I am the 55%

As of this moment, I have accomplished a 5-year goal: I am alive.

Even though I know that my long-term survival prognosis was higher than that average because of my relatively young age at the time of transplant (40), disease (Pulmonary Hypertension) and transplant team (Dr. Mulligan, et al, at the University of Washington), all of us lung transplant patients have that “five-year survival rate” stuck in our brains.

My life is forever altered because of my surgery 5 years ago and I will continue a life-long regiment of immunosuppressant medications (four of the “big guns” then another 6-10 to manage the side effects of those 4), frequent blood tests (currently every month) and lung transplant clinic appointments at UW (every six months. I’ll be there next Tuesday for a bunch of poking and prodding, including my lung function test, blood labs, chest x-ray, bone density test and mammogram).

Although my horrible, awful, no-good, soul-sucking migraines are a thing of the past (KNOCK ON WOOD), I seem to be very susceptible to stress and subsequently vulnerable to weird viruses and infections if things get too intense. Which is a disappointment as I try to re-start a full-time career and keep getting sidelined (mystery fever once and shingles twice just in the past 6 months!) but I’ll keep trying.

Although the past five years have been some of the most difficult in my life, my cup is full. I am happy and filled with love and gratitude for those who were with me through my disease, my transplant, my recovery, my migraines. And as I continue on this life of trial and error, as we all do, I will try to keep the lessons of how short and tenuous this life can be at the forefront of my days.