What a Year!

It really has been an interesting year. Most of the year’s focus was working with the doctor and nutritionist at the Weight Management Group with the results of a 60-pound weight loss in six months. Remarkable. Miraculous. Life changing.

My health hit a low in May when I had my first visit with the Lung Transplant Clinic. The high was just five months later when my PFTs and HRST Scan reported a huge improvement in every way. The best ever. The doctors don’t understand how. I love that. I feel good and I look the best I have looked in over 20 years.

It was really a surprise that recently I have been led to two new friends. It is funny how a person suddenly appears who has the answers to questions that I have or just beginning to ask. I always think of these friends as teachers to me and to others.

Susan is a woman in the ILD Support Groups who has amazing insights. I have so much to learn from her. She is beautiful and smart and kind. Very kind.

Joanne and Jeff are a couple who live in Ohio who contacted me through this blog. We have begun an e-mail relationship. Jeff has just been diagnosed with an ILD in the past few months and they are at the beginning of the process. I remember being as frantic for information as they are now and Joanne is such a Type A that we totally bonded. I so admire and respect her for finding an ILD Clinic nearly 100 miles from their home then calling and insisting on an appointment immediately – and got it! She is a woman on a mission to help the love of her life. It has been so satisfying for me to help them in anyway I can.

It has been a remarkable year, overall. I continue to be grateful for my wonderful doctors, especially Dr. K. I am grateful that my son is well and that he brought Kimberly into our lives. I am grateful that my mom is pain free. I am so grateful to have a relationship with my brother and his wife. They bring me great joy and lots of laughs.

I am grateful every moment of every day to be married to Michael. I am so happy that we found each other when we were so young and have been able to spend much of our lives together. His mom, Mary, texted a Happy Birthday Wednesday along with a note that she loved me. I replied, “I have to love you as you gave me the love of my life.” She replied that she had tears of joy.