5 years ago tonight

[jon-nyc]

I got the call around 4:30pm. At the hospital before 5:30. They did preliminary labs, shaved my chest, got me started on prograf.

Then I had to wait many hours for the ‘recovery team’ to extract the lungs to see if they were any good.

Around 12:30a on the 16th I got word it was a go. Before they wheeled me to OR, I sent this message to George:

[jon-nyc]

George then posted this:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_new_coffee_room/jon-t97701.html

Nice to read these years later.

[LuFins Dad]

@jon-nyc where’s the like button on this forum?

[Mik]

Scary blessings. Damn glad it happened.

I remember when we met uptown in 2014 being hopeful.

[Jolly]

Breathing is good...

[Horace]

I remember where I was that day. Hiking, out of cell range, but I saw GK's post before I left.

[jon-nyc]

Funny seeing the message title to George - "these guys have me on speed-dial". I had three dry runs in the previous 2 weeks or so. I sent him the first message in that thread when I got the call, before I knew it was a 'go'.

[Horace]

Now that I know you're OK I guess I can stop this five year stress eating binge.

[jon-nyc]

@horace said in 5 years ago tonight:

Now that I know you're OK I guess I can stop this five year stress eating binge.

lol

[Mik]

For some reason it feels longer. Probably a function of age.

May it exceed all previous records.

[Aqua Letifer]

Happy anniversary!(?)

[89th]

So this was during my hiatus, mind providing a bit of a recap? But no spoilers plz! Don't want to ruin the ending.

[xenon]

I pieced this one together from past posts. Glad it all worked out, Jon.

[Catseye3]

I remember that time so clearly . . . lots of members in the room; all we talked about was Jon and how he was doing and how close he was to being finished. Somebody would bring up something else, but soon the subject went back to the surgery. How's he doing, how much longer, so on and so on.

Then came word (George, I think?) that it was over and he was in recovery. Lots of cheering and joy.

[89th]

@xenon said in 5 years ago tonight:

I pieced this one together from past posts. Glad it all worked out, Jon.

I have most of the puzzle pieces as well, but the "I remember where I was" comment above makes me curious about the narrative/timeline of events.

[LuFins Dad]

5 years is actually a huge mark for transplants, isn’t it?

[jon-nyc]

@89th said in 5 years ago tonight:

So this was during my hiatus, mind providing a bit of a recap? But no spoilers plz! Don't want to ruin the ending.

I got a bilateral lung transplant after quite a long wait. I had moved to Durham to get it done at Duke thinking I’d be there 3-4 months, I was there 15 months.

[jon-nyc]

@lufins-dad said in 5 years ago tonight:

5 years is actually a huge mark for transplants, isn’t it?

It’s not an out-of-the-woods sign like with some cancers. The risk of dying from infection or rejection is pretty stable and pretty material year after year.

Lung transplants have the worst prognosis of all the solid organ transplants. Median survival is something like 5.8 years. I should do much better than that though.

[89th]

@jon-nyc said in 5 years ago tonight:

@89th said in 5 years ago tonight:

So this was during my hiatus, mind providing a bit of a recap? But no spoilers plz! Don't want to ruin the ending.

I got a bilateral lung transplant after quite a long wait. I had moved to Durham to get it done at Duke thinking I’d be there 3-4 months, I was there 15 months.

Thanks! I think you hugged me like 6 years ago in that bar in Arlington but I doubt that is correlated.

[jon-nyc]

More like 10+ years ago. I was in Arlington visiting my Dad when he lived with my sister, which was 2009-2011.