The school holiday season is now under way my daughter and son are now at home all day!
A few things have happened since I last posted a blog entry so I thought I would update you on what has been happening.
who's blog I now follow on this site.
She has been making great progress since her transplant and has been well enough to move to a open ward and has even managed to get out into the sunshine in the grounds of the hospital.:)
Her family are thrilled by the progress she is making. I would like to add my best wishes to Kirstie, her husband and all her family for a speedy and uneventful recovery.
A recovery that would not be possible without the brave donor and their family who allowed this to happen saving kirstie's life!! Please if you haven't signed the donor register click on the flashing heart at the top of the left column of this blog and you could save someone's life when you die you may regret it if you don't :-(
What else has happen then I hear you ask?
I have been out with my camera to a couple of events in the local area. Firstly there was a model making event at the local school. My son and I attended ,we have been regularly and enjoy seeing all the models. I find it facinating to see the hard work and devotion that goes into some of the exhibits.I have posted a few pictures of the event for you to see.
Washday
Solider
Honda in a Hedge
Military Bike
Although I found it hard with the side effects of my medicines to take steady pictures it was so much better than last year and the presence of smoke from the model steam engines was only a minor discomfort
The other event I was able to attend was a classic car meeting at a local hotel where two of the members were having a 30th anniversary celebration. I was also able to get some pictures of a piper who came for the celebration and played some lovely classic songs on the Bagpipes
This was a bonus as there were some lovely American and British cars on show
Studebaker
Morris Minor
Finally I have been active on the new Google trial of it new social media offering Google Plus (G+) and I am finding it a really good experiences. As you may see on the blog I have added a widget for my stream on the right hand column and a G+ icon a bit lower down please feel free to click on the icon to visit me
If you want to get invited please send me a email from a Gmail account contact me on toolbar under blog and I will send you an invite.
If you would be kind enough to add me that would be great, as I hope that I can use G+ to promote organ donation and will be sharing with all of my new friend more of my photography in the future.
This is a great way to share. I would urge you join soon:-)
Transplant week is over for another year, but that doesn't mean that organ donation stops being needed.
just in case you didn't get to sign up I have included a link hereor you can Text SAVE to 84118
As part of Transplant week Victoria Tremlett who writes the blog "Past the Point of No Return" which you can find on my blog list in the right hand column of this blog prepared a impassioned plea about her time waiting for new lungs
She is still waiting and so are many more people...
I have good news about the end of transplant week while I was tweeting about organ donation last night I recieved a meesage on facebook to say thatKirstie Tancock, who I talked about in my last post, had recieved a call for possible lungs at Harefields Hospital.
Thoughout the night her family waited for tests to be performed on her blood to check her antibody status, then the agonising wait to see if the lungs were good match and if there forfilled the strict criteria that must be met before they could be transplanted .
Her husband Stu at 09.10 today wrote;
"Well
it's been a long night and waiting for the result of each test seems
like a nightmare but it has been all worth while when they say it's all
going ahead, I know it's such great news to everyone on here and I'm
still in shock I would just like to thank the donor and the family for
allowing my beautiful wife to have this chance as i'm sure they are going
through hell"
At 11.55 today Her sister posted news that her old lungs had been removed
At 14.12 her husband posted that the surgeon had said "it has all gone well"
At 21.45 Her sister has posted that she is breathing on her own but still sedated
At 23.08 Kirstie's dad posted this entry on her facebook group
Today
has been the best day of my life,well thats not quite true getting
married was if i didnt say that i would get beat up from the wife. but
after hearing kirstie has a 2nd chance of life that means a new pair of
lungs how great is that fantasticcccccccccccc. i popped in to see her
for a few mins today and had a tear in my eye not of saddness but of
joy.
What a great end to transplant week and proof of the good that organ donation can do for a family like kirstie's but let us also remember the donors family that allowed this donation to happen I have such respect for them.
As you may know form a prevoius post about my friend Bree Cordick
she lost her life because of rare complications after her double lung transplant after having a great new life after transplant and she wrote the blog "The Blog Blog I would strongly advise you to read it.
I have hosted "The Blog Blog" on my blog roll for a long while,since before my transplant.She was a great advocate for organ donation and I would like to think that she would want to have Kirstie's blog replace it and I will maintain a link to it on the links part of my blog to remember my friend:(
I wish Kirstie all the best and hope she will have a swift and uneventful recovery and hope that you will follow her progress with interest as she takes the first steps on her 2nd chance @ life
More good news
You will also see that another of the blogs I follow is posting good news.
has had her Lung and Heart transplant on 14th June 2011 and as part of the procedure donated her heart to another recipient and received a new set of Lungs and a new heart.
She had some problems with bleeding and had to undergo more surgery to deal with these problem but has recovered and has just been allowed to return home 27 days after her operation
I would urge you to read her brother 's and father's account of how things happened and if you read back in her blog you will see how hard it has been for her waiting.
I am so glad that she has had her call and can continue to be a mother to her lovely daughter and continue with her plans to marry John her boyfriend. Hope we will hear more about this soon!!
I will leave the final words to her brother Kris;
I feel blessed to have witnessed a miracle happen at Papworth. My sister has received the gift of life and in doing so gave the gift of life. Jodie donated her heart during her operation.
It doesn't seem so long ago that I was tweeting for 2010 Transplant Week but lots has happened since then.
I didn't know when I was tweeting in July last year that I would recieve a transplant before the next transplant week I was like @tor87 it was the not knowing that was the worst.
Each day waiting, every time if the phone went jumping up, because it could be the hospital phoning with a offer of possible lungs.The stress on the family was intense, the restrictions it placed on my children always needing to have a phone on them and let us know where they were.It was unnatural to young teenagers who should be out having fun. We were waiting for a new life but not sure it would ever happen.
That is what it is like when you are on the list
Sadly @tor87 is still waiting and she has produced a video about her wait for lungs for transplant week, you can watch it here Victoria Tremlett she has had seven calls and is still waiting.
She was featured on Russell Howard's Good News and has just got married after being on the transplant waiting list for new lungs due to damage caused by Cystic fibrosis.
Kirstie is presently in Harefield Hospital transplant unit waiting on her last chance to get new lungs she is slowly deteriorating and will not see her first wedding anniversary without help.
Let us all hope she is fortunate and receives her lungs soon
For information sake the following is a estimate of waiting times for organs from NHSBT site
I was fortunate that a 45year old man I never met had the foresight and courage to sign the donor register and let his relatives know his wishes. When he left this world, he left a legacy of a new life for me and others.
I carry his gift inside me now and no longer breath though the oxygen tubing I depended on.
I went to my Transplant clinic appointment at Harefield hospital today and it was good news have been told that I can have two months off clinic and got a agreement that I could go on Holiday to the coast in August to visit my wife's relatives and get a break.
Let me hope that the people waiting will not wait for long and that next transplant week the rates of organ donation go up dramatically and enable more people to get the transplant they need.
