Last post for NOVEMBER... scary

Quite a bit's been happening! Loving my sister's visit! This past weekend we chilled on Friday night, I made flapjacks for breakfast on Sat morning, watched myself on TV, went to the Transplant Group Network meeting's year end function, visited Jolandi, went to Parker's Comedy Club. On Sunday we went shopping in Sandton, and walked around a bit on Northcliff Hill. So I'm just going to post some pics...

ALSO, I finally found my last x-ray taken with the old lungs, a few hours before surgery. They look crap, but the way my lungs were feeling I think they should've looked worse!

On TV tomorrow...

If you're in South Africa then you can catch me on SABC 3 tomorrow @ 10h40 AM on The POwer Within... if you do manage to watch, let me know what you thought!

22 months today with new new lungs on the 22nd!

Today is a very cool lungaversary date-wise, as I'll never have a 22 month one on the 22nd again! Had a pretty relaxing weekend, spend some time with Jolandi (who got her lungs on the 12th of Oct). She still gets some nasal gastric feeding while her throat is healing, but it may come out on Friday, holding thumbs!!!!

My sister's arriving on Tuesday!!!! Can't wait, haven't seen her since August before I went to the Games, so it's going to be great. Don't have much else to report on, so posting a few lics of my year end function last weekend and today's outing with Jolandi and her fam to the Botanical Gardens. Have a good week!

What a week!!!!

And not in a particularly good way! This week's been so rough I've barely had a chance to breathe. Work's been CRAZY BUSY, weather's been MISERABLE (hasn't gone above 20 degrees except for Monday, and raining the whole time. Real England weather :-( Apparently by Monday it'll be better...

My year-end function last weekend was pretty cool, will post a pic or 3 later. This weekend is going to be quiet and snuggly hopefully! Recovering from a hectic week and preparing for the next one in the rush to year-end... *sigh*

Jolandi and Louis are both doing great! Louis was discharged today (2 weeks and 2 days post transplant), and Jolandi is on track with getting energy back and getting used to the meds etc.

That's all for now!

New layout!

I thought seeing as my old layout was a bit dark, I've picked a new one for summer!!!! Still working on it, so might change a bit...

Happenings

Wow can’t believe last time I blogged was Sat, feels like yesterday. What can I report on? Chris and I finished house-sitting on Tuesday evening, and seems like he has a bit of a cold/allergies, so I’m kind of staying away from him for now. Wednesday morning I went to Maryke’s funeral. It was incredibly sad and moving. I also realize that had I had to wait for lungs as long as she did, I also wouldn’t have made it. We’re the same bloodgroup, and almost the same size, so if I was put on the list later I most likely also wouldn’t have gotten lungs. It was just my luck that I was sicker earlier, got listed earlier, and got the perfect sized O positive lungies, cos there weren’t another pair on their way…

Last night I did another talk in a Jewish community centre, where the Rabbi was also present to answer questions. The big issue in the Jewish faith with organ donation is the concept of brain death. They believe as long as a heart is still beating, even though the person doesn’t breathe anymore. So the perfect compromise would be waiting for the donor’s heart to stop and immediately remove the organs, although I’m sure that has its own complications. It was an interesting evening, just badly attended unfortunately!

Tonight I’ll be visiting Louis, he’s really doing fantastically! Jolandi is home, and will be seeing her on Sat! So glad they’re doing good. I’ve also got my company’s Year End Function on Sat evening, which should be fun! Will post pics!

Please pray for Eve (mentioned her a few posts ago), as she’s in hosp, and urgently needs new lungs again.

awesome cartoon taken from Eva's blog...

Lots of news and happenings

ANOTHER CF’ER FRIEND GOT LUNGS!!!!!!!!!!! Louis, who lives up here and whom I’ve often visited in hosp finally got his lungs on Wednesday! He’s waited more than a year and a half, and was just discharged after being in hosp for AGES, when the hosp called and said he must come back! Apparently he’s doing really well, and I’ll go in to see him tomorrow morning. He had so many plans for what he wanted to do once he got the new lungs, and now he can actually start recovering and doing those things!!!

Jolandi is also doing great, she’s going home this weekend! She still has the NG tube though, which will stay there until her throat is all better again.

Some sad news… Maryke, the girl waiting for lungs who got married just over a month ago passed away yesterday morning. She had gotten better, but seems like she just took a turn for the worse again. May she breathe easy now. Feeling very sad for her husband and family…

My week’s been SOOOOOO busy. On Monday I had my 3-monthly check-up, and lung function (FEV1%) was 100% on the dot! Not even a decimal value… just 100%. I’ve been at 97% for MONTHS, so was a nice surprise to see 100%! Everything else was also perfect, apart from CMV (a virus that was in my body pre-transplant, that most people have, but because I’m immune-supressed it may cause problems post tx) starting to show up in my blood results again so I’m back on Valcyte, even though I feel great. Think I should just stay on it… problem solved.

Tuesday eve I did a short talk at the CF assoc’s golf day. Unfortunately there were mostly golfers and not many CF people, but met some cool parents of CFers! Also got some great chocolates and wine out of the deal :-)

Wednesday night I had church cell, and last night we had supper at a friend’s place! This weekend Chris and I will be house-sitting (well until Tuesday actually), so that should be cool. Just wish the weekend could start now though!!!!

NOVEMBER!!!!!!

Wow October flew past!! In two months this time we'll be celebrating New Years Day! Had a great weekend again, Yesterday I had breakfast with Cristy, a friend from church. Went to visit Jolandi, who's doing great! She's just having some pshycological issues with leaving the oxygen behind, even though she doesn't need it anymore, but I know what it feels like and it's normal! She'll prob be going home this week.Last night I did a talk at the SA National Blood Services awards Dinner, which was very nice. Posting a pic here with a guy who's donated 350 units of blood!!!! Amazing...

Some sad news... an awesome girl, my age exactly, who got her lungs 3 months before I did in Canada and stars in the movie 65 red roses, has chronic rejection and is on the waiting list for a 2nd pair of lungs... REALLY hope she gets them! Check out her blog here: http://65redroses.livejournal.com/, it's beautiful and very inspiring.

Oh, and I managed to get my counter on again, yay! Almost @ 200,000 visitors!