Thank You

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! 

This blog is a massive big thank you to everyone who has supported me and helped to get me this far.

It has been seven weeks now since my transplant, although it still all feels very new, and time is racing on towards Christmas.  I've been in Papworth just for a couple of days for a six week check to make sure that everything is still going well. At this stage they always check to see how things are healing and that there are no signs of rejection and I'm delighted that my lung biopsy shows no signs of rejection so far. Things are healing pretty well, but they are still going to keep a close watch as I still have a few problems, although we are expecting them to resolve as time goes on. I'm happy they are monitoring things so closely, it is very reassuring. I have been given a week off clinic and don't have to go back to hospital for two whole weeks, which is brilliant news.

Obviously my family had waited with baited breath to hear if all was good news and I would like to thank all of them for their unstinting support, which just goes on and on. Thank you Rob, Sarah, Rose, Oli and David and thanks to my mum, my sister Jayne and her family and my brother Paul and his family. Also thanks to all my wider family and friends of my family, who sent messages of support and followed my progress and supported my family when things were difficult for them. 

I was admiitted back on to Duchess Ward last week and felt like I had come back home after being on various wards all over the hospital. Duchess Ward is where I used to stay while the PH team looked after me and I feel I know everyone and they know me. It was so nice to see everyone and they made me so welcome and wanted to hear all about my transplant and how I was getting on. 

So I will go on to thank the staff at Papworth. There are so many staff to thank, starting with the PH team and staff on Duchess Ward who looked after me for more than three years. Then there is the Transplant Team, who monitored my progress carefully for the last two years, helped me and my family through the transplant operation and are continuing to care for me now. There is also the highly skilled surgical team, who undertook the operation, and then there are the wonderful teams on the Intensive Care Ward and Mallard Ward, who looked after me post transplant, along with the physio team, radiologists, dieticians, phlebotomists and respiratory team. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone and I know I can't ever thank them all enough for their care and all they have done for me. 

The response from all our friends when I had my transplant has been overwhelming and again, I don't really know where to start thanking everyone for their endless stream of good wishes, cards, presents, plants, flowers and the constant and never ending messages of support. Your support has really helped carry me through all this, how could I ever have got down for even one minute when your messages of support just kept coming and coming? Your support has just spurred me on and on and still does. So thank you to all my friends, old friends, new friends, PH friends and transplant friends, for just encouraging me on and on and helping me to get this far. You really did help me and have given me more determination to keep getting better and better. Even this morning, yet another bouquet of flowers arrived and more cards, just when I was feeling a little sore, tired and sorry for myself after being prodded and poked in hospital for a few days. So, once again, the 'sorry for myself' bit was very short lived and after a good rest I'm now back on the case of the mammoth Christmas shopping and wrapping expedition! 

Of course I now come to my donor and their caring family, who made the bravest decision anyone can ever make and gave me the greatest gift ever, the gift of a new and transformed life. A life now full of hope and dreams for the future and a life that has already begun to change markedly for the better even in this early stage. There isn't a day goes by where I don't think of them all and what they have given me. Sometimes I will just be doing something very ordinary and then it will suddenly strike me what an extraordinary thing has just happened to me and I have to stop and pinch myself that I have been given this new chance in life. The ordinary versus the extraordinary, sometimes I feel like a walking miracle and I cannot quite believe my transplant has actually happened. There is just such a wide gulf between being abe to get on with and live ordinary every day life and what has just happened. There just aren't words that can ever express my gratitude or my family's gratitude for this wonderful gift. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!