Thursday 14 November 2013

Lung transplants and life support.

I got a really random call from my Halifax CF doctor last week while I was eating breakfast. She called to tell me that that if I get a bad infection and need to be put on an artificial respirator then I am still eligible for a transplant. Apparently the transplant coordinator was suppose to review that with me, realized she forgot, and then called my Halifax CF doctor to call me to talk to me about it. The doctor told me they just had to have verbal confirmation from me that I agreed to still go ahead with surgery if I was on life support.

I had assumed that they just did the transplant anyway but I guess it makes sense that they should actually talk to me about it. I am not overly fond of the idea of being on life support for an extended amount of time but if I was just one it for my lungs and everything else was still working fine, I guess it would be ok for a little bit. I did ask the dr about the recovery prognosis for having the surgery from being on life support vs regular. She said that while it does mean having a longer recovery, since I am young, I have a good chance that I would have a normal recovery. She didn't give me any numbers but she seemed to indicate that if I was 50 or 60 than I would have to really weight the odds as those patients tend to have a painful recovery with little chance of returning to their previous lives but since I am young that I should be fine.

So the moral of the story was not to panic if I get super sick and need to be put into a coma as I can still have the surgery. She stressed that I would be at the top of the list in that circumstance so I guess that is the one benefit if that situation does arise. It is all hypothetical right now but I suppose it is important to work out the 'what ifs' for all the possible outcomes. 

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