11 sleeps till my 1 year lungaversary with the second lungs!

How has it been 18 days since I've blogged??? Excuse the cliche, but time flies when you're having fun. In 11 days' time I'm celebrating a proper lungaversary for the first time in almost 2 years. My last "proper" lung anniversary was my 9 year one in Jan 2017. Two months before I was supposed to celebrate 10 years, I got the new lungs! So I'm super excited. I have a whole bunch of awesome stuff planned for the day!

Life's been busy and awesome. Two weekends ago we had a great Sunday afternoon pool party at Brendan and Marius' house. We always have the best times there!!!

Obviously I've also seen the favourite nephew a bit as well:

The biggest news is that on Tuesday we had the official launch function of our new NPO TELL. We organised the whole thing in 2 weeks.... and it turned out so well, despite some sleepless nights! The food (sponsored by the amazing Pippa's Food... this woman is amazing!) was delicious, the vibe amazing, the speakers great, a good turnout... we felt so blessed and special and excited! We have such great support and people have been awesome. Very relieved that this event is over though! Next week should be a bit more chilled!

It's also Jacaranda season... last year I kind of missed it... they were late in blooming, and when they did, I was in hospital recovering from the transplant. They're BEAUTIFUL right now. I went for sundowners with Andrew and two of his friends at the Westcliff Four Seasons Hotel yesterday - just for the views! We were NOT disappointed!

That's all for now... the other big thing that I need to do before the end of October is to re-qualify for the World Transplant Games next year. I've been having squash coaching sessions... this past week it was squash on Monday, bio Tuesday, squash on Wednesday and bio again Thursday. Working on my fitness! Yesterday and today I did nothing (well today I walked quite a bit in the mall but that doesn't really count). Tomorrow I'll go and hit some balls at the gym again as well as gym a bit. Loving it!

August, my 34th birthday and 10 months lungaversary

There's only about two more NY blog posts left, but so much has happened since we're back that I need to do a normal post again!

Firstly, I got to see my friend Joey who lives in Quatar! She spent a night in Jozi with us on her way back home after a visit to SA. First time I saw her with the new lungs obviously. We had a great time catching up!

Also, I had my hair cut short... it's the shortest it's been since I was a kid! It was pretty badly damaged from the transplant and subsequent changes in medication. Hopefully this is a fresh start for the remaining hair!

I gave a talk at the annual Organ Donor Memorial Day on the 26th of August. It takes place at the Memorial Gardens in Fourways. It was MUCH more emotional for me that I expected it would be, and I felt like an idiot because I started crying the moment my speech started. I almost never cry. I've considered it worrying how little I cry... like I'm dead inside when it comes to certain things. Well I can rest assured that when it comes to my two donors, I definitely am NOT dead inside. The below pic listing the donors of 2017 is especially touching... one of those people saved my life last year, and I don't know which one. I would recommend all recipients and donor families in SA try to make a point of visiting these gardens at least once. There are two sections in honour of donors. E-mail me and I'll explain to you how to get there!

I have also started attending spinning classes at the gym again, for the first time since early 2013. I love it, and I find it even easier than I did back then! I was a bit nervous with the first class but I did just fine, even outlasting a few other people in the class.

Last Friday was my birthday! The day itself wasn't great, due to some unnecessary stuff that I'm trying to resolve this week (looonng story), but the evening and weekend was great. We had supper with 7 friends at Van Der Linde in Linden. The food was AMAZING, although slightly pricey. We had a great evening with some of my favourite people. Thank you to all my friends who wished me a Happy Birthday and made the evening and weekend special. I love all of you.

P.S. If my hands look like I am a leper, it's because my dermatologist went crazy and burnt 25 little warts/marks on my hands. Lovely.

On Saturday morning Chris and I went to Emmarentia Dam with my sister and Adsie. He is really too cute for words, and I love the little man so much. He has such a happy and friendly little heart, I almost don't want him to grow up! He ran after the ducks, wanting to hug them or some such, and then we had some snacks under a tree. Later in the day they joined us for lunch which was also great. Thereafter Chris and I went for an ice-cream, and watched the sun set (just in time) from Northcliff Hill. On Sunday I met up with Brendan and Marius to support "their" Love Norwood Day. A very cool initiative and quite fun. Wish we had something like that here in Fairland. All in all a great birthday!

My birthday also happened to fall on my 10 month lungaversary!! How cool is that? The first double digit monthaversary (probably not a word). So grateful obviously. May there be another 10 years.

Then LASTLY, I promise, my blog was chosen as Best CF Blog for Motivation! Check out the new badge on the right side! The bright yellow one! It's super cool! Read more here.

First Full Week Home

I was officially discharged from hospital a week ago. My first week at home has been great. I haven't seen the kitties yet as they were sent to the cattery in order for the house to be fully cleaned and to be away from me for a period of time. They will be coming home soon though, but there will be some new rules in place for them.

My last Dr's check-up went really well, everything is going great. I should have another check-up on Thursday. The biopsy results from last Monday also showed no rejection so far. I will be having biopsies at 1,2,3, and 6 months post transplant. The black and white pic below was taken by radiology during the biopsy.

It's been great seeing family outside of hospital. And I got to properly play with Adriaan again! He still remembers me! He has grown so much in this month that I haven't seen him, it's insane!

I try to go for a walk with Chris on most days to work on my fitness and hopefully increase my lung function. Will also be going back to bio from tomorrow. Oh and I can also start driving again, yay! Been missing my independence a lot. Took some pics while walking, just cos JHB is looking so pretty after a whole bunch of rain we've had. (sorry Cape Town). My lungs want me to start running to really feel the maximum brilliance of the lungs, but my groin and ribs say NO!!!

Yesterday Chris and I went out for breakfast, after picking up a whole lot of medication from the hosp! We then chilled with some friends for the rest of the day next to the pool, making the most of the warm weather, as this week is supposed to be cold and rainy. (Yes I wore SPF 50 and didn't actually swim... lungs feel so ready though but body still as aches and pains). Thanks you for everyone's nice messages, I really appreciate all of them.

Catch Up!

So October is almost done! What's been happening? Quite a bit but also nothing at the same time. Adriaan was Christened last Sunday. The whole weekend basically revolved around that, with Pierre's family being here from PE. I got to carry him into the church, so that was really special for me.

It was also 9 years and 9 months with the lungs, whoo hoo. Had a good Dr's visit on Thursday. Lungs stable, weight great, infection count super low (CRP was 3!), all the other bloods good too. Had a gynae check-up as well since my last blog post, and all is great. (My medical history includes a lot of  not-great gynae check ups and procedures, so right now I need to see her every 4 months to make sure all is under control.) So it's all good news.

Joburg is really showing off right now with all the Jacaranda trees in bloom! I took these pics on Weds when I went for blood tests. The pictures don't even do it justice though, but it gives you an idea of how pretty it is. The weather has turned pretty freezing this weekend for some reason. I thought we were going to get a nice storm but it missed us completely, we just got the wind! We went to a very nice birthday party last night, and tonight we're just chilling with Chrislie, Pierre and Adriaan. So in summary, things are pretty good right now. The aim is to keep it this way!

Meeting Carmen in person & Louz and Wouter's visit!

I've had an amazing couple of days. It feels like my birthday or something with the friends that I've seen and the unnecessary presents that I've been surprised with! Feeling very lucky and blessed right now. Louzanne and Wouter arrived just before lunchtime on Friday. Chris and I picked them up, and we met up with Chrislie, Adriaan and Andrew at Paul for lunch. On Friday evening we had a games night ar Brendan's house which was so much fun.

On Sat we had a bit of a historical tour of Pretoria. We went to the Union Buildings and Melrose House. It was followed by a Starbucks and a completely different kind of Pretoria culture! On Sat eve we had supper at Casalinga, an Italian restaurant in Muldersdrift. I've only been there once before but the food is AMAZING. We weren't disappointed. Super busy but awesome day!

On Sunday we spent a chilled day at my parents' house. We also watched the movie "A United Kingdom", which is a must-see!!! I was pretty wiped out after Saturday's activities. Yesterday we had brunch with my sis and Adriaan in Melville, before heading for Constitution Hill. I've never been there before, and so glad I was finally able to! We didn't have time or O2 battery-life to see all of it, so need to go back at some point! If you live in Jozi, you really need to go on a guided tour there!

So all in all a brilliant weekend! Miss my friend so much, wish we lived closer to each other!!!!

Today I got to meet a NEW friend in person!!! Carmen!!! We've been chatting for a few months now, and she's in town at the moment to we met up! Yayness! It was great, like we've known each other forever. I was so spoiled with gifts, and completely unprepared to return the favour! Next time! I must say, since I stopped working and have gone onto disability, I've met so many amazing people through Love Life; Gift Life and just in general (like Carmen). Each chapter of life has it's own surprises and benefits. Trying to look past the annoying-ness and frustration of my current HEALTH situation and appreciate the quality time I've been able to spend with amazing new people and my favourite "old" people.

On a sad note though, a girl that I knew who was waiting for lungs too lost her battle on Friday :-( I wasn't expecting it to happen and really hoped that she would get lungs :-( It gives me more motivation to work hard on LLGL, but at the same time it makes me feel so hopeless and like we're fighting a losing battle sometimes... *sigh*