5 years ago tonight

Aqua Letifer · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 03:17

Happy anniversary!(?)

89th · 16 Jul 2021, 03:42

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 · 16 Jul 2021, 03:34

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

Catseye3 · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 03:34

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 · X xenon 16 Jul 2021, 03:32

@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 · 16 Jul 2021, 03:45

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

jon-nyc · 16 Jul 2021, 04:03

@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 · 16 Jul 2021, 12:08

@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 · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 04:03

@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 · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 04:06

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

Catseye3 · 16 Jul 2021, 13:27

Was that the photo of Jon either kissing or being kissed on the cheek by . . . the other guy? Great shot!

jon-nyc · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 04:10

Improv got the shot. He’ll probably magically show up and post it any minute now. lol

Friday · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 07:47

Oh.

Re-reading that made me so nostalgic. I really miss all those people.

Jon, congratulations on your 5 year anniversary.

Klaus · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 10:02

Wow. Almost everything seems to have changed within five years. For instance, Mik wrote at the time:

He's young, strong and smart.

Klaus · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 10:06

Has anything significant about treatment options changed/improved in the last 5 years? Is kidney failure an issue at this point?

jon-nyc · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 10:18

Not really and yes. I’m already at stage 3 CKD. It’s very common for lung transplant patients to need a kidney at some point.

Axtremus · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 11:20

Congratulations!
Glad we get to have you with us for these extra years!

George K · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 12:08

@jon-nyc said in 5 years ago tonight:

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.

I may have mentioned this to Jon, or perhaps posted publicly....

About 6 years ago, I was giving "anesthesia" for an organ harvest. If someone was an organ donor, a team would come from one of the teaching transplant centers in Chicago, and harvest the organs that were suitable for transplant. My job was to keep the patient "alive" - hemodynamically stable and well oxygenated while they took the organs that needed a blood supply. Once they clamped the aorta, and the heart stopped, I was done, and I'd leave. The team would spend another couple of hours after I'd gone.

Anyhow, the surgeon was a pleasant lady from Northwestern. After I was "relieved," and she was waiting for someone else to harvest the liver, I believe, I pulled her aside and told her that I have a friend who needs a lung transplant, and told her the disease.

"So, how do these folks do?"

"⅓. ⅓. ⅓," she said. "One out of three do great ( ~ five years), one out of three do so-so, with multiple relapses/rejections, and one out of three do crappy."

brenda · 16 Jul 2021, 20:54

Wow. Five years already. Our Jon will chart new territory for his own version of a long hauler, living an extraordinary number of years post transplant.

Congrats, Jon! Here's to many more years.

89th · wrote on 16 Jul 2021, 13:27

@catseye3 said in 5 years ago tonight:

Was that the photo of Jon either kissing or being kissed on the cheek by . . . the other guy? Great shot!

Wow 10+ years, how time flies. And yes, Jon was kissing me on the cheek.

I still haven't washed that cheek.

The New Coffee Room

5 years ago tonight