A post from Donovan

So my mom has been nagging me to post here for a while now, so here it goes.

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their support, it has been more than we could have imagined. To know there is all that support back home is very encouraging and keeps me going each day!

So what to tell you all! Well the most popular question is "how does it feel to have "new" lungs?"

well to be honest at first (being in the ICU) I was totally baffled and confused when I woke up. It was a good few days before I understood that I had the transplant. Having missed a couple weeks it kind of all came crashing down one evening when I finally asked the question "what happened exactly???"

In the early days of post transplant it was hard to get used to breathing easier.  Its hard to described exactly.  So to help I guess I could described what it was like to breathe with the CF lungs.  

Well the best way to described it is I only had about 30% lung function ... so when I breathed in I was only really taking a less than half breath in.  When I would breathe in it was tight, noisy and usually followed by a good productive mucus-e cough.  Especially at night when I was lying down I could hear myself breathing, each crackly and wheeze.  

And now nothing! 

It's so weird breathing now is best described as easy.  To take a full breath takes only a second instead of 3 or 4.  When I wake up now I'm not all plugged up and breathing shallow, my showers don't cause me to hack and throw up.  It's just easier now.  No more waking up an hour and a half earlier to do nebulizers and physio, no more nightly treatments before bed, I can just brush my teeth take pills and go to bed. 

I have been going for pulmonary function tests (test to measure how much air my lungs can hold and how well they are working).  how the test works is I breathe into a machine normally, then take the biggest possible breath in and then blow it out as fast and as long as possible.  Now normally after one blow or test I would be hacking for a minute then take 2 min to catch my breath.  It wasn't until last week after my 3rd or 4th time going for these test after transplant that my mom mentioned something like "hey how does it feel not to be hacking?"  and I had to think about it for a few seconds until I remembered turing red and breathless after each session! 

I think that about describes what it is like to have new lungs!  Thank you all again for your prayers and support!

Donovan