Thank You!

I'm still trying to gather my thoughts on this last week and our fundraising efforts. Many times I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming or not.

I want to tell you how thankful I am for your support to make sure my family is by my side while I recover from my transplant. I am so humbled by how many people have reached out and given so selflessly to us. I have witnessed the amazing human spirit this last week and I am so thankful to have all of you cheering me on during this process. My family and I truly could not do this without you.

You have all gone above and beyond to make sure we know you care, and so many times I had to pick my jaw up off the floor because of all your generosity, ensuring our financial needs were met for when that call comes. Tom and I thank you all so much, and my parents are so grateful for your support.

You have all kept my spirits up this last week when I needed them most. Being in the hospital, and now at home on IVs, has been pretty rough. I never do well adjusting to hospital life and then back to real life. Going in the hospital and losing control is overwhelming, but coming home to normal life, although it is always welcomed, is also overwhelming. As much as I am happy to leave the hospital, after a few days it becomes my safe place, where everything is done for me. Even though my husband is amazing and does a great job taking care of me, I do have to go back to relying on myself to do treatments and take pills. Living in two worlds doesn't get easier, no matter how many times I go into the hospital.

Tom and I have had some fun this past week. We had a date night, had some friends from Chicago stop by during their trip to the Bay Area, and went out to dinner with other friends, but these IVs make me so tired. The IVs do their job in getting my lungs better, but the poison that these medicines are wreak havoc on the rest of my body. As I am nearing the end of my IV course, I have become allergic to one of the IVs I am on. It started to give me pain all over my body on Friday and every time I take it, it gives me this pain. I have stopped the IV at this point, but it is discouraging because this is one less antibiotic I have in my arsenal to fight my future infections. I need this transplant soon, my body is resisting these medicines and I really only have one or two antibiotics left to use when I have an infection.

I will be glad to be done with this IV course, get uninterrupted sleep, not being bound by an IV schedule, and going back to living without IV tubing coming out of my chest will be most welcomed. I'm ready to take a normal shower without the fear of getting my port wet.

Since being put on the transplant list 11 days ago, I just feel I am in a very surreal state of mind. Tom and I both get a little jumpy when the phone rings, especially at odd hours. My mom gets a little jumpy when I call her now as well. I'm getting excited about getting new lungs, but just waiting for that call makes me nervous and a little scared. Just looking at my phone makes my heart beat a little faster than it used to.

I want to end with saying thank you again. Truly, we feel so blessed to have so many people who care enough to help us in this phase of our lives. I am still in shock by how many of you reached out to us in our time of need. You are true angels in our eyes. Thank you!