Duke Transplant Friends

My name is Mary. I am 56 years old. I grew up in the North where the winters were harsh and we heated our homes with coal. Along with having parents who smoked, I too, started smoking when I was in my early twenties. I knew I should quit and that someday I would have lung cancer or emphysema, but thought it would happen when I reached my sixties. Instead, during a bad allergy bout at 46 I could not get enough air and was rushed to the ER. I was diagnosed with COPD and severe emphysema. Not possible, I thought. Just three months before after a lung x-ray, the doctors said my lungs were clear. They said that my lungs didn’t show I was a smoker, much less to have smoked for as long as I had. I was sent home with oxygen.   During the following year, I was hospitalized several times with bad upper respiratory infections. The doctors insisted I needed to quit working. The day after Christmas, 1999, I couldn’t get enough oxygen and was once again rushed to the hospital. The doctors said it was time to call my family. They had done all they could and it was not enough. My family prayed. I got better and recovered. The doctors called me a miracle.

Then in October of 2000, I picked up a cigarette again. Just one puff. Right. It does not work that way. Two months later, December 15, 2000 I could not breath. No amount of nebulizer treatments helped. I don’t remember going to the hospital. I just remember asking my Mother-in-law to call the ambulance. I was put on a ventilator. I woke up December 27^th. I could not move any part of my body. The muscles were completely gone. I could not pick up a plastic spoon to feed myself.   I did not have the strength to push the nurse’s call button. And if I was able to get it pushed, I could not talk loud enough to tell her I had to go to the bathroom. I could not walk. From the hospital, I was sent to a rehabilitation hospital. The doctors there did not think they could do much for me. But after three weeks, I was able to walk out of there and go home. I was still on oxygen and always would be.

I worked hard to gain as much strength and independence as I could    I moved to North Carolina in October of 2003, determined my life was not over. I would not sit by and wait to die from this disease.

My doctors referred me to Duke University for a lung transplant evaluation. In June 2004, I went to Duke for a week long series of testing. On June 30, 2004 I was added to the National transplant list. Since I lived within the 2 hour maximum distance, I was able to stay home and do rehab at my local hospital. By January 2005, I was losing ground fast. It was time to be activated and put on the short list. January 25, 2005, I was activated. On February 17^th, I got a call at 2:50 am saying they thought they had a pair of lungs for me. My sister-in-law drove me to Duke. I was convinced this was a dry run. They were testing me to see how willing I was to do what it took to have a transplant. Not so. They were a match and I was taken to surgery. I was so calm and at peace about all this, I knew I was in God’s hands and it was all up to Him. I am thankful for another day.

I thank the doctors and nurses at Duke for their caring and their talents. I thank my    Mother-in-law, my Sister-in-law, and my sisters for being my caregivers over the past ten years and showing me what love and support is all about. I thank my donor and his/her family for the priceless gift of life they have given me. I pray for them daily. I pray that I might be worthy of the sacrifice they made. I just celebrated my second year of life and I owe it all to God, the unselfish kindness of my donor, the talented doctors at Duke University Hospital, and my loving family and friends and of course, to all my transplant buddies who have supported me each step of the way.