I finally met a living breathing person who had a double lung transplant! He attends my church and had his transplant at U of W! This person also is a patient at the office I work at. How about that for a coincidence? Since I don't believe in coincidences I know it is God.
After doing so much research on lung transplants and survival rates, it is easy to feel dismal about my future. I've wanted to meet an actual person who had a lung transplant for a long time. Spectrum was suppose to arrange this but never did-they have a long way to go before they are a well oiled machine like Wisconsin. But I won't get into that now.
My pastor arranged for Randy to reach out to me and after some emails we arranged a face to face meeting today after service.
Randy was a pleasant gentleman and you would never know he had a lung transplant (kinda how I don't appear as ill as I am), how reassuring! I got to hear his story, he is still working full time and is 8 yrs out from transplant. He had pulmonary fibrosis that eventually led to his transplant. He was only give 1 wk to live before his transplant! He has had some setbacks in the last 8yrs but ultimately he says he feels great and encourages staying active.
I have so many scary statistics and facts about lung transplantation that it has been discouraging to say the least. I now have a positive statistic in my mind who happens to attend my church.
God works in mysterious ways.
Absolutely amazing Joyce. I have to believe that you were meant to meet that gentlemen. You were meant to meet for encouragement, to up lift your spirits, and for some additional support systems, among so many other reasons that only God knows. Bless you and Randy. I'm so happy you've met.
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