Hello everyone. 77 y/o male, newly diagonosed. I'm on 6L O2 which drops significantly with activity, especially walking. Reading through these posts, I see a lot of people considering or rejecting the idea of a lung transplant. Has anyone (or a loved one) actually completed the procedure? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks, Ned
Hi Ned, sorry to hear you have problems. Hubby is 74 and on 24 hour oxygen - he will not entertain the idea of transplant. Not that this has been offered to him. Good luck. J
I'd suggest finding out if you qualify, which is different for different hospitals. For me, the cutoff at Stanford is 70, unless a person is super fit. Other hospitals go older. So if you don't know already, start there, I am 67, and am told am too healthy to qualify right now. (2-5 ltr depending on what I am doing.) So, funny thing is that if I stay healthy until i'm 70 and one day (technically) I no longer qualify and, well, THEN would be the time for me to degerate to the point of needing the transplant. I am stretching the irony thing a bit.
My local team considers all elements of health including heart especially. There is esophagus as well, and I am sketchy on that. Alcohol and drug use. And overall health.
For me, I simply don't want to decide, as it is, as the doctors say, trading one disease for another, i.e. look at all the post op maintenance with meds, avoinding germs all the time, avoiding people with colds, and on and on. That said, there was one video, of many on Youtube, of a guy just happy as a clam, riding his bike and all. He was younger and looked really really fit.
Jean makes the point well, but and more simply than me, but it is a gigantic decision.
Let us know how it goes. Good luck to ya.
e