Thoughts

I've been doing alot of thinking lately, I know not always a good idea. About my lungs, my health, my donor. I asked about my donor whilst in clinic the other day in view of writing to my donor family (if anyone could give me any info on how to write my letter I'd appreciate it!). My lungs came from a 20yr old local woman. It was shocking to hear my donor was actually younger than me, I just presumed the lungs would have come from someone older than me. 20yrs old is no age to die and what her family is going through now could easily have been what my family had to go through. But because of that young woman and her family I'm here today and couldn't be more thankful.
I've had 2wks at home and although I'm still struggling with breathlessness, needing a bit of oxygen and I think recovering from the Pneumonia I'm actually for the first time since the transplant starting to feel more human and, well, more me. Feeling like this has reminded me how much I hate being ill and also how much I've missed out on because of being ill.
On Wednesday I met friend Laura for lunch. Laura is 30 and had a double lung transplant roughly 6wks after me, we were next to each other on the ICU for a while and we had similar, rocky recoveries. When she made it to the transplant unit we would sit up together late at night and just chat. It's nice (well not nice because I wouldn't wish a complicated recovery on anyone) to have someone that knows exactly what your going though and has been through the same or similar. Laura had Pulmonary Hypertension and although the team are still monitoring her heart closely she's doing well. Its little trips out like this with friends that are playing the part in making me feel more human and more normal, even if I am anything but ordinary!