Hello everyone, my name is Jesse and my wife Martha who is 30 has CF and is awaiting a double lung transplant. She is listed for her transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, we live in the Chattanooga, TN area, so she will be relocating to Pittsburgh after Christmas (without me...I must stay here and work to keep insurance). Martha and I have been together for a long time (about 10 years, seems like forever), but we were not able to get married until 2002 due to insurance issues (mostly the fear of loosing it). When I first met Martha you couldn?t even tell she was different in any way, as a matter of fact my roommate and my best friend both had a thing for her (I think she ended up with the best looking one of the bunch). Today she requires O2 all the time, she has trouble doing evryday things, she turns blue from tying her shoes sometimes! We have been through a lot, all of which we handled together. We have always been able to take care of ourselves, we did most of the things we were told we probably couldn?t (like getting married).
Well, with the transplant coming soon (early 2006) things are just getting overwhelming. I have never really been scared like this before, Martha has always fought the CF pretty hard and taken excellent care of herself. Honestly if you asked me a year ago I would have guessed that a transplant was still 2-3 years off. The CF has now taken over and now the transplant is a life or death thing. We are now fundraising for money to help with transplant costs. It is very hard for me to ask for this kind of help from family, friends, and strangers (people have been really great). Things are just crazy now.
Martha has been pushing me to find some support somewhere. She is probably right, you know I have never even met another CF spouse! I know that you guys are out there and it would be great to hear form you. It is hard to talk to most people about this, you know people ask how Martha is doing and it?s just easier to tell them she?s OK than it is to tell them how she?s really doing.
Thanks for reading my ramblings, I hope to hear from you all?Jesse
Oh, if you would like to know more about Martha you can go to:
http://members.tripod.com/marthaslungs/
I think she posts on here as well?I am not sure what her secret code name is though!
Well, with the transplant coming soon (early 2006) things are just getting overwhelming. I have never really been scared like this before, Martha has always fought the CF pretty hard and taken excellent care of herself. Honestly if you asked me a year ago I would have guessed that a transplant was still 2-3 years off. The CF has now taken over and now the transplant is a life or death thing. We are now fundraising for money to help with transplant costs. It is very hard for me to ask for this kind of help from family, friends, and strangers (people have been really great). Things are just crazy now.
Martha has been pushing me to find some support somewhere. She is probably right, you know I have never even met another CF spouse! I know that you guys are out there and it would be great to hear form you. It is hard to talk to most people about this, you know people ask how Martha is doing and it?s just easier to tell them she?s OK than it is to tell them how she?s really doing.
Thanks for reading my ramblings, I hope to hear from you all?Jesse
Oh, if you would like to know more about Martha you can go to:
http://members.tripod.com/marthaslungs/
I think she posts on here as well?I am not sure what her secret code name is though!