Thanks friend...

For the past 18 years, my mother has been living the life of a person diagnosed with a genetic illness called "Alpha1 Anti trypsin Deficiency". For the most part she has been able to have a decent quality of life. Doggedly determined to not give up when times are tough has carried my mother through the first stages of her disease. This disease, passed from parents to children inevitably causes serious lung and or liver disease at various ages of life. Now, she exists in what the hospital has phrased "End Stage Disease" Barely a day goes by when we do not hear this term, the words slap us in the face like branches as we go full speed ahead through the forest on the all terrain vehicle called transplant. In my mother's case, because she only inherited one of the two defective genes related to Alpha1, her disease has progressed rather slowly. For the past 6 months however, my mother's condition has been deteriorating rapidly. Her journey, and my part as primary caregiver may soon come to an end. I am praying with all my heart that this ultimate end to a phase in our lives comes after she receives her gift of life and not because her gift never arrived. To see her living with some sort of quality of life again would be not only a gift to her, but to her many grand children who love her dearly. We understand that this gift comes at a price, someone has to die for her to receive the gift. But consider something before you shrug it off as a selfish request. I know I have rationalized my own death, knowing that some day my misfortune may benefit someone who is in a similar situation to my own. I have sat in the lobby at a hospital wondering what the name of the donor will be. Or what their lives were like before they met their demise. I have broken down in tears not because I know my mother will die, but because her quality of life in the last few years of her life has been so poor. I want nothing more than to just see that quality of life improve for the remainder of her life. I began this blog process in response to a dear friend that I lost to Cancer, her husband blogged to get through the process. With God at his side he has triumphed over his tragedy and found a way to move on. And as such, my journey as a caregiver has been documented in this blog for several months. I am hoping to receive a similar gift of comfort through my writing. Now, open for anyone to read but most certainly not written solely for the public, my blog goes on. I write for several reasons, one such reason being to let my frustrations out. If I have a bad day then I literally transfer the pain, anguish, fear, and worry to words on a computer screen. The real emotions literally melt away as I write. I have met first hand hundreds of people at the hospital, online, and on the street who are fighting for stability, hoping to live long enough to receive their gift. Through determination and difficult course of treatment, the hospitals and organizations involved in multi-organ transplant give well over 100% effort in saving lives like my mother's. Ultimately though, the research programs, surgeons, doctors, nurses and every other support group involved are simply not enough. Without you! and what we have now coined as "The Gift Of Life" people like my mother do not stand a chance. It has been amazing, up to this point the support and love that I have received through the blog and especially through the people we have met at the hospital. Our home away from home...

Thanks childhood friend, you put a smile on my face tonight...


Sincerely,
Don Millette.