Two years ago today, I stood up for the first time after getting new lungs—10 days after my transplant. Before the surgery, I was in complete lung failure. My muscles had wasted away, and I tend to swell up a lot when I’m sick.
During the operation, the doctors found that my lungs were stuck to my chest wall—about 99% of them were stuck in place with thick scar tissue. It was so bad that they almost stopped the surgery because they were worried they’d cause more harm than good trying to get them out. But they kept going, and once they removed my original lungs, things went smoother.
After surgery, something scary happened. The bandages were wrapped too tightly around my chest, and I couldn’t fully expand my new lungs. That led to my lungs holding fluid, which caused pneumonia and a blood clot in my lung. Two days later, they had to rush me back into the operating room and put me on ECMO (a heart-lung machine) to keep me alive—a very risky move. As soon as they unwrapped my chest, my breathing and numbers improved right away. The tight bandages had nearly killed me.
So they rewrapped everything the right way and left my chest open for several days to allow room for the swelling. But since I was on strong blood thinners, I bled constantly. I ended up getting over 460 units of blood—that means every drop of blood in my body was replaced more than twice.
Even after that, it was a long, tough road. I had to fight off infections, blood clots, and rebuild all my muscles. A stroke from a bad epidural damaged my vision and my fine motor skills, but—somehow—my eyesight came back, and I slowly regained control of my hands.
Doctors usually want patients to stand within 24 hours of a lung transplant. For me, it took 10 days—mostly because I was in a coma during that time. I’ll never forget the moment I first felt the lower part of my new lungs fill with air—something I hadn’t felt in nearly 15 years.
Six months later, I walked a 5K. What a journey.
Credit goes to the respective owner….