News

We have some great news! Greg received a call from the transplant hospital yesterday and he is a big fat "0"! What does that mean? His biopsy results came back and he has absolutely no rejection in his transplanted lungs at all. News just couldn’t get any better than that. Well, maybe it could. Within the next couple of days, we should find out if the cultures from Monday grow any nasty bugs out and if they don’t, Greg can stop all inhaled or nebulized medications. You have to realize that Greg has been on inhaled/nebulized medications since he was in high school and now he is 31 years old. That is a long time to make sure you medications are kept cold and carry an air compressor, nebulizers, etc. with you whenever you travel. If all is well, Greg won’t have any inhaled medications when we travel to Florida in November. Not only will this be our first vacation together (ever!), but a first for him traveling without a bunch of medical equipment - just pills and a couple of small items. Can you see me dancing over here? (laugh)

For a transplant patient and his/her family, things such as this are small miracles. They say that you never know what you have until it is gone. That goes the same with your health. People complain about their daily chores/work/life when they are healthy. Unfortunately, it takes a traumatic incident to make them realize how good they truly had it before the incident. Often, they are never able to go back to the way it was before - for them, it is too late. That is why it is so important to cherish even the smallest of things - such as being a big fat "0" or getting rid of inhaled medications. For us, the quality of life is determined by the smallest of miracles - it is not what kind of car we drive, how big our house is, or how much money we make. Quite honestly, some people look down on us because we do not have any children and have been married for 6 years now - or - because our cars are a 1999 and 2000 Saturn. Children and cars are how these other individuals gauge their own quality of life - not us. First, it is rude to bug people about having children - how do you know they CAN have children or they have not tried to have children. Second, if the car gets us from point A to point B, what is wrong with it?

It is our philosophy not to impose your own ideals on someone else. Every person is different and gauges their own success or failures differently than you. For example, my parents never made it out of high school and yet, here I am with my MBA. Does that mean that I am better than my parents? No! Does that mean I should push them to finish school and get degrees? No! They are their own people and it is not fair to judge or rate them according to my lifestyle. Love and respect are unconditional and should remain so. We were not put on this Earth to judge other people - we were put here to understand the differences that make us human and to appreciate and respect each other for being an individual. Plain and simple. :)