Reject, Rejected, Rejection

What awful words. Whether it be a friendship, an offer of your love, a job application, or maybe a credit card. We all face it at one time or another. I have, you have, we all have.

I am finding it to be horse of a different color when you’re talking about your body rejecting the gifted organ(s) you were blessed to receive. Your heart, your kidney, your lungs, or any other organ you’ve been pampering and protecting for however many years it has been. How infuriating is it to learn that my own body may be trying to evict the very things that have kept it alive for the last 9-1/2 years.

Forgive me if I appear to either trivialize transplant rejection or overdramatize it. I am trying to do neither one. I do, after all, live with the possibility every single day just as every other transplant patient does. But I’m swinging from:

• “I have the best doctors. This is no big deal for them. They know what to do.”

to

• “This is terrible What if they can’t stop it? How much damage has it already done?”

From hope to despair and back again. The dreaded bronchoscopy. The steroid rages from the IV dump. Or maybe it will be a false alarm. I’ll have better spirometry results next time.

Don’t get me wrong. I am worlds away from where I was 10 years ago. That is not taken for granted. It’s just that this is my first big scare, and I am understandably concerned. Hopefully, it will turn out to be nothing. But I’m not holding my breath. (No pun intended)

So, I’ll head back to Dallas on Monday to re-test and hopefully get a thumbs up or a thumbs down then. If it’s thumbs down, I’ll have to get a roadmap of what the next couple of weeks will look like. Of course, I’m apprehensive. But right now, I feel like everything is going to be okay. I mean I have already beaten the odds by making it this far. And I most certainly am nowhere near done yet.

Ask me again 5 minutes from now when I’m scared again.

‘Til tomorrow, do some happy reading. (Did I mention that Casey is out now (look in the left column for a link to the sample) and I’m working on Bo?)

~Raeann

Here’s some more general information on transplants. Click on each link to learn more.

How long can a person live with a lung transplant?

• Although some people have lived 10 years or more after a lung transplant, only about half the people who undergo the procedure are still alive after five years.

Facts and Myths About Transplant

• Over 104,000 people in the United States are currently on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ transplant. This is the lowest it has been since 2009. The list topped at 124,000 at its height in 2014. The US saw a 7.5% increase in deceased donors last year- from 13,863 in 2021 to 14,903 in 2022.

Not signed up yet? Click here to sign up in America.

Register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor. More than 100,000 people are waiting for a lifesaving transplant. Transplants rely on the generosity of organ, eye and tissue donors, and there are not enough donors to meet the need. You can help.