As we continue...

... our brisk cold in Wisconsin, the days seem to be longer and longer. There is so much to do and so little time. Work, squaring away transplant medications (finding out that we have maxed out or flexible spending account and now have to pay the rest of the year for the transplant medications), research dogs foods (because Dakota is allergic), fixing up last minute outside chores to winterize the house (no birds coming in our house this year!), working out last minute details on our trip to Florida, hammering things out with family, working overtime, and then there are the 10,000 little chores that must be done on a daily basis. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Is there?

Time management is not a skill that has been forgotten. It is a tool of necessity once a "normal" life is thrown into the chaos that is known to those with a family illness. How much can an organ recipient do around the house? What puts that person at risk? At what point do the other people in the house start feeling guilty for making that person partake in the chaos? Funny thing... but this person is normal and can do everything anyone else can do. It is only in our minds that we see this person as still fragile and needing help and, ironically enough, that person usually seems themselves as a super-human-being. Having lived so long, hanging onto life... now with a new sense of life, they are unstoppable. That is, of course, until they are stopped. And that, my friends, is what the other people in the house fear. Speaking solely as a wife, it is easier to remember the frailty and to fear it coming once again. But, there must be an even ground. These individuals are able to do the same things we can, but with a little more "padding". Such padding comes in the form of hepa filter masks and protective items to keep their bodies free of germs and lungs clear of harmful dusts, fumes, etc. Do not fall pray to believing that they can't do what "normal" people can - they will amaze you. So long as they parade around in protective gear, they are as "normal" as the rest of us and should be allowed to partake in life's little chaotic moments - just as we.

~Shannon
http://www.angelcove.us
http://www.cafepress.com/dakotasden