The circle of life

I have noticed little signs when Jerid is getting sick and I will ask him if he needs to go in. Of course he'll tell me no and that he feels fine. I had to talk to him about doing that. I do not mind fighting CF. I do it willingly. It does get exhausting when you have to fight the CFer as well. Jerid knows that I know when he needs to go in but he still will try and put it off to see how long he can stay out. I understand that the hospital can be boring. I didn't like being in the hospital 2-3 days after having a baby and I could not imagine staying 10-14 days. I try to have plenty of things for him to do packed in his suitcase.

I count down the days that he would get out and hoped that he did not need a medicine change. They will change the antibiotics that the CF patient is on if the bacteria in a CF patients lungs is showing some resistance to the antibiotic.

We had talked about a lung transplant for him as well. He wants to do one. He is now a father and CF stats told him he would never have children. He had made a promise to the kidder doodles that he will be there on their wedding day. Jerid doesn't like to set goals or make plans because CF is unpredictable but he made that one promise to them and he has every intention on keeping it.

I got to make many new friends through Jerid and most have CF. It is amazing how they embrace life. They really did teach me to not take it for granted because there are no guarantees in life. I often chatted with one online and her name was Mary. She was wonderful! She helped me understand how Jerid would be so stubborn with not wanting to go into the hospital and would understand where I was coming from being a wife. Mary had set up a team for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundations Great Strides walk-a-thon. She named it Team Faith. Jerid and I signed up for it and I was excited to meet her face to face. A few weeks later she sent us an e-mail saying she could not walk and had to dissolve the team. The infection in her lungs was getting worse. She always kept a positive attitude that she was going to get better.

One night while I was a work I had gotten a text message from another friend to told me that Mary was passing away and they gave her maybe a few days. It broke my heart. I was at a loss for words and tried to hold back tears. I got up from my desk and called Jerid to see if he had heard the news. He had and got a hold of her mother who did confirm that she was not going to last till the weekend.  Broken hearted by  the news of losing my friend soon I still went back to my desk and worked but all the while I was watching the clock waiting impatiently for the time I could leave so I could go home and hold my husband. He was close to her. They went to CF camp together and shared many childhood memories which I loved to hear about. Her funeral was on a Friday and I could not make it. I did not have the time to get off work.

I had hoped things would have turned around for her. I had the honor to see what miracles organ donations do. Two other of my rockin' CF friends got a second chance at life. They finally got the long awaited phone call. They were getting new lungs. Suzanne and Tonya are two Cf patients and they are also very best of friends. Suzanne got her lungs first after being on the waiting list only about one month and she set a record of getting out the fastest after a lung transplant. That lady was super woman!