Petergetsnewleaseof lifeafterlungtransplant
PETER MCLOUGHLIN RECEIVED A LUNG TRANSPLANT LAST SUMMER AND IS IN FINE FETTLE AFTER SIX MONTHS
BRAY man Peter McLoughlin is fighting fit after receiving a life-changing lung transplant.
Peter last spoke to the Bray People in April, and was relying on an oxygen tank as he awaited the surgery. The tank, he said a the time, was known as ‘Donald’ because it was such a nuisance.
He got the all-important call late one night and ‘ there were no if, ands or buts,’ he said. In to hospital he went and was told that he was a match for a new lung, on Monday June 17, 2019.
‘I bounced back,’ said Peter, who admitted to being a little nervous as he awaited surgery. ‘I mean I didn’t have any choice,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t too bad as I was with the oxygen, but it would have got worse. It beats walking around with oxygen on your shoulder.
‘I’m targeted for about 10,000 steps a day,’ said the now fit-bit wearing man. ‘Yesterday I did 18,000, one day I did 23,000.’
He kept his exercise routine up even prior to the transplant, and still regularly goes to the COPD class in Bray.
While he will never know anything about the donor, Peter will get the chance to write a letter to their family on an anonymous basis. ‘Obviously I’m very grateful, whoever he or she may be,’ he said.
While another family experienced a tragedy they got the chance to save a life.
Peter would encourage people to make their wishes known to their own family members if they would like to be donors.
While he recovered, Peter couldn’t have the grandchildren around, to avoid any infections, and had to stay away from tap water, just drinking mineral water.
‘ The 18th of this month I’ll be six months over it and flying,’ said Peter.
‘You’re looking well,’ said a man, shaking Peter’s hand as he passed. And he certainly does.
He does feel tired from time to time. ‘I’d go home and sit in an armchair and doze,’ he said. ‘ That’s why I’m better off not sitting down and getting out,’ he said.
‘I felt very well very quickly. I walked down to Mass there, and coming down there’s a slight incline. If I was walking that way before, if a bus came I’d get on the bus, or I’d have to stop half way for a breather. Now I can walk from Ardmore, do the Southern Cross, Boghall Road, all the way around,’ he said.
He feels so much more comfortable with his breathing. ‘It’s absolutely fabulous,’ he said. His family members, too, are delighted to see Peter so well.
‘My wife Margaret looks after me very well I have to say, what you eat and shouldn’t be eating!’
‘It’s most important to keep moving and do your best. I met the professor one day coming out of the hospital and went over and shook his hand and thanked him for everything’ said Peter.
‘He looked after me but didn’t do the surgery. I told him I had a lung transplant four months before that and he couldn’t believe it - he said I was doing great after such a short time.
‘ There are much worse off than me,’ said Peter. ‘ There was a girl there the same time as me got a double lung transplant, and she’s doing great now,’ he said.
The surgery was done in the Mater hospital in Dublin, where there is a heart and lung transplant unit. ‘I couldn’t have been looked after better,’ he said.
Hospital food, in fact wasn’t as bad as its reputation might say. ‘I loved every bit of it I ate!’
Unfortunately, it was discovered while he was in there that Peter had diabetes. ‘I have type two diabetes,’ he said. In theory it’s correctable if you really work at it.
He has three injections of insulin a day, and checks his bloods also. ‘You do have to carry a whole heap of stuff with you,’ he said.
‘I haven’t passed out but I have had hypos,’ said Peter. At that point he would need sugar, so he carries Lucozade sweets. ‘You just have this feeling coming on so you know something’s not quite right so you take your bloods,’ he said. ‘You pop in a sweet or take a drink, and in 10 minutes you’re right.’ Now that he’s back on his feet, Peter would like to get involved with something, perhaps even a few hours of work. ‘I miss meeting people, said Peter, who worked in Tansey’s for 53 years. ‘I miss it big time.’
He wouldn’t be able for a full week between hospital appointments and needing to rest, but would love to get out and do something. ‘If it didn’t happen not to worry,’ he said.
His involvement with his beloved Bray Wanderers will of course continue, and Peter plans put his mind to raising some money for the Mater Hospital to say thank you to them for the care. ‘We did a pontoon for the world cup for ILFA and I gave them that money. It was a very quick thing and I raised €530. My friends Liz and Aine have plans to do certain things throughout the year, yet to be arranged.’ He hasn’t ruled out a marathon, nor a spot on the Bray Wanderers squad! He has faced everything with such bravery and positivity and has very much earned the new quality of life he gets to enjoy.
‘It’s nice to be able to sit here and tell you that I feel excellent,’ he said. Someone asked him recently has he asked Santy for anything for Christmas. ‘I told him I got my present, I got a new lung. I got the gift of live, I don’t need anything else.’
‘I was in hospital and looking out over Dublin at the sun shining and said to myself thank got I’m alive.’