Life-saving call brings joy
Alana Taylor’s life has been hanging on a phone call.
The 28-year-old, who has cystic fibrosis, has been in urgent need of a double-lung transplant for nearly a year.
Yesterday, Taylor got the call – new lungs were waiting for her in Auckland.
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease which clogs essential organs with mucus, causing shortness of breath, a chronic cough and repeated chest infections. Median life expectancy for sufferers is 35.
For the past year, chest infections had been putting her in hospital more frequently.
In March, a battery of tests confirmed Taylor’s lungs were functioning at 20 per cent of a healthy person’s.
Taylor’s voice shook slightly when she recalled the moment she realised receiving new lungs had become a matter of urgency.
‘‘It was like, ‘holy moly, if I don’t get on this list, I’m not going to be here this year’.’’
Taylor faced the challenge of securing a place on the lung transplant list with characteristic determination. A feeding tube was inserted in her stomach to increase her weight, she began wearing an oxygen tube in her nose and received extra breathing support from a BiPAP machine at night.
Her wait for a transplant has been a good-humoured one. She christened her two oxygen tanks – constant companions since April – ‘‘Lassie’’ and ‘‘Martha’’.
She was in Christchurch Hospital when doctors told her a month ago she was on the waiting list. ‘‘All the nurses – oh my God they were so excited – they were jumping for joy,’’ Taylor recalled.
Her uncommon blood group meant she was the only patient waiting for B-group lungs but with 11 per cent of New Zealanders having the same blood group, a match was unlikely to arise.
The recovery process will be gruelling. Following an eight-hour operation, Taylor will spend two weeks in hospital before being transferred to a transplant recovery centre for a further three months. Even then, her body could reject her new lungs.
Taylor said she never allowed her condition to run her life. She played sport, backpacked around Europe twice, studied early childhood education and worked fulltime as a preschool teacher until April, when she found herself struggling to get out of bed.
‘‘I rang them up and said, ‘I just can’t come back’.’’
On a ‘‘bad’’ day, Taylor took 30 minutes to get out of bed. Showering was unthinkable and dressing required pauses with every garment.
She said, on those days, it was all she could do to make her lunch, before returning to bed for a nap.
Since securing a place on the transplant list, Taylor’s thoughts have been dominated by what life could be post-transplant, despite the fact new lungs were unlikely to last beyond 10 years.
She said returning to work, rejoining touch rugby and netball teams, and further travel were all on her to-do list. ‘‘This person [donating the lungs] is giving me this amazing gift . . . even if I’m only going to get a extra year, an extra two years – they’re going to be normal healthy years.’’
Support Taylor’s recovery at her Givealittle page.