This book is neither meant to be a medical treatise on my histology - COPD / PULMONARY EMPHYSEMA - nor a guide or decision-making aid for or against a lung transplant. It is also not supposed to be a pure boring biography. Plus - it is furthermore not my intention to settle up with anybody or cope with certain incidences, even if the one or other reader might get this impression. The book simply describes this time of my life: How the illness started, the waiting period prior to my transplantation with all the preparations, and the wait for a donor organ, the transplantation itself - and what happened afterwards.
How did I feel and do during this long WAITING TIME? There were quite a few relapses I had to suffer from and to handle. How did I manage to overcome them? What had helped me, and who was involved? How did it happen that I had to decide on a transplantation? , and finally, how did I continue after the surgery?
For some readers it will not be easy to cope with those details, as I do come up with a lot of negative things. But: That's the way it was and is - and therefore I have to describe how they happened and how my overall condition is right now. Life, despite all positive thoughts and desires, often turns out completely differently than expected in the long- run. Such experiences cannot be found in any brochure, as life writes an individual story for each human being.
All the names of people mentioned in this book have been changed, abbreviated or made up in order to protect their identities. Similarities in name of living persons are purely coincidental or have been approved.
Please wait...! Isn't this something we all have experienced at some point of time? Everyone reacts differently to these two words. One bangs on the table, is not willing to wait and wants everything to be instantly done. For the next one standing at the bus stop time gets too long; he starts running off too early and eventually misses the bus which arrives shortly after he has gone away and which leaves without him. Someone else patiently endures the waiting time, though seething inside. Yet another one deals with the waiting time, prepares for the things to come and does not even realize how quickly or slowly time passes by, and suddenly - the wait is over.
As for my book: I want to picture my story; how it all began with the chronic disease COPD and the pulmonary emphysema, and all the ups and downs. I will show you insight into my private and inner self, and will describe the people who have accompanied me on my way: Clinical personnel, doctors, physiotherapists, companions from my Lungensport group (special breathing techniques), support groups, church, family, friends, and neighbors, simply the entire social environment. During this time, there was a lot I had to endure and to cope with; till this very day I wonder how I was able to manage everything.