Transplanted: Our Next Big Adventure

Life got complicated after coming home from the hospital. Recovery immediately after surgery was almost a walk in the park compared to what I endured after leaving the hospital and what I still endure at times. Besides recovery and hospital stays, life events happened that led to a lot of stress in our house. When we moved to Redwood City last year, we knew it was only temporary and for the sole purpose of being close to Stanford for my transplant. It is crazy expensive to live in the Bay Area and we just feel it is time to move on.

Emotionally, Tom and I have both struggled to figure out our next plan of action. We couldn't formulate a solid plan for many months. We would go round and round in circles as to where to live next. We were feeling huge amounts of pressure to make up our minds. All of this has been happening while still trying to work out my recovery kinks. My health is pretty good overall, but I still have weekly blood draws, infusions, and tests. This has all tested our marriage immensely.

After so much back and forth, we decided to take a huge leap of faith. With my second lease on life, I'm not willing to just stay in my box. I want to expand my box and live life. So, with that said, I can now tell everyone that Tom and I are transplanting ourselves to England! In the beginning of July I will officially become an expat. This is a dream I have always had, but thought impossible. We know it is a bit crazy doing this 8 months after surgery, but in a lot of ways it makes sense for us. We love California, but for now I feel it has served its purpose and I'm ready to take on the challenge of living life in a new country.

Your Help Is Needed

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who has contacted me, and who is praying for my family and I during this time. Your messages have not gone unnoticed, and I appreciate all of the love and support that has come my way.

Many of you have asked what you can do to help, and as much as my prideful self would love to say we don't need any help, we do indeed need some assistance for this transplant.

A surgery of this magnitude has a long recovery process that involves a lot of monitoring of my new lungs and my body as a whole. After the transplant has taken place and I am deemed "healthy enough" to be discharged from the hospital, Tom and I are required to live within 30 minutes of the hospital, and that must include the awful traffic we have here in the Bay Area. Right now we live over an hour away. This means that we will need to relocate to temporary, fully furnished housing accommodations when I leave the hospital. The doctors have given us an estimate of 3 to 4 months living near the hospital. This is necessary partly in case an emergency arises, but also because I will have to be at Stanford at least 3 days a week for those initial few months. I will be participating in another pulmonary rehab program after transplant to get my new lungs and body back in shape. I will also have doctors appointments and blood tests on a weekly basis.

Baking And Bananas

I have neglected the blog a bit, but I have been busy with pulmonary rehab and other things. I had some spare time this week, so I decided to put my not-so-great baking skills to use.

I had an urge last Monday to bake. I cook all of the time and I feel comfortable in that role. I cook dinners most nights and I enjoy trying new recipes and seeing where I can take my culinary skills. Baking, on the other hand is not my forte, nor have I ever been that interested. It might have something to do with the fact I don't like sweets as much as I love salty snacks!

Monday is when that changed. I had an urge to bake chocolate chip cookies. I decided to start with something easy and go with the Nestlé Toll House recipe, straight off the back of the chocolate chips bag. I was really nervous because I know baking requires exact measurements, and in cooking I usually take liberties with my measurements. Well, the cookies turned out great and I'm pretty sure Tom has been having them with breakfast, lunch and dinner. I forgot to mention, my husband is a desert-a-holic. It is another reason I don't keep sweet things in the house. He devours ice cream, cakes, and pies like it is his job.

Love And Marriage ... And CF

Two months before my wedding, I was in a car returning from a CF event with my pediatric doctor. As our car pulled up in front of her house, she looked at me and said, "I'm not going to wish you luck for your wedding day, I'm going to wish you luck for your marriage." I must have looked perplexed because she went on to say, "The wedding is just one day, your marriage is for the rest of your life. You deserve luck for your entire life, not just one day." Her nuggets of wisdom and advice were what I cherished most about her.

She was right, the wedding was just one day, and a happy, most exciting day at that. We need luck and good thoughts for the rest of our lives.

Update On A Busy Week

This is the first chance I have had all week to sit down and write on my blog. This week has been busier than I imagined, but it was all good busy.

Let's skip Monday. To be honest, I don't even remember Monday. Tuesday is when it all started. I have been waiting for Tuesday, September 10th for over a month. On Tuesday, I started pulmonary rehab. This is an eight week program dedicated to helping people with lung disease. It is a program to help people start exercising and learn how to manage their disease. I'm in this program for the exercise. I asked my doctors months ago to get me into a rehab program where I was forced to exercise weekly. Any medical professional in my life knows how much I hate to exercise and how lazy I can be, so for me to actually ask to be put into this program was a huge step forward. This program will be good for me, and keep me strong while waiting for new lungs.

The Supporting Role: A Husband's Perspective

As Maggie's husband, primary carer and chief "blogmaster" of Maggie's Miracle, I am delighted to have been invited to make my first blog post. My wife insists that people want to hear my story and so she set me this assignment. Her brief was simply that I should talk from the heart, which is not easy for us Brits. But I will do my best to give you an honest and personal account of our journey together so far.

I have always loved TV hospital dramas. Growing up in the UK, I was an avid fan of the BBC shows Casualty and Holby City. For American readers, I suppose an equivalent show would be ER, which I actually have no interest in watching. Maybe it's because British TV is infinitely superior to the endless drivel of commercials that passes for American TV, or maybe it's because I now find myself playing a supporting role in my very own hospital drama!

The Cast Of BBC's Casualty

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday is not something I came up with, but an idea created by a friend of mine. I think this post and future Thankful Thursday posts will be a good way to stop and think about what I am grateful for. So as I sit here and drink my high calorie shake, I say "cheers" to the first of many Thankful Thursday posts!

Smacked By Life

Life tends to smack us in the face when we are not paying enough attention. Most of us, myself included, go through our daily routine without even thinking about it. We get so wrapped up in the little things and life is one big rush, we sometimes forget to stop and process.

Life smacked me in the face today. The past few days have been a blur for me. Worrying about getting to the grocery stores, worrying about what to make for dinner, and worrying about my house getting more cluttered by the minute. I have been talking about transplant on this blog, on the phone, and in a speech I made at my Toastmasters class last night. Transplant, transplant, transplant. It's all I have talked about, yet I've barely had a chance to think about it.