Conundrum of surviving

A neglected “by-product” of beating the odds after two bi-lateral lung transplants, is how hard it is to plan for your life financially and career-wise. I couldn’t finish my Honours in Accounting, as I was ridiculously sick. After my I got new lungs, I didn’t feel like going back to university, I wanted to work and become independent. When I started working at age 24 after my first lung transplant, I THOUGHT that I was financially behind my peers who started working slightly earlier, but looking back that was a joke… I was perfectly on par really.

However fast forward 7 years and about 3 months, and I was medically boarded, due to my transplanted lungs being rejected by my body. And for about 3 years prior to being medically boarded, I knew that I was in rejection and that I should stay put. Survival mode kicks in, ambition mode turns off. To paint the picture more clearly, at age 28 I knew that my life was in danger yet again, and that I just needed to stay in the position I was in for as long as my lungs held out.

I coped in a fast-paced environment for another 3 years, until I made the call, together with my lung specialist, that I should stop working. I was very lucky to have group life insurance at that point, so I continued getting 75% of my salary – tax free. At the same time the evaluation for a second lung transplant started. About 1 year and 9 months after being medically boarded I received another set of lungs… a miracle indeed! 

Now being an analytical person by nature, I was curious as to how long these lungs were going to last. My lung specialist refuses to give educated guesses on these types of questions, which is absolutely fine, but I wanted a vague idea. Dr Google said that the 2 year survival rate for a redo lung transplant is 32%. Obviously this is an average, but I decided to make the most of it. (FYI – I’m still the only surviving redo lung transplant recipient in SA). We travelled to New York and Mauritius during the first year after my second transplant, I fixed some things in and around the property that my ex-husband and I owned at the time, upgraded the little Peugeot 107 that I was driving… I didn’t want to go back to a corporate work environment, so I resigned once I was fit to return to work. This time around I took a much more slow-paced accounting job. Set for life…. If you’re going to live another two years that is.

Fast forward to beginning of 2022, and I was heading towards 5 years post redo transplant. I decided to study again, as I was lacking mental stimulation. I ended up picking a post graduate diploma in Financial Planning. A few months later I started a new job, more in line with my studies and a much more formal work environment again. But also in a way starting from scratch. The irony is that in my own life, applying financial planning skills is almost impossible. I think of where I would have been now, if that rejection of my first transplant didn’t happen. If all the retirement savings from those first two jobs kept on growing, if that salary kept on growing the way it would have. If I didn’t use savings for travelling. I’m not even going to bother wondering where I would be financially if my medical aid and the little co-payments here and there didn’t take a massive chunk of my salary. Also – there was divorce – but that is not a scenario unique to me.

The point that I want to get across, is that trying to figure out how to navigate saving/ having a career/ having a work-life balance when you have had two organ transplants (and especially lung transplants, because they have the worst outcomes of all the organs) at ages 23 and 33, is HARD. You can’t assume you’re going to live to age 65 when your first transplant was at 23! And hey, YOUR life is super short right? Live every day to the fullest! BUT you might end up living for a really long time and have to be able to support yourself and have a meaningful career, so there is that too. Nobody prepares you or warns you about this interesting tightrope, and you can’t expect that from anyone either, as each patient’s situation is so unique. But this is definitely an interesting challenge! One that I'm grateful to be facing.

Mauritius Part 3.

On the Friday we headed for Port Louis, the capital city of the island. It's quite a sizable city, and definitely had some Durban vibes. First we shopped at the Waterfront for a bit, and then our guide took us to the Citadel. The views were great, but the rain started coming down hard so we ended up running back to the van.

After that we went to the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens. I had really been looking forward to it a lot, as I'd read great things about it. It was stunning. The gardens were really amazing. We were caught by the rain again, and this time it was quite hard. We were completely soaked, but managed to see the highlights of the gardens. We were cold and starving by that point, so we drove up to Grand-Baie to get some lunch.I've never had a more yummy hot-dog and chips! We also stopped at a supermarket for some sweets and cheap souvenirs!

As you can see from the Apple maps pic, we basically saw the west side of the Island. I had a really great time, and would have loved to explore a bit more. Maybe one day we'll be back there. It's a really special place.

Mauritius Part 2

The Wednesday and Thursday we spent mainly on the beach or by the pool. Our resort, Riu Creole, was where I marked it with the red arrow below. We were exposed to quite a lot of wind, but when we walked around the corner towards the west, there was absolutely NO wind. The water was also eerily calm, so we snorkeled again! We had 2 snorkels between the 7 or us, so we took turns to go out. It was really amazing yet again. You can not imagine a more perfect beach.

By the way, how cool is the underwater waterfall illusion???

We had some great times on "our" beach too, and Andrew's underwater camera was a total hit. Apparently I suck at keeping my eyes open under the water!

The only other thing we did on those two days, apart from eating, sleeping and chilling on the beach, was chilling in a relaxation pool at the spa! It's a tough life but someone has to do it :-p

Mauritius Part 1!

So my body sort of cooperated and my Dr gave the go-ahead for Mauritius!!! I was still struggling with my tummy a bit and battling some sinus pain/issues, but off we went! It's a pretty short flight and we had the wind from behind, so it took just over 3 hours to get there. We finally arrived at our resort just before 10pm on the Sunday night, just in time to grab some food from the buffet before closing time. Mauritius is 2 hours ahead of SA.

On Monday morning we were able to see our surroundings and take it all in. Below was the first sight that met us as we looked out of our room! It was so strange to be so close to the beach but not HEAR the sea! There was a reef/lagoon for the first 100m or so, and the waves only broke after that, way in the distance.

We overslept and missed breakfast on the first day! So we chilled on the beach and waited for lunchtime! After that we all took a nap again and explored the surroundings a bit as well as booking two excursions for the week. On Tuesday we had our first of these, which was going up the west coast a bit in a speed boat for half the day. It was AMAZING and definitely the highlight of the trip. We saw dolphins and everyone (except me) got to swim with them! (Initially I was scared of jumping into the sea with the snorkeling gear as I've never snorkeled before and I'm not a strong swimmer, plus the water was about 30 metres deep, and I think I have a fear of drowning in deep water! After the first dolphin experience was had, I decided "screw it" and tried as well. The dolphins are wild, so our guide does his best to tell you when the dolphins are coming in our direction, so that we're ready for them. They swim by really fast, but if you look down with the snorkeling gear you just see DOLPHINS all the way down apparently. Unfortunately I never got to see them IN the water, but got some amazing views from the boat.

After the dolphin viewing, our guide took us to a coral reef for snorkeling. The water was insanely crystal clear, warm, and not too deep, so I was IN! My first snorkeling experience ever! Some people complain about feeling claustrophobic with regards to the breathing when snorkeling, so I was prepared for that, but I found it perfectly fine! What a whole different world down there???? It was breathtaking, the pictures don't do it justice. And the swimming didn't tire me out at all, as it's a lot of floating anyway. Best experience ever!

After that he showed us some more iconic sights (will do a whole separate photo post of pics I took with my camera as opposed to my phone! Then we headed back hungry and tired!