matters is that you COMPETED - you RAN and you played SQUASH- to your hearts content, and I can't imagine how AMAZING YOU FEEL!!

To think this time last year you were tethered to O2 and couldn't do the stairs?? To think this time 8 months ago you just got your lungs!? CRAZY! I am so happy and so proud for you. I am going to cry tears of joy, woman!

I wish you luck. Come back to MSN soon.

CFHusband said...

Too cool! I hope you qualified for something! Sounds like lots of fun!

Kim said...

Congratulations Alice!! Sounds like you did awesome - can't wait to hear if you qualify!

:-)Kim

Anonymous said...

hey alice, wow, so cool that you made it this far! really hope u make the squash. good luck with work 2morrow, sure its gonna be awesome to finally be completely financially independent. awesome!

don

Gizela said...

Sjoe Alice! Dit lyk of dit baie pret was. So trots op jou en kan nie wag om te hoor hoe dit gegaan het nie. Hoop vandag was lekker by die werk en dat jy sommer vinnig tuis sal voel.
Mooi bly...

Jac said...

Amazing!! I am so impressed with your sporting prowess ;) I really need to catch up lol.

You are more than welcome to join the walk if you fancy a holiday to Scotland next year!!

Good luck with the job!!
jac xx