Before and After

TOMORROW will be ONE YEAR since my life giving double lung transplant! What a year it has been! I was in hospital over 3 months and then had to take it very easy the first 2 or so months back at home, avoiding public shopping centers etc as much as possible. Slowly I did more and more until eventually I was driving around, shopping, partying and just enjoying life as it should be. 

NOT happy.

BEFORE, with my old lungs, life was a struggle. I still made the most of life and despite all the suffering I have some very fond memories from during that time! A lot of people suggested I should study something or paint to keep me busy. When you are that sick your whole mindset is in a different place. I didn't have the concentration or the motivation to do anything. I just wanted to focus on keeping as 'healthy' as I could until I got new lungs.

Having my mom look after me was great but it meant that my dad was in Zim by himself. My mom and I both missed him and he missed us! My brother is in Pretoria so he visited us often. Now my mom is back in Zim with my dad where she should be and I can be with my whole family at once.





My friends were amazing, they visited me as much as they could and gave me constant support. It was still hard feeling left out as they all had their adventures and got on with their lives while I was stuck at home. Now I can visit them and join in on the adventures. I've had so much fun with them all and look forward to MANY more fun times ahead.



I can't even name all the things that I wasn't able to do. Nearly every day I now do something I wasn't able to do before. It started with the little things, like being able to tie my own hair up. My mom always did that for me as lifting my arms above my head was too exhausting. Then it moved on to things like cooking and driving which gave me so much independence and I'm so glad to have it back. Things like, being able to play with my friend's daughter, Skye is just amazing and I treasure being able to do all these wonderful things.

I don't know how long my new lungs will last me and like ANYONE, I could die tomorrow in a freak hyena attack. So I live every day as much as I can. I've had some bad days, life isn't peachy all the time. But even on these days I have taken the time to think of everything in my life that IS going right and I am yet to go a day without smiling!

Tomorrow I am not going to be doing a blog post as I will be spending the day having fun and celebrating life. I will also be thinking of my donor's family who will be mourning the one year loss of their loved one. I have written them a letter, expressing my gratitude as much as I can but there really are no words. How do you thank someone that saved your life? They really are my hero and I hope that my blog posts have inspired you to also sign up to be a hero!

R.I.P

Love of my life

Xx