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.

Long Overdue Update

Not even 4 months since my last update, and so much to report on. I don't really blog anymore, but don't want anyone to think I've died, so I'm trying to leave proof of life here every few months. 

Mauritius was heavenly. I miss it! We had the best time... snorkelling, drinking rum cocktails, EATING local food, driving around the island. Some pics below...

We got back just in time for the Omnicron variant... perfect timing! My sister, brother in law, niece and nephew all got this Covid variant, but luckily they were all OK. The baby was first to be diagnosed! Thank goodness I hadn't seen them much in that window of time, so I didn't get it. One of my very close lung transplant friends Talia wasn't as lucky though, and has been fighting for her life on ECMO and a vent for about 6 weeks now :-( Heart-breaking. She has triplets who are almost 18 months old at home... as well as a husband. I want her to survive this soooo badly. So many people that I know are not doing OK at the moment.

In much better news, I met the most amazing guy as soon as I came back from Mauritius. His name is Arno. He's 34, also from PE, and all round brilliant. I'll be moving in with him on the 19th of March. Which means moving to Pretoria! I'm not a stranger to Pretoria at least, my grandparents lived there (in the same neighbourhood as Arno actually). Very excited, but I'll still be coming to JHB a lot for family, work, and my many Doctors. I feel like I've won the Lotto with this one!

We spent Christmas in PE, with Arno's parents, and I did my first bit of camping EVER! It was very cool, even though we got soaked in our tent, Definitely an adventure!

Lungs are doing fine on the new meds, lung function was up 2% last time - 94% FEV1. Not bad!!! Gynae will be doing a biopsy again later this week, dermatologist has been burning tiny warts as per usual, had a tooth break. Not much news. Very very thankful to have avoided Covid thus far. Literally all my "normal" friends have had it now. And half my family. Very grateful for the vaccines I've had (as well as all my friends. None of them who got covid post vaccine were very sick. )

I'm also doing a post graduate diploma this year and next. In Financial Planning. Nervous and excited to be studying again. 

I'm hoping to go to my 20 year High School Reunion in April, if time and finances allow. 

I realised the other day that when I was this far out from my first transplant - 4 years 4 months - I had my first bout of rejection. I've had no rejection with these lungs yet, so hopefully that's a good sign. Life is good... I'm thankful every day.

4 years since the second transplant!

The 31st of October marked 4 years with my second set of gifted lungs!!!! Time has flown SO MUCH! It's unreal. I thought it's time to update the blog a bit. 

So health wise everything is good! So far I've still had NO ISSUES with these second lungs. They are beautiful and I love them. I had an outstanding check-up last week. My blood results were all normal, and my kidneys are doing better than they have in years. Not that my kidneys are bad, but 14 years of immunosuppression does take it's toll. 

Something that's big for me though... as that as of yesterday, all my immune suppression has been changed... the reason for this is my history with the hysterectomy and abnormal cervical/vaginal cells. So one specific medication, Everolimus or Certican, has the "side-effect" of being very good from a cancer perspective. As well as suppressing your immune system for transplant purposes. So my dose of Certican has been pushed right up, and my Cellcept has come down from 1250mg twice a day, to 500mg twice a day. Neural has halved, from 50mg twice a day to 25mg only. Prednisone stays at 7.5mg. These massive changes make me very nervous! However I've had big changes in the past and my lungs were fine. So I just have to trust that they will be fine now too.

I didn't go big with celebrating this year's lungaversary, but next year will have to be an epic one... 5 years is a milestone! 

In very exciting news... On Sunday I'm off to Mauritius with a friend from school! Carli! We booked the tickets in August already, hoping the Covid won't spoil our plans, and it seems like things have worked out for us! Soooooo excited. We're not staying in a resort, will be doing our own thing. Will post pictures!